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# mainly — English to French

How English *mainly* is translated into French in open, checked parallel texts: 3 translations with example sentences.

What it means: [mainly in the Elamur Dictionary](https://dictionary.elamur.ai/free/en/english/mainly/).

Sentence pairs counted, by form: mainly (59 028). By style: everyday 26 · parliamentary 4 251 · legal and administrative 6 020 · UN documents 48 731.

## principalement

Used about 22 695 times in the texts (everyday ≈ 21 · parliamentary ≈ 1 151 · legal and administrative ≈ 4 264 · UN documents ≈ 17 259).

- The Japanese live **mainly** on rice.
  Les Japonais mangent **principalement** du riz.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by CK and dominiko · checked, community translation · [\#281755](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/281755) [\#129780](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/129780))

- They are currently defined on the basis of **mainly** or exclusively national criteria.
  Ces zones sont actuellement définies sur la base de critères **principalement** ou exclusivement nationaux.
  ([Europarl v8](https://www.statmt.org/europarl/) · Source: European Parliament proceedings, Europarl v8 (Koehn 2005) via OPUS (Tiedemann 2012) · checked, professional translation · segment 1370344)

- Mixed **mainly** or solely with flax
  mélangés **principalement** ou uniquement avec du lin
  ([DGT-TM v2021](https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/language-technology-resources/dgt-translation-memory_en) · Source: European Commission, DGT-TM (Steinberger et al. 2012), re-used under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU; the Commission keeps ownership of the data · checked, professional translation · segment 2692643)

- The provisional agenda is **mainly** based on last year &apos; s work.
  Il est fondé **principalement** sur les travaux de l &apos; an dernier.
  ([United Nations Parallel Corpus v1.0](https://conferences.unite.un.org/UNCorpus) · Source: United Nations, United Nations Parallel Corpus v1.0 (Ziemski, Junczys-Dowmunt and Pouliquen 2016) · checked, professional translation · segment 13403601)

- His illness was **mainly** psychological.
  Sa maladie était **principalement** psychologique.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by kotobaboke and Micsmithel · checked, community translation · [\#373271](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/373271) [\#1943817](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/1943817))

## essentiellement

Used about 15 111 times in the texts (everyday ≈ 2 · parliamentary ≈ 531 · legal and administrative ≈ 1 380 · UN documents ≈ 13 198).

- The audience consisted **mainly** of students.
  L'auditoire se composait **essentiellement** d'étudiants.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by CK and U2FS · checked, community translation · [\#277937](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/277937) [\#895533](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/895533))

- The report concentrates **mainly** on the following three points:
  Cette convention porte **essentiellement** sur les trois points suivants :
  ([Europarl v8](https://www.statmt.org/europarl/) · Source: European Parliament proceedings, Europarl v8 (Koehn 2005) via OPUS (Tiedemann 2012) · checked, professional translation · segment 381236)

- The Foundation shall be financed **mainly** by its Members.
  La Fondation est financée **essentiellement** par ses membres.
  ([DGT-TM v2021](https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/language-technology-resources/dgt-translation-memory_en) · Source: European Commission, DGT-TM (Steinberger et al. 2012), re-used under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU; the Commission keeps ownership of the data · checked, professional translation · segment 216047)

- (a) **Mainly** inside the family or its substitutes:
  a) **Essentiellement** à l &apos; intérieur de la famille ou de ses substituts :
  ([United Nations Parallel Corpus v1.0](https://conferences.unite.un.org/UNCorpus) · Source: United Nations, United Nations Parallel Corpus v1.0 (Ziemski, Junczys-Dowmunt and Pouliquen 2016) · checked, professional translation · segment 7926117)

- The audience consisted **mainly** of students.
  Le public était **essentiellement** composé d'étudiants.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by CK and U2FS · checked, community translation · [\#277937](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/277937) [\#895535](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/895535))

## surtout

Used about 3 756 times in the texts (everyday ≈ 2 · parliamentary ≈ 709 · UN documents ≈ 3 046).

- They **mainly** live on milk.
  Ils se nourrissent **surtout** de lait.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by CarpeLanam and lbdx · checked, community translation · [\#6181889](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/6181889) [\#7411602](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/7411602))

- Poverty, therefore, **mainly** threatens young people.
  Ainsi, la pauvreté menace **surtout** les jeunes.
  ([Europarl v8](https://www.statmt.org/europarl/) · Source: European Parliament proceedings, Europarl v8 (Koehn 2005) via OPUS (Tiedemann 2012) · checked, professional translation · segment 1415296)

- Reducing alcohol consumption **mainly** among youth is considered one of the most important means for achieving these goals.
  La réduction de la consommation d &apos; alcool, **surtout** parmi les jeunes, est considérée comme l &apos; un des moyens les plus importants pour atteindre cet objectif.
  ([United Nations Parallel Corpus v1.0](https://conferences.unite.un.org/UNCorpus) · Source: United Nations, United Nations Parallel Corpus v1.0 (Ziemski, Junczys-Dowmunt and Pouliquen 2016) · checked, professional translation · segment 24511240)

- His illness was **mainly** psychological.
  Sa maladie était **surtout** psychologique.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by kotobaboke and Scott · checked, community translation · [\#373271](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/373271) [\#389657](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/389657))

- In my view it is **mainly** a socio-economic problem.
  Je pense qu’il s’agit **surtout** d’un problème socio-économique.
  ([Europarl v8](https://www.statmt.org/europarl/) · Source: European Parliament proceedings, Europarl v8 (Koehn 2005) via OPUS (Tiedemann 2012) · checked, professional translation · segment 612413)

## More sentences

Sentence pairs with the word where no single translation was found: it may be translated by a phrase, or left out.

- Responding to the American vice president, who claimed that charity was **mainly** directed at one's own, the Pope responded that Christian love is the basis of "a brotherhood open to all."
  En réponse au vice-président américain, qui affirmait que la charité s’adressait en priorité aux siens, le pape a répondu que l’amour chrétien était à la base d’une « fraternité ouverte à tous ».
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by rul and Rovo · checked, community translation · [\#13047270](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/13047270) [\#13046922](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/13046922))

- The greatest concerns are **mainly** to do with the welfare of animals and the working conditions of farmers.
  Les préoccupations majeures concernent le bien-être des animaux et les conditions de travail des agriculteurs.
  ([Europarl v8](https://www.statmt.org/europarl/) · Source: European Parliament proceedings, Europarl v8 (Koehn 2005) via OPUS (Tiedemann 2012) · checked, professional translation · segment 128882)

- The process has taken a long time, and it was not **mainly** down to this Parliament that its ratification took so long.
  Le processus fut long mais le Parlement ne peut être tenu pour responsable du temps qu'a pris la ratification du Traité.
  ([Europarl v8](https://www.statmt.org/europarl/) · Source: European Parliament proceedings, Europarl v8 (Koehn 2005) via OPUS (Tiedemann 2012) · checked, professional translation · segment 1303040)

## Grammar

Notes on grammar and translation on Mova: [English grammar](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/en/) · [French grammar](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/fr/) · [translating between English and French](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/translation/pairs/en-fr/) · [translating from English](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/translation/from-en/) · [translating into French](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/translation/into-fr/).

## About these examples

Translations are found by how often the two words stand in the same sentence pairs, and the highlighted words are matched automatically: both are approximate. Counts are estimated from a sample of each source. Every example names its source and licence. [Submit a better translation or example](https://md.translate.elamur.ai/free/en/submit/?pair=en-fr&word=mainly).


Every example is quoted under its source's licence and credited with it; the rest of the site is open under the Elamur Cosmic License.