hi!!before to go to work,I would like to know how to say "de me " for exemple" de me réveiller ou de me concentrer...
thanks and have a good day!!
mamour
hello mamour, Petula or Pépé. . .
sorry, I am only beginner and I have no answer for your question but I think it's not a good way to translate an english sentence word by word. I feel like this! Often I try to translate each word but it does not walk.
I don't know if I have reason to think so, but I'm sure Thomas or the members who speak english very well will counsel us. Perhaps they have a solution for your answer.
Soory,I make a lot of mistakes.
nice to meet you
Hey Mamour, I'd say for the two examples you gave : de me réveiller, de se réveiller : to wake up, like in the sentense "I try to wake up", and "he tries to wake up" standing for : "j'essaie de me réveiller", et "il essai de se réveiller". And the other one : de me concentrer, de se concentrer : to concentrate, like in the sentence : "I try to concentrate on my homework" and "he tries to concentrate on his homework", standing for : "j'essaie de me concentrer sur mes devoirs" et "il essai de se concentrer sur ses devoirs". But sometimes you will use "get" to say for example : I try to get dressed, I try to get married which stands for : "j'essaie de m'habiller", j'essaie de me marrier (he tries to get dressed = il essai de s'habiller).
I hope this will be usefull to you but Thomas will tell you if everything is correct.
can I use"myself" or "me" or nothing at all!!! :)
You would do a mistake I think ;)
Freddyben has the right idea for those translations. Usually what is happening is that some verb or other word is requiring the "de", so the translation of "de" depends on the English context, and the translation of "me" gets included in the verb or often left out.
As far as "myself" or "me" go, it depends on the verb. Sometimes it's ok to use them (usually it will be "myself"), but it's usually best just to leave them out. Here's an important difference though:
If the "me" is part of the verb (meaning it's infinitive has "se" -- like se laver), then it often gets ignored in English. But if the me is not part of the verb, but rather an object (such as "Elle voulait me parler" -- "me" indicates who she wanted to speak to, and just "parler" is the verb), then it gets put in. And in this case, usually it's "me" in English.
I hope that makes sense...give me some examples if you need more!
Hi Thomas!! the other day,I wrote you "more I try to speak english and to focus on"et je voulais dire plus j'essaie de parler anglais et DE ME concentrer dessus...I didn't know to say "de me".That's why I asked the question!! ;)
J'essaie de parler anglais et de me concentrer dessus --> I'm trying to speak English and concentrate on it.
In this case, the "me" gets absorbed into the verb and you don't need it in English.