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I wanted to translate "a few more years" (as in, "I want a few more years without needing to worry about money"). My first guess was:

quelques plus d'ans.

Google Translate showed me that "de plus" is an adverb that exists. I didn't know it existed before! It gave me:

quelques années de plus.

Both wordreference and linguee.fr seem to say that "de plus" is an adverb that means "in addtion", so I assume that Google Translate gave me a good translation.

Questions:

  1. Are the following two sentences grammatically correct? If not, why not?

Je veux quelques plus d'années.
Je veux quelques d'années de plus.

  1. If the above two sentences are grammatically correct, do they mean the same thing?
silph
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1 Answers1

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D'ans is never used, that must be d'années because we are talking about a period of time. See Can “an” and “année” be used interchangeably, is there a difference in meaning?

Both plus d'années (more years) and quelques années (several years) are correct, they just do not mix together, quelques plus d'années doesn't work. Quelque plus années doesn't either but plus quelques années does and means "and a couple of years".

The right combination in your case would be quelques années de plus.

There is however an issue with je veux quelques années de plus. This sentence doesn't sounds idiomatic.

There are rare cases where the English use want while French would use falloir, avoir besoin, devoir, for example (from wiktionary):

That chair wants fixing.

Cette chaise a besoin d'être réparée.

So I would suggest:

J'ai encore besoin de quelques années où je sois à l'abri du besoin.

Il me faut encore quelques années sans que j'aie à me soucier de problèmes financiers.

or better, after Feelew's comments which clarified to me the English sentence actual meaning:

Je veux pouvoir être libre de soucis d’argent pour quelques années de plus.

Je veux être à l'abri du besoin pendant encore quelques années.

Je ne veux pas avoir de soucis d'argent pendant encore quelques années.

Je ne veux pas avoir à me soucier de problèmes d'argent pendant quelques années de plus.

Not that vouloir is not impossible when directly referring to a period of time. For example the following sentence is fine:

— Je te donne deux ans pour finir ce projet.
— Je veux un an de plus !

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jlliagre
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  • Why is quelques plus d'années incorrect (ie, is there a rule?). Are quelques années and plus d'années correct? Also: I'm surprised that using "need" is necessary; it makes me wonder how you could make a distinction, in French, between "I want a million dollars" and "I need a million dollars"! Thirdly: would you be willing to say why encore is used, in Il me faut encore [...]? – silph Jan 19 '18 at 08:32
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    Not sure if there is a real rule but quelque plus d'années is just impossible. Both plus d'années (more years) and quelques années (several years) are correct, they just do not mix together. We make the distinction between Je veux un million de dollars and J'ai besoin d'un million de dollars but when talking about time like here, vouloir, while not grammatically incorrect is much less idiomatic. Avoir besoin de or falloir is what we typically use. Vouloir is not impossible though, e.g. Je te donne deux an pour finir ce projet ! Je veux un an de plus ! is fine. – jlliagre Jan 19 '18 at 14:35
  • @jlliagre : are you really sure about need and want in french ? You can't always get what you want, But if you try sometimes you might find You get what you need :) J'ai besoin (need) de temps, je veux (want) du temps... – jcm69 Jan 19 '18 at 22:41
  • @jcm69 I rewrote my answer because I originally missed to understand the English sentence. I also tried to clarify the "want vs need" issue. – jlliagre Jan 20 '18 at 02:16
  • I must say I have some issues with your proposed translation, though everything else is up to your usual standards. “I want a few more years without...” is a projection in the future with the money we have now «Je veux pouvoir être libre de soucis d’argent pour quelques années de plus» or something along this line would be closer to the original I believe... – Pas un clue Jan 20 '18 at 02:45
  • @Feelew To be honest, I'm not comfortable either with my translations because I had trouble understanding the English sentence and in what context it would be used. – jlliagre Jan 20 '18 at 03:06
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    @jlliagre I'm thinking for example about someone who wants to get back to school, but wants some money aside in order to be able to take care of it without worrying about meeting ends meet. They may want a few more years without having to worry about the money, before they plunge back into studying. Makes sense? – Pas un clue Jan 20 '18 at 03:09
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    ...or else someone thinking about retiring, but expecting to live quite a few more years. They don't want money to become an issue when they're 85 and tired, if they make it to that point, so they keep working a bit more, to bring the break point later in the future... – Pas un clue Jan 20 '18 at 03:11
  • @Feelew Thanks, answer updated. – jlliagre Jan 20 '18 at 03:27