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What is the capital of Tunisia?

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What is the capital of Tunisia?

How to say “some” in French, as in “Some lady asked you this…” or “He’s asking for some book you own”

Lorsque some concerne une seule personne on le traduit par un ou une, et le contexte de la phrase permettra de préciser la spécificité de cette personne.

Une femme1 vous a demandé…

Pour la seconde partie de la question, “He’s asking for some book you own” :

Il demande un de vos livres.


1 – Cf. : le choix de traduire lady en femme.

On peut aussi dire:

Quelque femme vous a demandé.

Mais cela n’est pas à utiliser en dehors d’un cadre littéraire.

A commentary on informal usage, in complement of the other answers:

In spoken French, we strongly avoid having indefinite referents, or referents that are new to the conversation(1), in the subject position.

Instead, we use a clause with the verb y avoir (usually translated as “there is”, but more really meaning “there exists” hence the term “existential cleft” describing this structure in the literature) to introduce the new information, and have the main verb in a subordinate sentence with qui as the subject.

In a text or when speaking, what you’ll have most of the time is thus:

Y’a une dame qui t’a demandé

Which keeps the new information (une dame) in the more suitable role of an object.


(1) These two categories tend to overlap each other of course.

 

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What is the capital of Tunisia?