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Pastimes : SI Grammar and Spelling Lab -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Wizzer who wrote (997)3/31/1998 9:29:00 PM
From: QwikSand  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 4711
 
I am fairly certain that the last portion of the quote means either everyone has xxxx (sense seemed appropriate). The "a" is a conjugation of the word avoir meaning to have....If you have read the book and understand the context in which it was said, please elaborate.

Well, sorry, I don't mean to get nit-picky here, but, since you asked :-).

The 'a' is indeed a form of avoir, but in this case it's part of two fixed-meaning verb phrases. So perhaps less context is needed to understand the quote. Avoir means "to have", but avoir raison means "to be right" and avoir tort means "to be wrong". Those phrases don't really mean "to have xxxx" in English. They could be translated that way only in rather unusual contexts not including the cited one-liner. Hence my (and Mr. Clarke's) use of "is" even though no form of ˆtre appears.

Anyway, I thought you might have been joking and certainly meant no offense.

Regards,
QwikSand