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 5:00 p.m.
The names coming and future are they synonymous? Yes and no. They can sometimes be used interchangeably, but too often the name future is used when it is the noun coming which would have been appropriate, in particular because in English, we only use the word future — pay attention to the spelling, the name future does not end with a e in French. Word coming thus tends to disappear.
There’s a nuance between the words coming and future, explained by the French Academy in a post. ” Coming designates a time that those who live today will experience, when future refers to a more distant time, which will belong to the generations that will follow us. »
A restructuring is necessary to ensure the future of the company. The future of the French language. What does the future hold for us? No one can accurately predict what might happen in the future. Worrying about the future of your children, being promised a bright future. We avoid writing “have a bright future ahead of us”. It is a pleonasm.
Depending on the context, we can also write the means of transport of the future (the REM) that the means of transport of the future (the flying car).
Finally, only the word future is used as an adjective. Future times. The future generations. The future married couple.
We will write in the future, in the sense of “from now on, from now on”, and not “in the future” which is a copy of English. The Linguistic Troubleshooting Bank of the Office québécois de la langue française specifies that this expression is used “when speaking of a change and generally suggests that things have not been done correctly until now”. Going forward, doors will close at 5 p.m. In the future, we want to be informed of any delays.
The phrase in the future is also correct, but does not have exactly the same meaning as the phrase in the future. Rather, it means “one day soon, later”. Some fear that, in the future, reading will be eliminated by video games.
” Minimize ”
I often see the expression “minimize”. Shouldn’t we rather say “minimize”?
Answer
It is recommended to use, in neat language, the phrase at least following a verb that expresses an idea of diminution like to lower, lessen, restrict, reduce Where restrict.
But the use of the phrase at most, in this sense, is very common. It is then given the meaning of “as much as possible”, “to the extreme” or “to the highest degree”.
To avoid being criticized or creating a misunderstanding, one may prefer one of these expressions.