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Well, we had a nice swim

bolivar76

Senior Member
french - France
Bonjour

Contexte: le client quitte l’hotel et la réceptionniste est désolée et lui explique que la piscine n’est pas nettoyée avant 10h (le client n'a pas pu se baigner ce matin mais a bien profité de la piscine hier)

client : Well, we had a nice swim last night anyway.

ma traduction : Bon/ce n’est pas grave, de toute façon, nous en avons bien profité hier soir.


Le well me pose problème comme à pas mal de personnes !!

merci par avance pour votre aide

Cordialement
merci beaucoup !
Bonne soirée
Jérôme
I understand the "Well" here more like "Ben."
Ben, on en a bien profité hier soir de toute façon.

Personally, I think the "ce n'est pas grave" part is injecting a meaning
that may or may not be in the original. You would only be able to determine
that from the tone of voice.
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You have a point, LH. Only the tone of voice would tell.

I may have been lead astray by bolivar's initial attempt, and the fact that he wrote: « la réceptionniste est désolée ».

I could very well say : Ben, c'est pas grave (familiar) / Allez, ce n'est pas grave (less so) to someone who apologizes/says they're sorry.

That said - register wize - if I were to use the familiar Ben, I'd be more likely to say on en a than nous en avons. 👁 Wink ;)
Unless we know for sure that the hotel guest was not ticked off about not being able to swim that morning,
I would not add the "ce n'est pas grave."
...if I were to use the familiar Ben, I'd be more likely to say on en a than nous en avons. 👁 Wink ;)
Tout à fait ! That will teach me to try to save time by using "copy and paste"👁 Oops! :oops:

I'll edit my suggestion now.
I agree that it's optional. I may be overly polite. 👁 Big Grin :D


Last try - changing Ben for Bah:
- Bah, on s'est quand même fait une bonne baignade hier soir / on a au moins pu en profiter hier soir.

I can't help it : de toute façon at the end of the sentence doesn't sound natural to me.
Dear all

I agree "de toute façon" at the end is not right as far as I am concerned and I am French (sorry about that...)
I defer to native speakers on the placement/inclusion of "de toute façon"
and will rephrase my suggestion as follows:
Ben/Bah, de toute façon, on en a bien profité hier soir.

I also like Nico's suggestion:
Bah, on s'est quand même fait une bonne baignade hier soir.

In fact, I prefer Nico's suggestion, which actually translates the "nice swim" part.
My suggestion used the OP's translation to address "Well."
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Actually, while it sounds better at the beginning of the sentence...
I wouldn't use de toute façon at all in this context as you can see from my various suggestions.

Je n'arrive pas à expliquer pourquoi j'ai l'impression que ça ne marche pas et que quand même (ou rien du tout) est à préférer. 👁 Oops! :oops:


Edit : Il manque good, mais j'aime la suggestion d'Oddmania, ci-dessous. En particulier : C'est déjà ça. 👁 Thumbs Up :thumbsup:
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Oh ! / oh on s'est quand même bien baigné hier soir/ on en a bien profité hier soir...
Prenant exemple sur les politiciens qui veulent éluder une question: en tout cas on s'est quand même bien baigné hier (amalgame de well et anyway)
Mais j'aime bien le "enfin" de Oddmania.
Original Sentence: Well, we had a nice swim last night anyway.

"Ce n'est pas grave" and "C'est déjà ça" are both polite ways to let the hotel employee know that the hotel guest was not really inconvenienced by not being able to use the pool in the morning. I don't think that "ce n'est pas grave" is justified at all because the guest did not say, "It's okay/Don't worry/No problem" or any other such phrase.

Without knowing the tone the hotel guest used when uttering “Well, we had a nice swim last night anyway”,
I cannot know whether the guest really didn’t mind or really did mind and made what amounts to a rather snide remark.

If the guest stressed the words “last night”, you could take the comment to mean:
Heureusement qu’on a pu se baigner hier soir !!!
Note that this is NOT a translation, just an effort to explain how the original English sentence could be understood if said by a guest who was really not happy about not being able to go for a swim that morning.👁 Wink ;)


P.S. I agree that "Enfin" could work if the guest did not mind not being able to go for a swim in the morning.
I don't think that "ce n'est pas grave" is justified at all because the guest did not say, "It's okay/Don't worry/No problem" or any other such phrase..
Did you really have to write it a time, LH? Boy do I now wish I never had suggested it!
Oh well... at least my third run at the bat got your approval. 👁 Big Grin :D


My personal understanding of « en tout cas » is that people often say it when they run out of arguments or don't have any.
Or that it translates anyway / at any rate / in any case, more than well...
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Did you really have to write it a time, LH? Boy do I now wish I never had suggested it!
Please don't take it so personally, Nico.👁 Smile :)
I know you understood. The OP wrote:
ma traduction : Bon/ce n’est pas grave, de toute façon, nous en avons bien profité hier soir.
My point was simply that I don't think either "Ce n'est pas grave" or "C'est déjà ça" is justified if the hotel guest is being snide rather than polite, something we can't be sure of based on the original English sentence alone.
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