Good morning Jim, Pieanne, Marius and Mr Pedantic,
Here are some sentences in French that I translated into English, would you please tell me what you think of the result?
1. Au début des années 1950, il était interdit de faire du démarchage électoral le jour du scrutin.
Canvassing on polling / ballot / election day was not allowed in the early fifties.
2. Saura-t-il sensibiliser les femmes à ce problème?
Will he be able to make women aware of / to awaken women to this problem?
3. Le clonage a-t-il été autorisé par les autorités compétentes?
Was cloning allowed by the proper / competent / relevant / concerned authorities?
4. On ne nous a pas permis de toucher les allocations familiales.
We were not allowed to get child benefit / family allowances.
5. La Belgique a été incapable de faire face au choc pétrolier.
Belgium was not able to cope with the oil crisis / shock.
6. Elle n'a pas eu le droit de faire les soldes.
She was not allowed to go to (client) / to do (seller) the sales.
7. Il a pu obtenir une forte augmentation de son salaire brut.
He was able / managed to obtain / get a big rise in his gross salary.
8. Certaines minorités ethniques ne sont pas autorisées à pratiquer leur religion depuis l'année dernière.
Some ethnic minorities have not been allowed to practise their religion since last year.
9. Ils étaient incapables de réduire leur consommation d'énergie.
They were not able to cut down on their energy consumption.
10. Ont-ils pu truquer la rencontre? = Were they able to rig the meeting / match (?).
Thank you very much in advance.
Hela