• HugeNerd@lemmy.ca
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    4 hours ago

    It literally isn’t. Literally, “on” doesn’t translate to “en”, as it literally means “in”. Literally, the “masse” in French here doesn’t refer to literal “mass” as in a quantity of literal matter to be literally measured, but literally an uncountable concept like a literal crowd, for example.

    So, which mass are you quitting on?

    And in any case, to be literally correct the expression taken from another literal language should be literally italicized.

    • Bluescluestoothpaste@sh.itjust.works
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      3 hours ago

      En means like eight different things in french depending on context, so does on in english. Mass also means large numbers of people.

      Everyone knew exactly what he meant because it’s pretty much a word for word translation of the french expression…

      But sure man, it’s really important everyone knows you know the original french expression.