Language through Literature

One sentence of «Le petit Chaperon rouge»


Sentence 9 of 34 · Le petit Chaperon rouge, Charles Perrault, 1697

— Demeure-t-elle bien loin ? lui dit le loup.

“Does she live very far away?” said the wolf.

Where it stands

The sentences either side of it, each with its own page.

Il lui demanda où elle allait.

He asked her where she was going.

La pauvre enfant, qui ne savait pas qu’il était dangereux de s’arrêter à écouter un loup, lui dit : Je vais voir ma mère-grand, et lui porter une galette, avec un petit pot de beurre, que ma mère lui envoie.

The poor child, who did not know that it is dangerous to stop and listen to a wolf, said to him: “I am going to see my grandmother, and to take her a cake, with a little pot of butter, that my mother is sending her.”

— Oh ! oui, dit le petit Chaperon rouge ; c’est par delà le moulin que vous voyez tout là-bas, à la première maison du village.

“Oh yes!” said Little Red Riding Hood; “it is beyond the mill that you see right over there, at the first house in the village.”

— Eh bien ! dit le Loup, je veux l’aller voir aussi : je m’y en vais par ce chemin-ci, et toi par ce chemin-là ; et nous verrons à qui plus tôt y sera.

“Well then,” said the Wolf, “I will go and see her too: I shall go by this path here, and you by that path there; and we shall see who gets there first.”

Every word in it

As printedDictionary formMeaning
Demeure-t-elle demeurerto stay, remain; to live (v.)
bien bienwell; very, quite; indeed (adv.) — bien aise, very glad; bien autre chose — something quite different; bien plus — far more
loin loinfar, far away (adv.); de loin — from afar
lui luihim; to him, to her (pron.)
dit direto say, tell (v.); on aurait dit — you would have said; se dire — to say to oneself
le lethe (le, la, l’, les); him, her, it, them — as an object (art./pron.)
loup loupwolf (n., m.)

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Perrault and Daudet, all eight tales · Charles Perrault

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