Re:How would you say “She said goodbye too many times before...
by alcover on Wednesday September 06, 2023 @01:23PM
(#37408146)
> "Elle a tant de fois dit au revoir"
Nice! And sounds better.
To be nitpicking, I'd propose "Elle a tant dit au revoir avant" (9 also), which retains the original 'before'.
Re:How would you say “She said goodbye too many times before...
by MayeulC on Thursday September 07, 2023 @02:13AM
(#37415331)
Adieu is probably better in that context too: shorter, since we're golfing, and more to the point (definitive goodbye).
You could also insert déjà, which conveys the notion of before: Elle a déjà tant dit adieu. Well, this means so many times and not too many times, so you could say: Elle a déjà trop dit adieu (8). This could also be directly translated as she's already said goodbye too much. You can drop already/déjà, but lowers drops the emphasis on before. If you do so, Elle disait tant adieu (6) works.
In yours, "salua" would likely pass as a greeting, while "excessivement" would rather refer to the silly moves she made. Definitely harder to read for me.
I agree the "before" is the hard part to get right, I process "too many times before" as "too many times already", emphasis on reaching that number of times, given the song's context. Maybe we should treat "said […] before" as a smoothest form of "had said […]" to sing.
I'd go for "Elle a tant de fois dit au revoir" (9 syllabes).
Change my French mind.