The word Fertile

Question

As English being  my mother tongue, I believe the word fertile should be futile!

Accepted Answer

Bonjour Sherilyn,
I checked the exercise and I can confirm the use of "fertile" is indeed correct here. ;-)

Il a une imagination fertile. = He has a fertile imagination.
Le sol de la région est très fertile. = The soil of the region is very fertile.

C'est futile ! = This is futile!
C'est un détail futile. = It's an unimportant detail.

I hope this is helpful.
Bonne journée !

Answer

Sherilyn,

not sure if you are suggesting this tongue-in-cheek ?

‘Fertile’ is quite correct as used in the expression in the transcript, although ‘futile’ may accurately describe how beneficial it was !

https://www.wordreference.com/fren/imagination%20fertile

https://www.wordreference.com/enfr/fertile

Answer

This was definitely not tongue-in-cheek.... And I believe in English we would never say this expresssion using fertile.  But I guess some things are never quite the same in translation.  Thanks  for your responses.

Answer

Sherilyn, Céline is correct. There is nothing lost in translation here.

The expression 'fertile imagination' is a standard expression in English, as is its equivalent in French ' imagination fertile '.

It is also a standard accepted use of the adjective ‘fertile’ in both languages.

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/fertile-imaginationfertile-imagination

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/fertile#

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fertile

https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/fertile/33393#locution