Comment on French culture

JayDee@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

• morgunkorn@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  it would seem like that because the words are the same, but in the locution “en train de [verbe]”, en train has the 15th century meaning of “in action”, “in movement”, this predates the invention of the railroad :)

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  • JayDee@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Wait, woah, so the term ‘train’ is from the French work for ‘motion’, essentially? That’s kind of a dub.

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    • morgunkorn@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      originally, as a noun, “le train” is “the going motion” of a horse, a human, it’s still used in “arrière-train” to designate the back legs of a quadrupède. “Aller de bon train” = to walk briskly.

      In automotive, the “train avant” and “train arrière” are the front and rear axles.

      There are other expressions like “le train-train quotidien”, meaning the daily grind.

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• Genius@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  I’m well on the way to writing that report, boss

  Our company is on the road to developing those features

  I’m on the path to forgiving you

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  • HenriVolney@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    I’ve lost my train of thoughts

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    • datendefekt@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      That saying actually predates railroad trains, which were called that because a train meant “that which is drawn along”

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• Camille@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Native here, yep it is correct and idiomatic. “Je suis en train de [faire la chose]”

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• grue@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  As a person learning French, I think it’s more closely related to “training” or “entrain.”

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