zanyzoe's avatar
zanyzoe

Oct. 22, 2025

1
The Silmarillion

Actually, I read The Silmarillion by Tolkien.
I'm a fan of The Lord of the ring, and for my birthday, my boyfriend give me this book.
It's the french version, because i don't have the level for read it in English. And it's not easy in french, so, I don't imagine how it's hard in the original language.
It's very passionnate to discover the origin of the creation of the Tolkien's world. This man was a genius.
But I don't rememberer the half names of their characters. And It's just the begenning of the book !


Actuellement, je lis le Silmarillion de Tolkien.
Je suis une fan du Seigneur des Anneaux, et pour mon anniversaire, mon petit ami m'a offert ce livre.
C'est la version française, car je n'ai pas le niveau pour le lire en Anglais. Et ce n'est déjà pas facile en Français, alors je n'imagine pas à quel point c'est dur dans la langue originelle.
C'est vraiment passionnant de découvrir l'origine de la création du monde de Tolkien. Cet homme était un génie.
Mais, je ne me souviens pas de la moitié des prénoms des personnages. Et je ne suis qu'au début du livre !

booktolkiensilmarillion
Corrections

Actually, II'm currently reading The Silmarillion by Tolkien.

"Actually" is a false friend! I make the same mistake in French. You have a few different options here. "I'm currently reading ..." is my preference, but you could also say "Right now, I'm reading ..."; either one is fine.

I'm a fan of The Lord of the rRings, andso for my birthday, my boyfriend giave me this book.

Most words in a title are capitalized, except for certain small connector words like "and" "or" "of" "in" etc.

"and" sounds like an odd connector to me because the two ideas are dependent on each other. Your boyfriend chose this gift because you're a fan of LOTR. "so" sounds more natural because it acknowledges the cause and effect.

It's the fFrench version, because iI don't have the level for reading it in English.

Names of languages are always capitalized in English. The pronoun "I" is also always capitalized.

And it's not easy in fFrench, so, I docan't imagine how it's hardhard it is in the original language.

Sentence 1: "I can't imagine how it's hard" means that someone's telling you that a thing is hard, and you think that sounds unlikely.
Sentence 2: "I can't imagine how hard it is" means that you think it's probably quite hard, so much that you can't imagine the upper limit of difficulty.

It's very confusing until you get used to it, but the word order is important. You also can't contract "it is" into "it's" in sentence 2, but I'm not sure how to explain why, since I'm a native speaker and never learned this as a formal rule.

It's very passionnateexciting to discover the origin of the creation of the Tolkien's world.

"origin of the creation of" sounds redundant, but I'm not sure what you meant, so I'm not sure what part to remove.

ButAnd yet, somehow, I don't rememberer the half of the names of theirhis characters.

The phrase you use to introduce this sentence should reflect what kind of comparison you want to draw between the two thoughts. Do you think that Tolkien is a great writer, and yet some parts of his writing are not engaging? Are you impressed that he can keep track of so many characters and so many aspects of the world, and marveling that it must be harder to write all of those details than to read them?

And Iit's just the begeinning of the book !

Unlike French, English doesn't put a space before punctuation marks like ? ! :

Feedback

What a nice gift! I'm happy that you're enjoying it so far. I've never attempted it myself, but I've definitely heard that The Silmarillion is a difficult book even for native English speakers.

zanyzoe's avatar
zanyzoe

Oct. 23, 2025

1

Thank you !

I hate false friend! So, what is the real sense of "Actually"?

Oh, thank you for the difference between "and" and "so" in this sentence!

The order of word is a bit complicated because, in French, we don't have the same rules. So, my first mistake is to litteraly translate the sentences from French to English... I need to fix this habit !

So "IT'S" is never correct? Even when you speak ?

For the "origin of the creation of", I mean the "lore" (I don't know if it's the good work in English), the fondation of the story, the folklore...

Oh, I'm impressed by all the details and the complexity of the world! Tolkien is definitely a fantastic world builder!

It's an amazing gift! It is not easy, but a fantastic experience !

alouette's avatar
alouette

Oct. 23, 2025

0

"Actually" means that something is true or real. (peut-être comme « vraiment » ?) You can use it to say that this statement is true, unlike the previous statement, which was false. You're pointing out the contrast between the two.

"Aren't you American?"
"Oh, nope, I'm actually Canadian."

--

"It's" is a very common contraction, and it's a valid word when speaking and writing. However, there are some places where you can't use it. I was trying to give an example of one of those places, but I think my example wasn't very clear. Sorry! I'll try again.

this can contract:
"When is your birthday?"
"It's today!" (it is => it's)

this cannot contract:
"The sun is shining today."
"Yes it is." (it is =/=> it's)

--

Lore, foundation, and folklore are all great words that are useful here. I'll try to explain the differences. Here are some example sentences:

"It's exciting to learn more of the lore of Tolkien's world." (lore means events, places, people, etc that he made up as an author)
"It's exciting to learn more of the foundation of Tolkien's world." (foundation is more general; while lore is specific to storytelling, foundation could be background information for an explanation, or assumptions used in a persuasive argument)
"It's exciting to learn about the folklore that inspired Tolkien." (folklore means old cultural stories that people pass down)

The Silmarillion

Actually, I read The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien.

"Actually" at the start like this feels a little odd since you're not correcting someone
Usually if we're talking about an author we would refer to their full name first and then on repeat mentions use only the surname

I'm a fan of The Lord of the rRings, and for my birthday, my boyfriend giave me this book.

