French Translation for “given”

JudyC1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

French Translation for “given”

“étant donné l’humidité de cette pièce”. Please send me a link to a lesson on the conjugation of “etant donné”. Thanks.

Asked 4 years ago
CécileKwiziq team memberCorrect answer

Hi Judy,

This is an interesting one and there is a lot of polemic on the internet regarding this subject.

My gut feeling was that it should be 'étant donné' in every case as it is a fixed expression like 'vu, excepté, y compris' which remain invariable.

The consensus is that if it precedes the noun it is invariable but that you can agree in number if placed after the noun ( which is rare).

This is the opinion of the Académie Française

https://www.dictionnaire-academie.fr/article/QDL063

Hope this helps!

 

SeanC1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

I have a question instead of an answer.  Don't you just make sure that "donné" agrees in number and gender with the subject of the sentence?  Example - Etant données l'occasion de le faire, elles l'ont fait.

ChrisC1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Yes. étant donné cannot in itself be conjugated.

AlanC1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

It's optional whether to agree étant donné. But if you choose to make the agreement it will be with the thing that is given. So either:

Étant donné l'occasion de le faire, elles l'ont fait.

or

Étant donnée l'occasion de le faire, elles l'ont fait.

https://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/donn%C3%A9

French Translation for “given”

“étant donné l’humidité de cette pièce”. Please send me a link to a lesson on the conjugation of “etant donné”. Thanks.

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