Get
I am taking French - English translation this semester. It is fun, but there are a lot of challenges with translating that I hadn’t previously thought about. I am competent in both languages, but some things are beyond me. How can you possibly translate the complexities of the English word get?
To illustrate what I am talking about, I will write some examples. French verbs are written in the infinitive for the purposes of creating a clearer demonstration.
Normally, without any context get means to obtain. In English, there are lots of ways you would use get, that while it technically can be related to this sense of obtaining, you can’t translate it as “obtain.”
I got new shoes - Here I would use acheter, because although you say you got them, you mean you bought them.
I got a boyfriend - Still in the sense of obtaining, though you certainly can’t buy a person. Here I would go with saying that I avoir un nouveau, meaning that I have a new boyfriend, to express that it is a recent development.
Get up! - There are many expressions using this structure to convey a command, but thankfully in French I can just use the command tense, so it is still using the verb se lever.
I got sick - This one, in my opinion, I would switch it out for the expression tomber malade, as in I fell sick. When I started writing this example, I was going to use it to show how got can mean become, but I changed my mind while writing the sentence. Now that I’m thinking about it, I think it’s fairly simple to go around translating got for devenir, but it is still the sense that is being conveyed even if you are using a different word or expression.
I got it - Without context, this could mean nearly anything. Attraper, meaning to catch, is one example, but I am going to use it in this case to mean I understood it. I would simply trade it out for comprendre.
I am getting hungry - This one is more complicated. Though in a sense you are obtaining hunger, you are really becoming hungry. In French, hunger is a condition that you have, rather than something that you are. In this case, I think I would use commencer à avoir, as in beginning to have.
