What's the difference between "je suis dans un rêve" and "je suis en songe"?

Question

I wanted to translate the sentence "I am in a dream" in french. I've seen several translations. Google translate says it's "Je suis dans un rêve" but I know google translate can be off when it comes to grammar. I've also read that songe and rêve are the same but have slightly different meanings. I wanted the sentence to mean as someone finally accomplishing a dream and feeling like they are living in a dream. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

Answer 1

The distinction between "songe" and "rêve" (answered here) is discussed here.

Concerning your primary question as far as I understand, if you wnt to say that "what you are doing is something that you always dreamt of" you could say :

Je vis mon rêve. C'est la vie dont j'ai toujours rêvé.

or

Je suis dans un rêve.

you could also add "éveillé" to insist on the fact that the dream is "true".

Je suis dans un rêve éveillé.

For stating that you achieved something (e.g. a gold medal for an athlete) it could be

Mon rêve est accompli.

Answer 2

No matter what is meant by "to be in a dream", whether it is "being a character in a real dream that was experienced" shortly before speaking (1), or "being a character who is presently living in a dream-like fashion (figurative dream) and who is aware of this" (2), the two words are interchangeable; however, "songe" is literary and hardly used in everyday language; nevertheless, in books people can sometimes be made to express themselves in a literary fashion.

"Je suis dans un rêve" can be said if a proper context is found, but there is no common context. "Je suis en songe", or for that matter, "je suis en rêve" is not idiomatic at all.

(1) literal - You can use either ("Je suis dans un rêve/songe.").

• Je suis dans un rêve/songe. Ma personne a captivé l'intérêt d'une autre, je suis important(e) pour quelqu'un et ça me redonne espoir en la vie. (The dream is someone else's dream and he or she has been told by someone that they had dreamt of them, which made them feel proud; it is quite conceivable, for instance in the case of someone who has been shunned by their fellows for a long time; however this is by no means the only possibility, of course.)

• Je pense parfois à quelque chose qui m'est arrivé il y a longtemps, que je n'ai jamais oublié bien que ce soit assez banal, et je me demande pourquoi c'est toujours très net dans ma mémoire ; je suis dans un rêve/songe; c'est un de mes rêves où je me vois flotter à travers l'espace à la rencontre de personnes de toutes sortes, mais que je connais. (This time the person speaking is the dreamer.)

(2) figurative - Here again both can be used.

• La vie pour moi n'a rien de réel, n'a aucune consistance, tout n'est qu'inaccessible et sans substance ; je suis dans un rêve/songe, où mes émotions me controllent.