By / when

By / when
Message de willios posté le 16-09-2012 à 21:43:49 (S | E | F)
Bonjour,

Pouvez-vous m'expliquer s'il vous plaît pourquoi on dit
" I will be eating by the time you arrive"
pour dire
"je serai en train de manger quand vous arriverez"
et non "I will be eating when you arrive" ?
Merci pour vos réponses.

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Modifié par lucile83 le 16-09-2012 22:02

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Réponse: By / when de gerondif, postée le 16-09-2012 à 21:57:59 (S | E)
Bonsoir,
Pourquoi dit-on :" I will be eating by the time you arrive" pour dire"je serai en train de manger quand vous arriverez" et non "I will be eating when you arrive" ?

I will be eating by the time you arrive: je serai en train de manger d'ici à ce que vous arriviez.
"I will be eating when you arrive": je serai en train de manger quand vous arriverez.
when indique un moment précis donné, imaginez une flèche verticale pointée sur un moment précis.
by signifie: entre maintenant et un moment donné dans le futur. Imaginez une flèche horizontale allant de maintenant à un moment donné du futur.
"He left an hour ago and he lives five minutes away": il est parti il y a une heure et il habite à 5 minutes.
"Oh! he must have arrived by now!" Oh, il doit être arrivé à l'heure qu'il est.

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Réponse: By / when de notrepere, postée le 17-09-2012 à 03:36:38 (S | E)
Hello

The exact meaning depends on the example. In this case:
"by the time" means "because of the time it will take you to do something".
For example, it is going to take Jim 1 hour to arrive at Mary's location. It is now 12 p.m. and Mary is going to start eating at 12:45 p.m. She's hungry, after all.
So, by the time Jim arrives at 1 p.m., Mary will already be eating. But she will have been eating only 15 minutes. In fact, if she eats quickly, she may already be done eating.
Mary will be eating by the time Jim arrives.
Mary will also be eating when Jim arrives.
Mary will have already finished eating by the time Jim arrives.
The first one (by the time) is used to stress the causative result of his action (because it will take him so long to arrive).
The second one shows what action is taking place (Mary will be eating) when the other action interrupts it (Jim arrives).

The other meaning is what gerondif has already stated:
By the time it takes you to finish that homework, it will already be tomorrow.
You are already working on the homework. You will continue to work on the homework until you finish. By the time you finish, it will be tomorrow.
When you finish that homework, it will be tomorrow.
There is still a causative difference between the two. With "by the time", you are stressing your annoyance at how long the action is taking. You are taking too long to complete that homework.
With "when", it is only noting a simple statement of fact. When you finish, it will be tomorrow. We are only concerned about the completion of the action and when it takes place.

I hope this helps.

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