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What is the capital of Tunisia?

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What is the capital of Tunisia?

The meaning of “avoir le droit de” and “être en droit de”

Finally, is it acceptable to swap the two phrases around, as belows?

I’d say yes. While the former sounds more natural to me I can’t find any incorrectness nor real difference of meaning.

That being said, I probably would translate “on aurait le droit” with “we may” and “on devrait” as “we should”… so… “on pourrait s’attendre à” sounds closer than “on devrait s’attendre à” to “on serait en droit de s’attendre à”

Your 2 examples are used with an ironic meaning, so the meaning has a kind of “must” connotation, but not exactly… I don’t feel you can swap them, because “être” induce a strong law connotation, as I say below.


“avoir le droit de”

It means “you have the choice, if you wish to, you can”, “it’s ok if…”. The law connotation is light, it would be used for childs, when you explain the rules of a game, etc…
In your sentence, since there is irony (due to “un tout petit peu”, which means you are not showing any, and it doesn’t seem to be difficult to show some), you may understand “Please feel at least some enthousiasm”


“être en droit de”

It would mean “If you don’t see what you expect to, you can ask for it” (law connotation is strong, as if you had to go for a trial…). It is less commonly used, for serious subjects, as when you’re complaining about your neighbours, etc…
In your sentence, you may understand “If there were a town here, we would be right to ask for some activity, if there weren’t”

Les 2 sont équivalents, même si “être en droit” est plus stylé, et notamment utilisé pour les aspects de droit.

sur CNRTL:

♦ Avoir le droit de. Avoir légitimement ou légalement la liberté, la
possibilité de :
20. J’ai le droit de plaisanter ma mort, si la plaisanterie me réjouit. (…) J’ai le droit de savourer les paradoxes. Saint-Exupéry,
Pilote de guerre,1942, p. 333.

♦ Être en droit de. Être légitimement ou légalement autorisé à. Je
comprends aujourd’hui combien l’abbé était en droit d’accuser mon
orgueil dans ma révolte d’hier (Gide, École femmes,1929, p. 1291):
21. Nous sommes en droit de penser que les chercheurs, brisant ou construisant les atomes à volonté, sauront réaliser des réactions
nucléaires en chaînes explosives. Goldschmidt, L’Aventure
atomique,1962, p. 21.

 

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What is the capital of Tunisia?