Like

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pronunciation

  • prep: laɪk
  • verb: laɪk // laɪks (3rd pers. pres.) // laɪkt (past)

preposition

translation

"comme"

The most common translation of "like" is comme.
It can express a manner. Its role in similes is also notorious ("A simile is a metaphor using like or as")

  • If March comes in like a lion, it will go out like a lamb. (fierce winds March 1 -> a gentle breeze March 31)
  • "Someone like you", (Adèle) / "Like a hurricane", (Neil Young)
  • "The ice was here, the ice was there, / The ice was all around: / It cracked and growled, and roared and howled, / Like noises in a swound" (Coleridge, "Rime of the Ancient Mariner")
  • "The Albatross fell off, and sank / like lead into the sea" (Coleridge, "Rime of the Ancient Mariner")
  • "like a leaf clings to a tree, oh my darling cling to me..." (two extraordinary voices: David Bowie, Nina Simone, "Wild is the Wind", lyrics)

NB: comme is translated as as when it means "in the role of" / en tant que:

  • comme contribuable: As a taxpayer
  • comme tout contribuable, je... = Like any taxpayer, I...


Sense verbs (verbs of perception)

When used with a sense verb (taste, smell, look, sound, feel) the meaning of the two words together (looks like) is often best translated more simply in French as on dirait qu(e)<i>:</p>

  • look(s) like: <i>avoir l'air de, on dirait qu'il</i>
    • (It) looks like rain.
    • (<i>On dirait qu'il va pleuvoir</i>)
    • That looks like everything.
    • (<i>On dirait que c'est tout.</i>)
    • He/It doesn't look like he's in much pain. (<i>Il n'a pas l'air de souffrir trop.</i>)
    • She/It looks like she's getting better. (<i>Elle a l'air d'aller mieux.)</li> </li> </ul>
    • feel(s) like: on dirait que, (au toucher), avoir envie de, se sentir
      • It feels like silk but maybe it's synthetic.
      • I feel like hell this morning.
      • I feel like reading tonight.

      </li>

    • taste(s) like: avoir le/un gout de
      • Do frog legs taste more like chicken or more like beef?
      • That's a very delicate whiskey, it tastes like lapsang suchong.
    • smell(s) like: avoir l'odeur de
      • It smells like onions in here.
      • The rat must have thought it smelled like a trap, because it wouldn't eat the cheese.
      • It's smelling a bit like spring, at last.
    • sound(s) like: avoir l'air de: (au téléphone)
      • You sound like you're not feeling very well.
      • It sounds like you've done all you can.
    • seem(s) like: avoir l'air de, on dirait
      • It seems like it's working
      • They seem like nice people.
    • </ul>

      etymology

      "having the same characteristics or qualities" (as another), Middle English shortening of Old English gelic "like, similar," from Proto-Germanic *galika- "having the same form," literally "with a corresponding body" (cf. Old Saxon gilik, Dutch gelijk, German gleich, Gothic galeiks "equally, like"), a compound of *ga- "with, together" + Germanic base *lik- "body, form; like, same" (cf. Old English lic "body," German Leiche "corpse," Danish lig, Swedish lik, Dutch lijk "body, corpse"). Analogous, etymologically, to Latin conform.
      The modern form (rather than *lich Cf. -ly) may be from a northern descendant of the Old English word's Norse cognate, glikr.

      verb

      semantics

      aimer (bien) --> like
      aimer (d'amour) --> love

      Like love, like is a state verb. It is generally considered incompatible with the grammatical structure be + ing. However, social networks -- in particular facebook -- have helped to create an event reading of "like": "I liked all of his photos this afternoon, each and every one of them!"

      syntax: Verb + (direct) object

      2 arguments (subject + predicate), "transitive"

      • Infinitivals: They like to read her tweets. (whenever it happens that she tweets)
      • Participials: They like reading her tweets. (while they're reading them, or more generally)
      • Other NPs: She likes her rabbit. She doesn't like cats.
      • Inanimate subject implies personification:
        • My pet rock likes sleeping up there on the shelf.
        • Trouble seems to like coming to this part of town.

      Morphology

      like is regular in both the present and past tense.

      It takes -s [s] (3rd pers. sing.), and -d [t</color>]

      Discourse marker

      Young people tend to overuse like as a discourse marker, in some cases it can mark a change of speaker/perspective, in others it seems to be used as a filler while a person is thinking of what they want to say. It is not considered good usage.:

      • "She was all like "I'm not doing it." and stuff until I told her there was blueberry pie in the oven."
      • I was, like, you know, waiting.


      The comparative suffix -like

      Forms an adjective from a noun

      • childlike
      • life-like
      • dream-like

      Compare to -ly: cowardly

      The associative prefix like-

      • like-minded
      • likewise (de même, également)
      • likely (vraisemblable) peut être utilisé de façon ironique: "That's a likely story."
      • unlikely (invraisemblable)

      The NP / ADV alike