Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
with little warning
French translation:
du jour au lendemain
English term
United States
with little warning
| Actual context: |
writeaway
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Jul 15, 2015 06:34: writeaway changed "Field (specific)" from "Journalism" to "General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters" , "Field (write-in)" from "(none)" to "journalism"
PRO (1): Jennifer Levey
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Proposed translations
du jour au lendemain
| agree |
writeaway
: I think this expresses the idea and it certainly fits the context.http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/24/retirement/pension-overpayme...
9 hrs
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thank you
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AudeCallens
: Oui, mais plutôt "quasi du jour au lendemain", pour garder le sens de "with little"
10 hrs
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merci
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Chile
Human-scale Globalization
Native in: English (Variant: British) 
Works in: Spanish to English, French to English, English to Spanish, and 2 more.
avec peu de préavis
| neutral |
patrickfor
: en francais on dit plutôt sans préavis directement. Eventuellement avec un petit préavis/ un bref préavis. Jamais entendu "peu de préavis"
24 mins
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'little' is used here as: a) an explicit acknowledgement that there was some (albeit not 'much') warning; b) that the warning was too short to be of any assistance to those affected. English 'as she is spoke'.
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| disagree |
erwan-l
: Ce n'est pas absolument pas d'usage en français ("peu de" associé à "préavis"). Je n'ai jamais ni lu ni entendu cette formulation.
8 hrs
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France
Chinese/English>FrenchTranslator
Native in: French (Variants: Belgian, Standard-France)
Works in: Chinese to French, English to French
Sans (aucun) avertissement
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Note added at 1 hr (2015-07-14 22:00:05 GMT)
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Je ne vois pas d'autre sens sinon qu'un montant est prélèvé sur leur pension de retraite sans avertissement préalable.
| agree |
Renate Radziwill-Rall
6 mins
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| agree |
Simon Charass
8 mins
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| disagree |
Tony M
: Surely that would translate 'with NO warning' — 'little' is different, even if the sense may be almost 'little or no' / Ah 'little did he know' is a specific and quite different construction! / No, little = some, but not much.
1 hr
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"Hardly or not at all: little did he know what wheels he was putting into motion", source: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/little. In this context, "little" shouldn't be understand as not at all ? ?
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| disagree |
Jennifer Levey
: You clearly don't grasp the use of 'little' in English 'as she is spoke' by native-speakers talking 'in context'. 'little' (in Asker's case) is very similar to 'hardly any', to which you alude in your own response to Tony.
3 hrs
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France
Native in: French (Variant: Standard-France)
Works in: English to French, French to English
avec à peine le temps de se retourner
un peu familier, dépend donc du contexte...
J'ai eu à peine le temps de me retourner / tu ne me laisse pas le temps de me retourner signifie avoir a peine le temps (ou pas) de réagir.
se retourner signifiant réagir, faire un autre choix
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Note added at 1 hr (2015-07-14 22:12:31 GMT)
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peut être utilisé sans le "avec"....
A peine le temps de se retourner et le chèque-retraite est (...)
| neutral |
Jennifer Levey
: That's not, by any stretch of the imagination, a translation of the ST phrase, as asked. We have other English expressions that correspond with "à peine le temps de se retourner".
1 hr
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Dear Robin, would you be kind enough to read my explanations ?
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| agree |
Victoria Britten
: I prefer the version without "avec"
6 hrs
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Merci !
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| agree |
erwan-l
: Oui, bien trouvé, et respecte le sens ! Je préfère comme Victoria la reformulation évitant le "avec".
8 hrs
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Merci !
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| neutral |
writeaway
: in a back-translation, it's doubtful that any remnant of the original English would re-emerge. And I don't see how this fits in with the actual context.
8 hrs
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Agree with Your first point, I wrote "une autre proposition pour ouvrir le champ" confidence: medium.
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United States
When Quality Meets Creativity
Native in: French (Variants: Belgian, Standard-France)
Works in: English to French, Italian to French
presque sans crier gare
- sans aucun signal d'alarme ou presque;
- de manière quasi inattendue.
| agree |
Daryo
: "pratiquement sans crier gare" - I didn't see your answer before posting ...
2 days 12 hrs
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sans crier gare
Reference comments
Actual context:
For retirees, it can mean owing tens of thousands of dollars. And with little warning, their pension checks are being slashed to cover their debt.
In April 2011, New Jersey resident Carol Montague received a letter from American Water Works Co.'s pension plan saying it had overpaid her for more than five years and wanted its money back -- plus interest. Montague, now 67, was told she owed roughly $45,000.
http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/24/retirement/pension-overpayme...
Discussion
Dans ce contexte les retraités n'ont pas eu le temps de se retourner. Ils ont reçu une lettre leur réclamant de rembourser des pensions indument reçues et ils ont dû commencer a rembourser presque immédiatement.
L'expression que je propose traduit exactement cela. C'est une expression idiomatique comme "tomber dans les pommes" ou bien entendu personne ne chute sur des fruits du pommier.
Cette expression signifie avec (ou pas) le temps de réagir.
/ J'ajoute que nous sommes dans le champs "Conversation/General" qui selon moi permet quelque liberté avec le vocabulaire.