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What is the capital of Tunisia?

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What is the capital of Tunisia?

Célibataire en permanence and petite-fille

Reading the source (French Short Stories for Beginners, Vol.2), I don’t see any evidence that the woman (Jacqueline) is just a few years older than the chouette garçon.

The poissonnier is described as un petit jeune that had to takeover his father’s business so is likely in his early 20s.

On the opposite, I would say she is at least in her 60s given the sentence:

Jadis, ses parents venaient faire leurs courses au même endroit, et certains commerçants sont restés les mêmes.

Jadis is a literary word meaning a long time ago, similar to the English “yore”. This sentence somewhat implies Jacqueline parents belong to a bygone past, i.e. are dead.

Another hint is Jacqueline husband’s first name, Marcel. Its popularity peaked around one hundred years ago and almost disappeared after the 50s / 60s, think Homer in the English speaking world.

…mais il est un peu jeune pour elle.

is an understatement and a joke. You shouldn’t take it seriously.

Célibataire en permanence is not a common expression (to say the least, it can even be called a hapax as it seems to appear nowhere outside this short story) but insists on the fact Caroline’s granddaughter (her petite-fille) is never having an affair. Using both rester et en permanence do not go well together here although for example the sentence la porte reste ouverte en permanence is common and means “the door stays constantly open”. You might then translate this sentence as :

She should introduce him to her granddaughter Caroline who “stays constantly single”.

jlliagre covered the part about the age difference.

I understand that you find the fact that she said “a bit too old for him” disturbing. But don’t forget that French love understatements.

It often sound odd to american speakers, but “Pas mal” generally means very good, “un petit peu trop” means “really too much”.
Sometime, we add lowering adjectives to reinforce the idea :
“Un tout petit peu trop” is more than “Un peu trop”.

I hope this clarify this for you.

Reste célibataire en permanence could have two meanings.

  • This could mean that she is single, always, all the time. Either she is not interested in any relationship or nobody want to date her.
  • She could always come back single. She might start relationship, but either they are one night stands or she break up very fast. She may not be interested in serious relationship.

My interpretation would lean to the second one. She remains single all the time because she is not in an established relationship. Her grandmother might not like this behavior, hence the stressing of “en permanence”, which could let imagine that she is tired of seeing her being single again.

 

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What is the capital of Tunisia?