Capitalisation for title
Past tense is required for "give" here

It's the fFrench version, because i don't have the level for read it in Englishmy level of English isn't high enough to read it.

Here you should use "to" with "read"
Rephrased to sound more natural

And it's not easy in fFrench, so, I docan't imagine how it's hardhard it is in the original language.

Here "can't" is a more natural choice than "don't"
"how it's hard" = "in what way is it hard"
"how hard it is" = "what level of difficulty is it"

It's very passionnateinteresting to discover the origin of the creation of the Tolkien's world.

"passionate" doesn't make sense in this sentence. I don't read French so maybe my choice of replacement isn't the best
No need for "the" when talking about "Tolkien's world"

Thisat man was a genius.

"That" feels like the more natural choice here

But I don't rememberer the half the names of their characters.

Word order
Also "their" should be "the"

And Iit's justonly the begeinning of the book !

"just" is OK here, but "only" emphasises the point better
Spelling on beginning

Feedback

The Silmarillion is a very interesting book but people can find it a bit dry. There's a lot of characters but you only need to remember a few important names
I hope you enjoy the book!

zanyzoe's avatar
zanyzoe

Oct. 22, 2025

1

Thank you !

For the moment, I like it! And it help me to learn more about this world.

I have some questions about your correction :

- I used "Actually" for say "Right now", it doesn't work?
-For "passionnate", I mean something who is very very interesting. Maybe " it's fascinating"?

vikingschism's avatar
vikingschism

Oct. 22, 2025

31

"Right now", or "currently" would be better I think, "actually" has a nuance of correcting someone. For example:
Person A - "Oh, you're reading Lord of the Rings?"
Person B - "Actually, I'm reading The Silmarillion."

"fascinating" would definitely work there!

zanyzoe's avatar
zanyzoe

Oct. 22, 2025

1

Oooh ok ! Thank you very much!

The Silmarillion


This sentence has been marked as perfect!

It's very passionnate to discover the origin of the creation of the Tolkien's world.


It's very passionnateinteresting to discover the origin of the creation of the Tolkien's world.

"passionate" doesn't make sense in this sentence. I don't read French so maybe my choice of replacement isn't the best No need for "the" when talking about "Tolkien's world"

It's very passionnateexciting to discover the origin of the creation of the Tolkien's world.

"origin of the creation of" sounds redundant, but I'm not sure what you meant, so I'm not sure what part to remove.

This man was a genius.


Thisat man was a genius.

"That" feels like the more natural choice here

But I don't rememberer the half names of their characters.


But I don't rememberer the half the names of their characters.

Word order Also "their" should be "the"

ButAnd yet, somehow, I don't rememberer the half of the names of theirhis characters.

The phrase you use to introduce this sentence should reflect what kind of comparison you want to draw between the two thoughts. Do you think that Tolkien is a great writer, and yet some parts of his writing are not engaging? Are you impressed that he can keep track of so many characters and so many aspects of the world, and marveling that it must be harder to write all of those details than to read them?

And It's just the begenning of the book !


And Iit's justonly the begeinning of the book !

"just" is OK here, but "only" emphasises the point better Spelling on beginning

And Iit's just the begeinning of the book !

Unlike French, English doesn't put a space before punctuation marks like ? ! :

Actually, I read The Silmarillion by Tolkien.


Actually, I read The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien.

"Actually" at the start like this feels a little odd since you're not correcting someone Usually if we're talking about an author we would refer to their full name first and then on repeat mentions use only the surname

Actually, II'm currently reading The Silmarillion by Tolkien.

"Actually" is a false friend! I make the same mistake in French. You have a few different options here. "I'm currently reading ..." is my preference, but you could also say "Right now, I'm reading ..."; either one is fine.

I'm a fan of The Lord of the ring, and for my birthday, my boyfriend give me this book.


I'm a fan of The Lord of the rRings, and for my birthday, my boyfriend giave me this book.

Capitalisation for title Past tense is required for "give" here

I'm a fan of The Lord of the rRings, andso for my birthday, my boyfriend giave me this book.

Most words in a title are capitalized, except for certain small connector words like "and" "or" "of" "in" etc. "and" sounds like an odd connector to me because the two ideas are dependent on each other. Your boyfriend chose this gift because you're a fan of LOTR. "so" sounds more natural because it acknowledges the cause and effect.

It's the french version, because i don't have the level for read it in English.


It's the fFrench version, because i don't have the level for read it in Englishmy level of English isn't high enough to read it.

Here you should use "to" with "read" Rephrased to sound more natural

It's the fFrench version, because iI don't have the level for reading it in English.

Names of languages are always capitalized in English. The pronoun "I" is also always capitalized.

And it's not easy in french, so, I don't imagine how it's hard in the original language.


And it's not easy in fFrench, so, I docan't imagine how it's hardhard it is in the original language.

Here "can't" is a more natural choice than "don't" "how it's hard" = "in what way is it hard" "how hard it is" = "what level of difficulty is it"

And it's not easy in fFrench, so, I docan't imagine how it's hardhard it is in the original language.

Sentence 1: "I can't imagine how it's hard" means that someone's telling you that a thing is hard, and you think that sounds unlikely. Sentence 2: "I can't imagine how hard it is" means that you think it's probably quite hard, so much that you can't imagine the upper limit of difficulty. It's very confusing until you get used to it, but the word order is important. You also can't contract "it is" into "it's" in sentence 2, but I'm not sure how to explain why, since I'm a native speaker and never learned this as a formal rule.

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