English term
France
Accuracy and reactivity
Native in: French 
Works in: English to French, Spanish to French
not to avail
A basket was set up with one roll, one croissant, one pain chocolat and one raisin roll per person.
A cocktail/digestif menu was placed in between the dishes, a breakfast menu was not to avail.
Thanks !
| 3 +3 | brillait par son absence |
polyglot45
|
| 4 +3 | fourni/mis à disposition |
Victor Santos
|
| 3 +2 | pas disponible |
Patrice Da Lage
|
| 3 | pas proposé |
Bruno Donis
|
| 2 | être inutile / avoir peu de succès |
Walid Abdellaoui (X)
|
Non-PRO (1): Patrice Da Lage
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Proposed translations
Native in: English 
, French
Works in: English to French, French to English, German to French, and 4 more.
brillait par son absence
| agree |
Sheila Wilson
: The author clearly didn't want to simply say "there wasn't a breakfast menu"
21 hrs
|
| agree |
C-Katrinka
2 days 8 hrs
|
| agree |
Tony M
: I doubt the breakfast would even normally appear in the 'main' menu; but there could have been a separate 'breakfast' menu, as in many establishments; apparently, here there wasn't one... / OK, but your explanation is unclear ;-)
2 days 10 hrs
|
|
that's exactly what my proposal infers, Tony !
|
être inutile / avoir peu de succès
ou j'ai mal compris ?
pas proposé
France
Don't play with words
Native in: French , Portuguese
Works in: English to French, Portuguese to French, Spanish to French, and 3 more.
fourni/mis à disposition
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Note added at 6 mins (2012-12-21 10:12:08 GMT)
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Vu le contexte, je pense que c'est ce que voulait dire l'auteur du texte. Mais je ne suis pas sûr que la formulation soit correcte en anglais (l'avis d'un traducteur de langue maternelle anglaise serait le bienvenu).
| agree |
Catharine Cellier-Smart
: English should read "was not available" IMO. "To avail" sounds very awkward, unnatural.
48 mins
|
|
Merci, Catharine
|
|
| agree |
Marie LE MEN (X)
: yes it is not correct in english
6 hrs
|
|
Merci, Marie
|
|
| agree |
GILLES MEUNIER
1 day 21 hrs
|
United Kingdom
A translator you may rely on
Native in: French (Variants: Standard-France, Canadian)
Works in: English to French, Swedish to French, Spanish to French, and 2 more.
Discussion
Was this aybe written in En by a FR inspector?
It would almost certainly help to know what country this rather unsatisfactory establishment is in — not least, perhaps, so we can avoid it!
Probably, the best bet is to think about which is the most likely error for the writer to have made. It is unlikely that anybody would write "not to avail" instead of "unavailable" but, if the note was dictated, it could have been an (unlikely) mistranscription of "not available". If it was a purely grammatical error, then the intended meaning was likely to have been "of no avail": expressing frustration at the uselessness of the breakfast menu.