In a nutshell | It is not the moment

The French language is evolving at breakneck speed. Each week, our language advisor dissects the words and expressions that make the headlines or give us trouble.

Posted yesterday at 7:00 p.m.

The phrases on the eve of – within the meaning of just before – and at the dawn of – to signify in the beginning – are not used interchangeably since they do not designate the same moment.

Obviously, the two expressions can be used for the same subject. Maybe that’s what’s causing the confusion. But we must understand that the two sentences will then not have the same meaning. There is a before and a during. If we write on the eve of the French Revolution, we are in the period immediately preceding this event, when it is being prepared. If we write at the dawn of the French Revolutionis that the insurrection has already begun.

You can also use the phrase approaching to talk about something that hasn’t happened yet. As the presidential election approaches in the United States, social networks have cracked down on accounts linked to the conspiratorial movement.

It is most often the expression at the dawn of which is misused, because it appears in sentences where what we are talking about has not yet happened. It could often very well be replaced by the phrases at the beginning of Where at the start of. Expectations for the team are high at the start of the season. At the start of the snow crab fishing season, seafood factories have adopted measures to protect their employees.

Here are more examples where the expression at the dawn of would be misused: Sister Emmanuelle died on the eve of her 100th birthday (and not at dawn: she was born on November 16, 1908 and died on October 20, 2008). On the eve of this very special start of the school year, children are nervous (the article is published while school has not started again). But we will write: At the start of the school year, expectations are high (when the article reports on the first day, for example).

Mail

A school service center?

The name of the school boards has been changed to “school service centre”. I wonder why there is no s to school. I was told that it is the center that is school, but for me, we should give the word school with service! Don’t you agree with me?

Answer

It is this spelling that the text of the law on school governance has retained, explains the Large terminology dictionary of the Office québécois de la langue française.

We might have written better school service center… Anyway, the adjective school qualifies the name center and not the word services. It is the center that is academic, as the commission was. We write a school service center, school service centers. Word service is plural because it is understood that a center brings together various services.

According to the general typographical rule, The Presswe put a lower case letter in the generic term centersince it does not designate a single organism. The Patriotes school service center. The name will be capitalized only when it is clear that it designates a legal person (such as management).


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