Elamur: [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [Parse](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/parse/) · [Dictionary](https://md.dictionary.elamur.ai/free/en/) · **Translate** · [Research](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [MCP](https://mcp.elamur.ai/) · [Groupants](https://md.groupants.elamur.ai/free/en/)

This page as HTML: <https://translate.elamur.ai/free/en/en-fr/sought/>

# sought — English to French

How English *sought* is translated into French in open, checked parallel texts: 2 translations with example sentences.

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

Sentence pairs counted, by form: sought (44 272). By style: everyday 10 · literary 19 · biblical 99 · parliamentary 1 839 · legal and administrative 2 823 · UN documents 39 482.

## cherché

Used about 4 567 times in the texts (everyday ≈ 3 · literary ≈ 1 · biblical ≈ 8 · parliamentary ≈ 383 · legal and administrative ≈ 59 · UN documents ≈ 4 113).

- Sami **sought** revenge by murder.
  Sami a **cherché** à se venger par le meurtre.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by OsoHombre and Scorpionvenin14 · checked, community translation · [\#6378679](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/6378679) [\#6378698](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/6378698))

- Monsieur the Archduke has more than once **sought** his gant\[5\] in my hose.”
  Monsieur l'archiduc a plus d'une fois **cherché** son gant dans mes chausses.»
  ([Project Gutenberg books (Verne, Hugo, Maupassant and their translators)](https://www.gutenberg.org/) · Project Gutenberg, public domain · checked, professional translation · hugo notre dame, row 493)

- but when he was in Rome, he **sought** me diligently and found me
  au contraire, lorsqu’il est venu à Rome, il m’a **cherché** avec beaucoup d’empressement, et il m’a trouvé.
  ([World English Bible and Louis Segond 1910](https://ebible.org/) · World English Bible; Louis Segond 1910; public domain, eBible.org · checked, professional translation · 2TI 1:17)

- We never **sought** to ensure that our regulations were enforceable.
  Nous n'avons jamais **cherché** à nous assurer que nos règles étaient applicables.
  ([Europarl v8](https://www.statmt.org/europarl/) · Source: European Parliament proceedings, Europarl v8 (Koehn 2005) via OPUS (Tiedemann 2012) · checked, professional translation · segment 35379)

- The Commission **sought** cooperation from these 21 companies and from any other known producer, by requesting them to complete a sampling form.
  La Commission a **cherché** à obtenir la coopération de ces vingt et une sociétés et de tout autre producteur connu en les invitant à remplir un formulaire d’échantillonnage.
  ([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 579371)

## recherché

Used about 1 665 times in the texts (everyday ≈ 1 · parliamentary ≈ 77 · legal and administrative ≈ 765 · UN documents ≈ 823).

- We **sought** to come to terms with them.
  Nous avons **recherché** un compromis avec eux.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by CM and sacredceltic · checked, community translation · [\#28760](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/28760) [\#1271813](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/1271813))

- He has always **sought** compromise, and has worked well with all the political groups.
  Il a toujours **recherché** le compromis, en bonne collaboration avec l'ensemble des groupes.
  ([Europarl v8](https://www.statmt.org/europarl/) · Source: European Parliament proceedings, Europarl v8 (Koehn 2005) via OPUS (Tiedemann 2012) · checked, professional translation · segment 480427)

- The Commission **sought** and verified all the information deemed necessary for the investigation.
  La Commission a **recherché** et vérifié toutes les informations jugées nécessaires aux fins de l’enquête.
  ([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 5226138)

- He had been **sought** by the security forces for the past two and a half years.
  Il était **recherché** depuis deux ans et demi par les forces de sécurité.
  ([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 4448297)

- The European Union speaks with one voice, the Commission's, and the Council decides, by majority voting, i.e. the exact arrangement **sought** by the federalists.
  Là, l'Union européenne parle d'une seule voix, celle de la Commission et le Conseil décide, à la majorité, soit exactement le cas de figure **recherché** par les fédéralistes.
  ([Europarl v8](https://www.statmt.org/europarl/) · Source: European Parliament proceedings, Europarl v8 (Koehn 2005) via OPUS (Tiedemann 2012) · checked, professional translation · segment 1732102)

## More sentences

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

- He **sought** serenity, closeted in study, remote from the wear and tear of the world.
  Il cherchait la sérénité, enfermé dans l'étude, loin du bruit et de l'agitation du monde.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by sacredceltic and sacredceltic · checked, community translation · [\#961786](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/961786) [\#961821](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/961821))

- Dan needed money and **sought** financial relief from his father.
  Dan avait besoin d'argent et a demandé une aide financière auprès de son père.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by Amastan and Scorpionvenin14 · checked, community translation · [\#4025151](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/4025151) [\#4025500](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/4025500))

- Tom **sought** advice from his family.
  Tom sollicita l'avis de sa famille.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by Amastan and Scorpionvenin14 · checked, community translation · [\#4588146](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/4588146) [\#4588170](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/4588170))

## 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=sought).


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.