Glossary entry

English term or phrase:

to be sure

French translation:

certes

Added to glossary by Tony M
Mar 14, 2013 16:25
11 yrs ago
1 viewer *
English term

To be sure

English to French Other General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters Musique
Bonjour à tous,

Dans le cadre de mon mémoire, je traduis un livre intitulé Why Music Moves Us (de Jeannette Bicknell), et me voilà tombé sur une phrase apparemment simple mais que je ne sais pas comment traduire. Voici le paragraphe entier, pour le contexte:

Animal studies, including the very large body of research on birdsong, also indicate that music encourages and strengthens pair bonds. It is an interesting philosophical question whether the “music” made by various non-human animals – from birds to apes to whales – fulfils the relevant criteria to count as music. If it does, then we can with greater confidence extend what we know about animal music and related behaviour to the human context. To be sure, some cultures have grouped the music-like sounds made by various animals together with human music-making activities. But usage in this case does not settle the issue.

Mon problème se situe dans l'avant-dernière phrase. Comment traduire ce "To be sure"? Mon directeur de mémoire m'a conseillé "Il n'est patent que..." mais j'avoue que je ne comprends pas bien ce choix. Voilà donc ce que j'ai fait de la phrase, provisoirement:

Il n’est patent que certaines cultures ont groupé les sons apparentés à de la musique et produits par différents animaux avec les activités humaines de création de musique.

Merci d'avance pour vos réponses,

Sullivan.
Change log

Mar 14, 2013 16:52: Stéphanie Soudais changed "Field" from "Science" to "Other" , "Field (specific)" from "Psychology" to "General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters"

Mar 28, 2013 09:16: Tony M Created KOG entry

Discussion

Françoise Vogel Mar 14, 2013:
ce ne serait pas plutôt : il est patent que ?

Proposed translations

+10
7 mins
Selected

certes

Is often used with the sense of 'admittedly', which is pretty much the sense of 'to be sure' here, where it is followed by a 'but...'

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Note added at 8 mins (2013-03-14 16:34:05 GMT)
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And of course, 'to be sure' might well have been replaced with 'certainly'.
Peer comment(s):

agree Michaela Pizzinini : après le "to be shure" il y a une virgule, donc le mot "certes" me parait bien
27 mins
Merci, Michaela !
agree FX Fraipont (X)
31 mins
Merci, F-X ! :-)
agree NancyLynn : decidedly! :)
57 mins
Thanks, Nancy! :-)
agree Anne Battle : Tout à fait.
1 hr
Merci, Anne !
agree katsy
2 hrs
Thanks, Katsy!
agree Farid Mazari Boufares : certes
3 hrs
Merci, Farid !
agree GILLES MEUNIER : pourquoi faire long quand on peut....
18 hrs
Merci, Gilles ! Tout à fait...
agree Christophe Delaunay : Pile poil!
20 hrs
Merci, Christophe !
agree Liliane Hatem
1 day 28 mins
Merci, Liliane !
agree Philippe Maillard
2 days 22 hrs
Merci, Philippe !
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Selected automatically based on peer agreement."
+1
4 mins

Il est certain que


to be sure

phrasal adverb
to be sure, his offer is well-intentioned ce qui est certain, c'est que son offre est bien intentionnée

Larousse.

"Il n'est patent que" ne me semble pas avoir de sens.
Peer comment(s):

agree Daryo : ça marche aussi; soit dit en passant, le Petit Robert est imbattable.
7 hrs
Merci
Something went wrong...
+2
21 mins

il est vrai que

'to be sure' is often used when there is a contrasting or conflicting statement to follow
Peer comment(s):

agree Daryo
1 hr
agree Michaela Pizzinini
7 days
Something went wrong...
1 hr

à vrai dire

my first reflex, but thinking of it, just medium confidence.
Something went wrong...
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