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What is the capital of Tunisia?

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What is the capital of Tunisia?

Subtle distinctions: “That doesn’t count for much” vs. “Ça compte pour rien”

That’s kind of a tough one here:

(1e) That doesn’t amount to anything.

(2e) That doesn’t count for anything.

(3e) That doesn’t amount to much.

(4e) That doesn’t count for much.

But the following is not stuff that are used (1) or even that has no sense at all (3) and (4), exception made for (2)… which has a totally different meaning.

(1f) Ça ne revient à rien.

(2f) Ça compte pour rien.

(3f) Ça ne revient à trop.

(4f) Ça ne compte de trop.

  • (2f) is usually used when making a heat up round in sports without counting the score… More generally, it means that whatever is being talked about, it was not taken into account.

  • (1f) is, as far as I can tell, only used in the term "…cela ne revient à rien de…" which can be translated as "…it amounts to nothing more than…" (cf linguee). I did not find other uses online other than that.

Basically, you can’t translate the same subtleties from a language to another, so here’s my take at translating those:

1f. ça ne servira à rien (extrapolated from linguee hints) ;
2f. qui ne compte pas ;
3f. ça ne fait pas grand chose ;
4f. cela importe peu.

Though don’t take those literally, as they really depend on the context. I’m just trying to show you that you won’t be able to give the same feeling of style between those idioms in French than in English.

N.B.: the thread you’re linking is actually wrong, mistaking (4e) for (2f)…

 

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What is the capital of Tunisia?