Exercice : traduire les phrases suivantes, regroupées par technique de traduction possible, en
veillant bien à utiliser le procédé suggéré :
Transposition
Nom/Verbe (et inversement) :
1. I threatened him with dismissal.
2. Provision for the care of the elderly should be compulsory.
Adj/Nom:
3. As he got older, he became less saturnine.
4. They were irritatingly polite.
5. After a momentary pause, he resumed his explanation.
Adv/Verbe:
6. But I simply went out to get my cardigan!
7. He was inevitably against the project.
Préposition/Verbe ou Participe Passé:
8. She came for some glasses.
9. It’s a quotation from Shakespeare.
10. The bus stopped for a group of Indian women with baskets.
Adj./Prop. Sub. Relative:
11. We’re having very unseasonable weather.
12. The resultant financial benefits will be very high.
Nom/Subordonnée:
13. He explained what he believed in and hoped for.
Modulation
14. ‘Don’t call down the stairs! Come down.’
15. It’s time someone taught him he isn’t the only pebble on the beach. (>equivalence)
16. She’s rather plain.
17. (at the end of a guided tour) ‘Remember the guide!’
18. He kept phoning at the most unearthly hours.
Equivalence
19. As you brew, so you must drink.
20. Don’t teach your granny how to suck eggs.
21. Every cloud has a silver lining.
22. Spare the rod and spoil the child.
23. ‘You’re welcome.’
24. ‘Over my dead body!’
25. Once bitten, twice shy.
26. A hungry man, an angry man.
NB: se méfier néanmoins des traductions toutes faites pour les proverbes ou expressions figées :
quelquefois elles sont inutilisables en contexte. Notez aussi que traduire des phrases isolées, c’est
une hérésie …