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#127313 04/15/04 01:30 AM
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Carpal Tunnel
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Vous vous ecoutez trop!

I agree with Bill's interpretation on this. "Vous vous écoutez trop!" means "you listen to yourself too much."

If there really was an exclamation point it would mean "stop your bellyaching"

With no exclamation mark, though, it would most likely mean "think of something else to get your mind off of your trouble"



#127314 04/15/04 01:34 AM
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Carpal Tunnel
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Hi lastday,

Yes écoutez has an accent aigue over the first E. It is conjugated with an "ez" at the end because it has to accord with the word "vous"

J’écoute
Tu écoutes
Il écoute
Nous écoutons
Vous écoutez
Ils écoutent




#127315 04/15/04 09:48 AM
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Pooh-Bah
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It strikes me that he was, cynically, being told that he should be less gung-ho; not believe his own rousing speeches. "You listen to yourself too much, mate!"

He was, we are told, a staff officer, not a front line officer leading the men. Part of his role would be to persuade others into danger, pour la glôire de la patrie, not to put himself at risk and become injured to the point where he was no longer of use. Without knowing more about this officer it is difficult to guess exactly what was meant, but this idea certainly appeals to me and makes sense of the apparently unnecessarily callous comment. It provides 'the something missing' that Dr Bill senses.


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