0

EDIT: Here are some links that were helpfully given to me in the comments, that answers my questions:

(Found in this youtube video. Spoken by a woman born in the 1950s in a French-speaking part of Northern Ontario).

For the following sentence (taken from non-auto-generated subtitles):

Je pensais jamais m'en venir à 1000 milles de chez nous, là.

DeepL gives:

I never thought I'd come within 1000 miles of home.

I understand that "Je pensais jamais" is an ellipses of "Je ne pensais jamais". But then I get confused. The following are my thoughts:

  • If I were to translate DeepL's English back into French, I would use a "que" clause: "Je ne pensais jamais que .. I'd come within.."
  • So I'm thinking maybe that "Je pense" can be followed by an infinitive instead of a "que" clause, because the subject in the "que" clause is the same, that ?
  • I am not sure what the "en" in m'en venir means. It can't be replacing "from here", because "de chez nous" is already written out!
  • I also am not sure what the "m' " in m'en venir means.

So my confusion seems to be about 1) "Je pensais" being followed by an infinitive, and 2) The meaning of "m'en venir".

Can you help me underestand this sentence, and perhaps give other example sentences that use similar constructions?

silph
  • 4,526
  • 20
  • 38
  • @None Is "Je pense + infinitive" meaning "I think [I could/would (infinitive)]" standard French? – silph Aug 02 '21 at 14:01
  • @None also, thanks for reminding me that fr.wikitionary.org exists. It seems to have entries for locutions that other dictionaries don't have – silph Aug 02 '21 at 14:03
  • the links about s'en venir and penser + infinitif might be exactly what I need. I might mark my question as duplicate by the end of the day, if I don't have any questions about those links. thanks. – silph Aug 02 '21 at 14:15
  • @None When I ask questions about "I don't understand sentence X", I tend to lean towards defying that rule, partially because the guesses about what I don't understand might not even be correct guesses; and sometimes the elements that I don't understand interact in ways that I am not aware of. I feel that it's easier to explain my guesses, for the purposes of showing my (failed) attempts at understanding the sentence, knowing that my guesses are often incorrect and might not be relevant. – silph Aug 02 '21 at 14:21
  • 1
    The Deepl translation is wrong: s'en aller, to leave or go away; s'en venir, to come to or come. This is not at all like the penser à/penser de. Translation: I never thought I'd come here, 1,000 miles away from home. OR I never thought I'd come 1,000 miles away from home, here. One tricky bit is the là. I don't see why this was closed. – Lambie Aug 02 '21 at 14:28
  • @Lambie your translations do indeed make more sense to me than DeepL's; your translations are close to what I thought the sentence might mean, after reading the links None provided me. i appreciate you explicitly pointing out that DeepL's translation is wrong. i closed the question myself, because None's links provided me with the answers that make me understand the sentence (or at least, i think i understand the sentence, now!) – silph Aug 02 '21 at 14:31
  • @Lambie I really can't see how you can say the 1st example about Penser + verbe à l'infinitif provided in the linked answer (Je pensais rêver, puis...) is "not at all like " in "Je pensais jamais m'en venir". The fact that one is negative and the other isn't doesn't change anything about the explanation. – None Aug 02 '21 at 15:09
  • @None You have misunderstood my comment. I am saying that s'en venir à is not related to penser à in this context. I am also saying that the reason for closing "as a duplicate" is not right in this case. Anyway, the penser à was added as an edit after the OP said this was a duplicate. I never thought it was a "duplicate". Do I have that right or not? [That is a question, it is not sarcasm, fyi.] – Lambie Aug 02 '21 at 15:39
  • @Lambie actually, the linked question about penser à vs penser de vs penser + infinitif was only one (of two) links that helped me to answered my question. another link that None gave me (which I copied to the top of my question, in an edit) helped me to understand s'en venir – silph Aug 02 '21 at 15:41
  • The top says: This question already has an answer here: Quelle est la différence entre « penser à », « penser de », et « penser + infinitif » (1 answer) before your edit. For me that is not an answer to this question. I have the right to say this. Please....Also, I don't think you should take comments and put them into your question saying that answered the question. – Lambie Aug 02 '21 at 15:43
  • @Lambie It might be seen both ways, I misunderstood or you misread. Penser + verbe à l'infinitif is linked to this, and s'en venir to this – None Aug 02 '21 at 15:46
  • Last comment: s'en venir à is related to s'en aller à. The penser things are irrelevant here. – Lambie Aug 02 '21 at 15:52
  • @Lambie The link to penser + inf is an answer to this comment, not to the original question. I agree with you, the close reason is wrong but only one reason can be given. Either of the first two links I provided (I deleted them), this or this would have been better. They are duplicates to the multiple OP's questions. – None Aug 02 '21 at 16:41
  • @None the penser + inf answer was indeed directly related to my question; it wasn't just an answer to the comment I left. you can see that in my question, i said that both penser + inf, and m'en venir, were things I was unsure about. I chose the French.SE question that was most insightful to me, personally, to be associated with the "duplicate" close reason. – silph Aug 02 '21 at 17:36
  • 2
    Je n'aurais jamais cru me retrouver à 1600 km de chez nous, là ! – jlliagre Aug 02 '21 at 17:42
  • @jillagre Chez nous in Canadian French can mean chez moi, and probably does in this instance. The rule in colloquial Canadian French is that chez must be followed by a plural pronoun (but always without the autres that would normally come afterwards in the objects of other prepositions, as in pour eux autres, avec nous autres). – Anonymous Aug 03 '21 at 00:52

0 Answers0