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rejoindre
histoire de 5 minutes
Oct 20, 2011 14:26
12 yrs ago
3 viewers *
French term

la suite dans un instant

Non-PRO French to English Art/Literary General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters Romance Novel
Contexte:

" 'Ensuite, deux terraito de moules et langoustines, trois chapons de mer farcis en chartreuse, trois croustillants de homard et ris de veau...**La suite dans un instant,'** lança un serveur en pénétrant dans la cusine et en ressortant aussi sec."

Merci,

Barbara
Proposed translations (English)
3 +4 and there's more to come....
3 +1 I'll tell you the rest in a minute....
4 the rest is coming right up/out
3 +1 next course coming up!
3 The rest, shortly
4 -2 To be continued...
Change log

Oct 20, 2011 18:30: Leslie Marcus changed "Level" from "PRO" to "Non-PRO"

Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

PRO (2): Simon Mac, Yolanda Broad

Non-PRO (3): cc in nyc, Jennifer White, Leslie Marcus

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Discussion

Kelly Harrison Oct 20, 2011:
La suite usually refers to the NEXT (following) course, however it isn't clear if there are one or two waiters, and if the order is being taken or the plates distributed.
ormiston Oct 20, 2011:
Bourth's storyline sounds so appetising I think we're all going to be disappointed!
kashew Oct 20, 2011:
@ asker Much full context would probably save all the guessing.
Bourth (X) Oct 20, 2011:
I mean, maybe the waiter has had his girlfriend hired in the kitchen and suspects one of the chefs may try his luck with her, so he pops back regularly to the kitchen rather than take a whole order at a time, to keep an eye on things. Or there could be any number of similar reasons. Of course you may have to read/translate to the end of the book to find that out. Maybe this is one of those crucial clues in a Whodunnit.
Terry Richards Oct 20, 2011:
Good point! Bourth makes a good point. Sometimes it's amazing to me how much information can be extracted from so few words and some reasonable assumptions.
Terry Richards Oct 20, 2011:
More than one table? It could be (and probably is) true that the waiter has more than one table to deal with. Just because he's ordering starters for one table doesn't mean that he's just started his shift and some of his other tables could be further along in their meals.

The fact is, we need more context and what happened before "ensuite" would probably be useful to know.

There's also the impression that this waiter is in a hurry (a unique situation in my experience!) as he's barking off orders in the kitchen and coming back out immediately. My experience of French waiters is that they tend to disappear into the kitchen for hours at a time :)
Bourth (X) Oct 20, 2011:
The fact that it is un serveur who says all this, not le serveur or notre/leur serveur rather suggests that this is all secondary to the main story being told. Does Asker know any more about this waiter, his role in the action or relationship to the main protagonists, his phone number, etc? I mean, knowing what is going on around before, during, and after this very brief passage might help a lot.
kashew Oct 20, 2011:
@ormiston Exactly!
ormiston Oct 20, 2011:
unless... it's a huge table and he's announcing the orders in dribs & drabs (with more to come....)
ormiston Oct 20, 2011:
if these are starters why does the sentence begin "Ensuite..." ?
Tony M Oct 20, 2011:
Note: It looks as if these might be 8 starters; so 'la suite' here might be the main courses; I suspect the waiter is actually saying "here is(are) the order(s) for the starters, I'll give you the main courses in a tick"

But do we know for sure that the second remark is being made by the same waiter? If it's by another one, just leaving the kitchen, perhaps it means that table X will be ready for their next course very shortly?

I think it may take a bit of unravelling to figure out the exact context of what is going on here.
Terry Richards Oct 20, 2011:
Waiter talk We sometimes eat at the cafeteria at our local supermarket where the waitress picks up the food from a serving hatch. Whenever she goes to collect our next course, she always hollers "la suite de [table number]" through the hatch.

Proposed translations

+4
18 mins
Selected

and there's more to come....

the waiter barges into the kitchen, annonuces 3 orders, turns on his heels and in leaving says.....
Peer comment(s):
agree ormiston : alimentary my dear Watson!
1 hr
agree kashew : Something along those lines. Voracious eaters?
1 hr
agree Donatella Talpo
1 hr
agree Jean-Claude Gouin
1 day 23 hrs
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Selected automatically based on peer agreement."
-2
3 mins

To be continued...

One possibility.
Peer comment(s):
disagree Leslie Marcus : doesn't seem to fit the context
21 mins
disagree AllegroTrans : doesn't fit at all; would a waiter really say that?
26 mins
Something went wrong...
+1
6 mins

I'll tell you the rest in a minute....


C'est juste une idée !
Je trouve difficile d'utiliser une expression toute faite dans ce contexte
Peer comment(s):
agree Michelle Desaintfuscien
6 mins
disagree Leslie Marcus : doesn't seem to fit the context
21 mins
disagree AllegroTrans : doesn't fit at all; would a waiter really say that? [Click here to delete your comment]
24 mins
agree Jennifer White : I think this does fit the context very well
50 mins
agree Simon Mac : Yes it could absolutely fit the context! (The discussion area and Bourth's comments show that our assumptions need to be challenged)
5 hrs
Something went wrong...
20 mins

The rest, shortly

pour faire court...
Something went wrong...
24 mins

the rest is coming right up/out

I think Terry Richards remark in the discussion is very pertinent. Now, depending on whether the waiter talking to his colleagues in the kitchen or to the customers at the table, I might change the phrasing a bit.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 29 minutes (2011-10-20 14:56:35 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

I obviously meant "...whether the waiter IS talking"
Something went wrong...
+1
2 hrs

next course coming up!

*

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 3 heures (2011-10-20 17:46:57 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

I'm coming straight back!
Peer comment(s):
agree Lara Barnett
3 days 5 hrs
Something went wrong...
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