https://www.proz.com/kudoz/french-to-english/general-conversation-greetings-letters/6683959-seront-de-tous-les-combats-dont.html

Glossary entry

French term or phrase:

seront de tous les combats, dont

English translation:

were in the forefront of every struggle, including

    The asker opted for community grading. The question was closed on 2019-07-11 19:54:07 based on peer agreement (or, if there were too few peer comments, asker preference.)
Jul 8, 2019 17:23
4 yrs ago
French term

seront de tous les combats, dont

French to English Social Sciences General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters
Fortement politisés et revendicateurs, les étudiants seront de tous les combats, dont ceux qui mèneront à l’affirmation nationale des Franco-Québécois.
Change log

Jul 8, 2019 18:02: writeaway changed "Field" from "Art/Literary" to "Social Sciences"

Proposed translations

+8
1 hr
Selected

were in the forefront of every struggle, including

As Marco says, there are many ways to translate "de tous les combats". You could certainly do it more literally: "fought in every battle", for example. But "être de tous les combats" is a set phrase, expressing the idea they could always be counted on to get stuck in and fight the good fight, as it were; at least, that's how I understand it. So I think a more hyperbolic, non-literal version like "in the forefront" is legitimate. But you could say something like "were involved in every fight". And I think "fight" would be perfectly OK instead of "struggle"; it's a matter of taste.

What I do think is important is the verb tense. "Seront" and "mèneront", in the future, follow from a historic present narration of past events. This is common in French but nearly always creates an unnatural effect in English, in my opinion. If you use past tense narration, as English naturally does, "will be" will logically become "would be" or "were to be". But even that seems awkward and unnatural to me. I think the idiomatic way to express this is English is with a simple past tense.

"Dont" means "including": every struggle/fight, including those that led to...

''In every nation of the western world, even in the nations behind the Iron Curtain, miners have been in the forefront of every struggle for social justice"
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=WDNF_9eYszgC&pg=PA78&lpg...
Peer comment(s):

agree philgoddard : English-speaking TV historians use the present tense a lot. I find it distracting.
1 hr
Thanks, Phil. I find it acceptable in a timeline (e.g., "1756: Mozart is born in Salzburg") but almost nowhere else. It has a kind of cheap journalistic immediacy.
agree Michele Fauble
5 hrs
Thanks, Michele :-)
agree Daryo
9 hrs
Thanks, Daryo :-)
agree Jennifer White
14 hrs
Thanks, Jennifer :-)
agree Simon Charass
19 hrs
Thank you, Simon :-)
agree Ph_B (X) : esp. with your note about tenses./Well, thinking back to my college days and all that red in the margins of my essays, my English grammar tutors would certainly have approved of your style :-))
20 hrs
Many thanks, Ph_B. I'm very glad you agree :-)
agree AllegroTrans
1 day 2 hrs
Thanks, Chris :-)
agree writeaway : I assume that translating Spanish presents the same fun with verb tenses
1 day 14 hrs
Yes, just the same issues. Thanks!
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "thank you!"
+1
14 mins

...the students would participate in all battles, among which those that would lead...

There are many ways to translate this.
Peer comment(s):

agree Daryo
11 hrs
Something went wrong...
-1
41 mins

the students will take part in every fight that leads to

When it's a question of student demonstrations and activities over here in the US, we talk about them being in a "fight" for equal rights, "the cause". etc.
Peer comment(s):

disagree Daryo : ... including .... , not "every" // not ALL fights are those "leading to ..."
10 hrs
Something went wrong...
2 hrs

be on the warpath/ fight the good fight

I'm not sure the phrase is to be taken literally. It's an idiom which describes how somebody takes part in a struggle or debate.
Peer comment(s):

neutral AllegroTrans : I think you may be waxing a tad too lyrical here
1 day 2 hrs
Something went wrong...