Lost in Translation

Often when reading a piece of French I come across beautiful turns of phrase that would simply be lost in translation. Similarly when translating a piece of English into French I sometimes just can't quite get the phrase I need.

After studying French at university I found that these problems could be solved (sometimes easily, sometimes not so) by discussing the idea with a group of students and bouncing suggestions off each other, but such help is not always at hand.

However, there is a fantastic website which acts like a group of translation-hungry friends waiting on call inside your computer. Go to www.wordreference.com, sign up and have a look round their forums. If you've got some time on your hands then just leafing through will certainly be of interest, and if you have a question then ask away. The most useful feature, I find, is that when looking up a word in their dictionary (useful for other languages as well as French), many alternatives and compounds are given, along with links to discussions in their forums where the word in question has been used. Just reading throguh these discussions will really give you a feel for the way the language works and a taste for the joy of finding the right, beautiful translation.