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# pourquoi — French to English

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

The Elamur Dictionary has no French section yet; the English translations below link to their meanings where it has them.

Sentence pairs counted, by form: pourquoi (90 102). By style: everyday 5 506 · literary 80 · biblical 708 · parliamentary 34 014 · legal and administrative 2 584 · UN documents 47 210.

## why

Used about 50 643 times in the texts (everyday ≈ 5 506 · literary ≈ 70 · biblical ≈ 266 · parliamentary ≈ 20 550 · legal and administrative ≈ 646 · UN documents ≈ 23 605). Meaning: [why in the Elamur Dictionary](https://dictionary.elamur.ai/free/en/english/why/).

- **Pourquoi** es-tu paresseux ?
  **Why** are you lazy?
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by Micsmithel and kaiperkins271 · checked, community translation · [\#6900625](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/6900625) [\#6775714](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/6775714))

- --**Pourquoi** pas aujourd'hui?
  “**Why** not to-day?”
  ([Project Gutenberg books (Verne, Hugo, Maupassant and their translators)](https://www.gutenberg.org/) · Project Gutenberg, public domain · checked, professional translation · hugo les miserables, row 28988)

- **Pourquoi** les nations diraient-elles: Où donc est leur Dieu?
  **Why** should the nations say, “Where is their God, now?”
  ([World English Bible and Louis Segond 1910](https://ebible.org/) · World English Bible; Louis Segond 1910; public domain, eBible.org · checked, professional translation · PSA 115:2)

- **Pourquoi** est-il délicat?
  **Why** is it delicate?
  ([Europarl v8](https://www.statmt.org/europarl/) · Source: European Parliament proceedings, Europarl v8 (Koehn 2005) via OPUS (Tiedemann 2012) · checked, professional translation · segment 796598)

- Si l'application envisagée est inconnue, veuillez expliquer **pourquoi**.
  If intended application is unknown, explain **why**.
  ([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 1328782)

## therefore

Used about 20 586 times in the texts (biblical ≈ 354 · parliamentary ≈ 9 212 · legal and administrative ≈ 1 184 · UN documents ≈ 9 835). Meaning: [therefore in the Elamur Dictionary](https://dictionary.elamur.ai/free/en/english/therefore/).

- C’est **pourquoi**, prostituée, écoute la parole de l’Éternel!
  “**Therefore**, prostitute, hear the LORD’s word:
  ([World English Bible and Louis Segond 1910](https://ebible.org/) · World English Bible; Louis Segond 1910; public domain, eBible.org · checked, professional translation · EZE 16:35)

- C'est **pourquoi** je proteste!
  And I **therefore** protest!
  ([Europarl v8](https://www.statmt.org/europarl/) · Source: European Parliament proceedings, Europarl v8 (Koehn 2005) via OPUS (Tiedemann 2012) · checked, professional translation · segment 1767098)

- C'est **pourquoi** la totalité du prêt constitue une aide.
  **Therefore** the totality of the loan represents aid.
  ([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 547933)

- C &apos; est **pourquoi** la Commission a eu des difficultés à trouver un compromis entre ces deux approches.
  **Therefore**, the Commission had difficulties in finding a compromise between these two approaches.
  ([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 5630766)

- C’est **pourquoi** prophétise contre eux, prophétise, fils de l’homme!
  **Therefore** prophesy against them. Prophesy, son of man.”
  ([World English Bible and Louis Segond 1910](https://ebible.org/) · World English Bible; Louis Segond 1910; public domain, eBible.org · checked, professional translation · EZE 11:4)

## so

Used about 2 401 times in the texts (parliamentary ≈ 1 417 · UN documents ≈ 984). Meaning: [so in the Elamur Dictionary](https://dictionary.elamur.ai/free/en/english/so/).

- Voilà **pourquoi** je salue cette résolution et que je m'en félicite.
  **So** I welcome this resolution and I commend it.
  ([Europarl v8](https://www.statmt.org/europarl/) · Source: European Parliament proceedings, Europarl v8 (Koehn 2005) via OPUS (Tiedemann 2012) · checked, professional translation · segment 415872)

- C &apos; est **pourquoi** les lois en vigueur jusqu &apos; à présent et autorisant l &apos; application de la peine de mort seront abrogées de facto.
  This being **so**, the current legal dispensation that allows the application of the death penalty will in practice be overruled.
  ([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 18652922)

- L’air pollué ne connaît pas de frontières, c’est **pourquoi** l’amélioration de la qualité de l’air ambiant reste un défi majeur.
  Polluted air takes no account of borders, and **so** improving the quality of our ambient air remains a major challenge.
  ([Europarl v8](https://www.statmt.org/europarl/) · Source: European Parliament proceedings, Europarl v8 (Koehn 2005) via OPUS (Tiedemann 2012) · checked, professional translation · segment 851289)

## More sentences

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

- C’est **pourquoi**, au jour du jugement, Tyr et Sidon seront traitées moins rigoureusement que vous.
  But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment than for you.
  ([World English Bible and Louis Segond 1910](https://ebible.org/) · World English Bible; Louis Segond 1910; public domain, eBible.org · checked, professional translation · LUK 10:14)

- **Pourquoi** dites-vous ce proverbe dans le pays d’Israël: Les pères ont mangé des raisins verts, et les dents des enfants en ont été agacées?
  “What do you mean, that you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’?
  ([World English Bible and Louis Segond 1910](https://ebible.org/) · World English Bible; Louis Segond 1910; public domain, eBible.org · checked, professional translation · EZE 18:2)

- Malheur à qui dit à son père: **Pourquoi** m’as-tu engendré? Et à sa mère: **Pourquoi** m’as-tu enfanté?
  Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What have you become the father of?’ or to a mother, ‘What have you given birth to?’”
  ([World English Bible and Louis Segond 1910](https://ebible.org/) · World English Bible; Louis Segond 1910; public domain, eBible.org · checked, professional translation · ISA 45:10)

## Grammar

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

## 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=fr-en&word=pourquoi).


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.