« Elle s’est resservie de ma quiche deux fois. »
This is kind of confusing to me because of the presence of the prefix re(sservir).
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Stéphane Gimenez
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Merissa
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She had three servings, just like elle est revenue deux fois implies elle est venue trois fois.
Elle s'est servie → elle s'est servie (au moins) une fois.
Elle s'est resservie → elle s'est servie deux fois
Elle s'est resservie deux fois → elle s'est servie trois fois
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Elle est venue trois fois is the same as elle est revenue dois fois? – Lambie Nov 16 '16 at 13:31
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@Lambie if we focus on the number of times she came somewhere, yes. – jlliagre Nov 16 '16 at 14:20
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It is not the same thing linguistically to say: She came here three times and she came back twice. That's all I'm saying. No worries. – Lambie Nov 16 '16 at 14:34
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@Lambie I agree, same in French. – jlliagre Nov 16 '16 at 14:59
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This means that the person had 3 servings:
Se Resservir means to Refill (not exact, but works with this)
So with this logic, it means that the person served themselves once, then they refilled their plate twice: 1 + 2 = 3
So the individual had 3 servings
FlipFloop
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En toute rigueur, elle a eu trois parts de quiche.
Dans la vie courante, la répétition (resservi, deux fois) sert souvent à appuyer le discours et non à noter l'accumulation. Dans ce cas, il est fort probable qu'elle n'ait eu que deux parts de quiche.
On trouve aussi cela avec le verbe réitérer par exemple.
mouviciel
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In English, we say helpings of food. She had three helpings of my quiche.
Or: She helped herself three times to my quiche.
When you have re for food, it means a second time. se servir = one helping, se resservir, two helpings.
But bear in mind, not every verb in French with RE means more than one. It can get pretty tricky. Just one quick example: Elle a remonté la rue......She went up the street OR She went back up the street. Only the context will allow you to decide which is right.
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1"Monter la rue" doesn't exist as far as I know, so "remonter la rue" will always mean "to go up the street". – Destal Nov 16 '16 at 15:44
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Of course, monter la rue doesn't exist. To go UP the street, therefore it is not "go back up the street". That is a very good example of RE not meaning adding another piece to the pie. As in resservir, where it does. – Lambie Nov 16 '16 at 22:20
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Perhaps a colloquial translation would be "She came back for seconds of my quiche twice", thus implying she had 3 servings.
Tim Trewartha
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