pourtant
French
Etymology
Univerbation of pour (“for”) + tant (“so much”).
Pronunciation
Adverb
pourtant
- however, yet
- 1837, Louis Viardot, L’Ingénieux Hidalgo Don Quichotte de la Manchefr.Wikisource, translation of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Chapter II:
- Pourtant, ce qui l’inquiétait le plus, c’était de ne pas se voir armé chevalier ; car il lui semblait qu’il ne pouvait légitimement s’engager dans aucune aventure sans avoir reçu l’ordre de chevalerie.
- However, what worried him the most was not having been dubbed a knight; for it seemed to him that he could not legitimately engage in any adventure without having received the order of knighthood.
- 1968, Gérard Bourgeois, Jean-Max Rivière, “Le diable est anglais”, performed by Brigitte Bardot:
- Tu ne me crois pas et pourtant c'est vrai / Mais entre nous tu peux penser ce qu'il te plait
- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
Usage notes
Not to be confused with pour autant.
Descendants
- → Dutch: pertang (regional, Belgium and southern Netherlands)
- → Limburgish: pertang
- → West Flemish: pertang, pertank, pertanks
- → Zealandic: pertan, pertant
Further reading
- “pourtant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012