Avoir envie d’une nouvelle voiture

There is more than one way to say most things.  Avoir envie de is usually translated closer to want/desire/feel like and similar, than ‘to like’.  In terms of a new car, I think the translation is in keeping with English - we are more likely to say ‘want a new car’ than ‘desire/feel like a new car’ in most circumstances.

https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais-anglais/envie/30060

Hi Maarten.. not sure.. I would tend to use je veut for want and avoir envie for I would like.. am thinking that there is a very definite difference in English.. for me, want is verging on need.. .vouloir or Avoir besoin.. the problem is in the nuance of the English, not in the French... and the lesson is on the nuance in the French so that nuance needs to reflect in the translation.

Have checked the lesson and they equate want with like.. for a child yes, like, want and need run together.. but not, I would suggest for an adult where, as I say, want equates more nearly to need.. wanting means lacking.. in want means in need.

Mark, “would like” introduces the conditional to the English translation. The sentence in French is not in the conditional -  “j’aurais envie de..” would be closer  to “I would like” in English. 

Now that is asking an even bigger question!.. and. Maybe a hidden distinction implicit in the laziness of the English language.

However getting back to the issue.. like, want, need.. my point is that “want” in English should imply a degree of lack or need and should not be seen as synonymous with “would like”... I cannot remember the exact quote but “for want of a horse the battle was lost” and people who are destitute are “in want” or “wanting”

Hi Mark,

If we look at the French synonyms for envie (noun) versus the verbs vouloir / souhaiter / désirer it is very difficult to distinguish between them  --  they all mean in French more or less the same thing.

So I think that it comes down to the intention in the mind of the speaker or writer and the context of the dialog.

I don't agree however that to write "would like" means the same thing  --  this is introducing a conditional element which is less strong than the synonyms mentioned above.

This is how I see it for what it is worth.

Jim

Yes.. kwiziq gets round the problem with “feel like” which could be interpreted as being reflexive? However I  hold to the distinction that if you are going to have a hierarchy of avoir envie through avoir besoin to devoir in French, you cannot ignore the similar hierarchy in English from would like, desire, want and need.. must to imperative.. which I think this question has got wrong.

And the more I think, I think would like is a compound verb where the simple “like” would be unintelligible..i cannot see any conditionality as it is simply expressing a mild desire.

I am having no problems seeing the distinctions in the French.. it is the English that is the problem!

I think "I would like" would also be acceptable, but as Maarten says, there is more than one way to say things. There is one "I would like" translation in the lesson, but it's written "I'd like".

"Want", in the sense of lacking, is a distinct meaning - probably this would be "manquer". I don't think you "want a new car" in that sense.

Guys, you're way overthinking this. You'll go off the deep end if you take idiomatic expressions in two languages and try to reason them out on a grammatic level. Just accept that in a situation where an English speaker would say, "I would like a new car," his French vis-a-vis will most frequently use the expression "J'ai envie d'une nouvelle voiture."

In another situation, the French guy says "J'ai envie de vomir," where his English opposite would say, "I'm going to throw up."

And I thought it was a simple question!... thinking even more OTT.. You cannot feel like an ice cream.. the phrase is a shortcut for “i have a feeling that I would like”..

And think we are agreed that avoir envie de corresponds pretty well with I would like... implying a penchant for rather than any rational desire... Want probably has a range of meanings although, as I have been saying, I could, personally, never equate it with avoir envie de... and I can never get this question right unless I learn to make what I believe to be an incorrect response.

Cheers everybody!