Posted at 7:00 p.m.
What kind of towns are they? This is a question that comes up frequently, probably because the use is fluctuating.
We will see for example the title Is Paris burning? for the book written by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, and the film based on it by filmmaker René Clément. But we will also hear Jean-Pierre Ferland sing that Montreal is a woman.
AT The Press, we observe (generally) the following conventions.
Town names are masculine when they end in a consonant. We will therefore write Montreal managed to solve the problem. If we don’t like the masculine, we can instead write The City of Montreal managed to solve the problem. If we find it odd to write Has Montreal become a dangerous city? You can phrase it another way: Is Montreal a dangerous city?
Nouns that begin with a masculine definite article are (of course) masculine. The Keeper, Le Mans, Cairo (we write go to cairo and 24 hours of Le Mans). Nouns beginning with a feminine definite article are feminine. The Tuque, The Meadow, Havana, New Orleans. In the latter case, the The is also part of the name and is capitalized (often omitted).
City names ending in a and are generally female. But nouns that end in another vowel (such as Ottawa Where Oslo).
The name of London, which, by ear, ends in a and, is considered feminine. And Versailles? moviegoers may ask when thinking of Sacha Guitry’s film If Versailles were told to me… The name Versailles refers here rather to the castle, which may explain the masculine.
When the name of the city is preceded by adjectives old Where all, we use the masculine. Take a walk in Old Montreal. The All-Victoriaville had gathered for the festival.
Finally, the city name is also masculine when it designates a government or a sports team. Washington outraged by Moscow’s maneuvers. Tampa Bay Stanley Cup champion.
The employment of the false friend eventually
What to do with the frequent use of the adverb eventually used in the sense of “eventually”? Is it still possible to make a major shift to put an end to this pair of false friends? Or is it simply too late?
Responnse
It may well be that this meaning, which is increasingly widespread, will one day no longer be considered an Anglicism. In the newspaper, we try to avoid this job, which is always reported as faulty.
We use the adverb correctly eventually as a synonym for maybe. These documents may be used (but maybe not, we don’t know yet).
But in French, eventually does not mean one day (temporality) or ultimately (purpose) like English eventually.
To express temporality, we can use expressions such as: afterwards, later, one of these days, at one point, When the time comes Where later.
To express the finality, “eventually” can be translated by: as a last resort, ultimately, at the end of the day, ultimately. But we also avoid the fashionable expression “in the end”, considered as barbarism.