Posted yesterday at 6:00 p.m.
In Quebec, we use the verb a lot leave without complement, within the meaning of go away, go. I’m leaving soon. He left. This construction is considered familiar, faulty or outdated by some works. In standard French, in writing, you may prefer to avoid it.
It’s easy to do. First, one can simply add a complement to his sentence and write I’m leaving the office soon. He disappeared after leaving the party. He quit competition upon his return from the Olympics. She quit her job to start her own business.
But you can also choose other verbs, not only because you want to write more neatly, but also to vary your vocabulary. We were told that the minister had already left. He told us he was leaving in a few minutes. She wasn’t in the office. She is absent. She had to go away. He had left an hour before the event.
We also see the verb leave employed without complement within the meaning of to resignwhich is a layer of English to quit. She tendered her resignation. The mayor leaves. He leaves his post before the end of his mandate. He decided to give up his post. Depending on the context, one can instead write that someone give up the game, give up Where Drop it.
We can also resign from office. This wording may startle us. We will be tempted to see a mistake there, because English to resign means to resign. It is in fact a literary use, which one will only occasionally see in a newspaper article. “I have decided to put an end to my participation in public affairs and to resign my function as Premier of Quebec,” declared Lucien Bouchard on January 11, 2001. resign his load, his job. We will also say resign from office.
The absolute use of the verb leave is correct, as in the title, when addressing someone on the phone. Hold the line, I put you in touch (and not “I transfer you”, which is an Anglicism).
Transfer or transfer?
Do we say transfer or transfer of a patient?
Answer
Rather, we say transfer. It’s just the name transfer is no longer used except in a particular case, namely the action of transferring an accused or a detainee. International Transfer of Offenders Act. Quebec and Canadian detainees imprisoned in the United States wait more than two years, sometimes even almost three years, before being repatriated to the country to serve their sentence here. However, transfers should be done more quickly, denounces a lawyer specializing in prison law.
However, one can also use transfer in that case, if you prefer. Transfer of prisoners. Transfer of Napoleon’s ashes. Transfer of capital from one country to another. Funds transfer.
Like the verb to transfer seen above, the name transfer is sometimes an anglicism, this time in the sense of correspondence and in the sense of mutation. Request a match (not a “transfer”) to the driver when you have to change buses. Accept his transfer (and not its “transfer”) to another city.