How to translate "so" with "donc" and "alors"?

Question

"So" is one of the most common connecting words in English, and I often have trouble translating it to French.

Sometimes I just translate it directly to alors, as in "Il avait froid, alors je lui ai donné ma veste."

But I'm under the impression that the more common way to translate it is to use donc, but I'm never clear on exactly where among the words of the sentence donc should be placed.

In the example you're using, a native speaker could also say : "Je lui ai donné ma veste parce qu'il avait froid". — P. O., May 27 '14 at 16:07
J'ai trouvé une réponse à ta question avec laquelle je suis plutôt en accord. — None, May 27 '14 at 17:55

Stéphane Gimenez · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-27T21:54:01.867

In most cases it's best to translate so (the one that starts a proposition¹) with donc used as an adverb², not as a conjunction. It suggests a light natural follow-up.

Il avait froid, je lui ai donc donné ma veste.

If the meaning of so is close to “hence” or “from this observation” (like in your example), then you may use alors.

Il avait froid, alors je lui ai donné ma veste.

But this has a strong flavor of oral communication³. This alors may conveniently be added while the sentence is being spoken, but alors should normally only be used as a “then” (temporal or conditional). So⁴… you may want to reformulate. In the following sentence, “comme” should be understood somewhat like “given that”⁵, and this is the preferred form in writing.

Comme il avait froid, je lui ai donné ma veste.

Last, if so is meant as a logical conclusion you may want to use donc, in this case, as a (coordinating) conjunction.

Il avait froid, donc je lui ai donné ma veste.

—
^{1. But not the one in “so be it” or “so to say”, which is an “ainsi”!}
^{2. Place it where you would place pas in a negative sentence.}
^{3. Just like using so in English, you may say, but English's oral phrasings certainly pervade much more into writing than French's.}
^{4. I'll let you guess ;-)}
^{5. But given that best translates as “étant donné que”.}

So donc can be an adverb. That was the part that always confused me, seeing a conjunction used as an adverb. That particular construction is very counter to English tendencies. — temporary_user_name, May 28 '14 at 02:05
Inside a sentence it's an adverb or a particle (it has the same strange hybrid status as pas). — Stéphane Gimenez, May 28 '14 at 12:34

EricFr · Answer 2 · 2014-05-27T17:12:18.650

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Donc and alors can be both used as a translation for so in most of the case. You ~~must~~ can (see my comment) use donc instead of alors when you can replace so by therefore (http://www.linguee.fr/anglais-francais/traduction/therefore.html).

Example :

You read my message so you must understand why donc is more used than alors

Becomes in french

Tu as lu mon message donc tu dois comprendre pourquoi donc est plus utilisé qu'alors.

I used donc because the so of the original sentence can become a therefore.

edited May 27 '14 at 17:12

answered May 27 '14 at 16:13

EricFr

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I "must"?? That doesn't make much sense to me. Needs more clarification! Then when would I use alors? Cases where so means therefore are the only ones I'm asking about. I've seen translations like this: Elle ne comprend pas, alors il faut l'aider : She doesn't understand, so we need to help her and that uses alors... – temporary_user_name May 27 '14 at 16:49
My answer is maybe a bit confused. When I spoke about therefore it was to show you the logical implication. Have a look at these links, they explain the think better than I could : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ernFuOcfpTU and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ernFuOcfpTU . Sorry again for my bad answer. – EricFr May 27 '14 at 17:06

score -6 · Answer 3 · edited May 27 '14 at 19:30

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The best way to translate so to French is with using alors.

edited May 27 '14 at 19:30

Gilles 'SO nous est hostile'

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answered May 27 '14 at 19:06

Peter Georges Bou Saada

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Except in the many many cases where it isn't. There isn't a one-for-one correspondence here. – Gilles 'SO nous est hostile' May 27 '14 at 19:30

How to translate "so" with "donc" and "alors"?

3 Answers3