Native here, yep it is correct and idiomatic. “Je suis en train de [faire la chose]”
Comment on French culture
JayDee@lemmy.sdf.org 10 months ago
I once heard from a friend learning French that the way to say that you are in the process of doing something literally translated to ‘I am on the train to [doing the thing]’. Is that correct?
Camille@lemmy.ml 10 months ago
morgunkorn@discuss.tchncs.de 10 months ago
it would seem like that because the words are the same, but in the locution “en train de [verbe]”, en train has the 15th century meaning of “in action”, “in movement”, this predates the invention of the railroad :)
JayDee@lemmy.sdf.org 10 months ago
Wait, woah, so the term ‘train’ is from the French work for ‘motion’, essentially? That’s kind of a dub.
morgunkorn@discuss.tchncs.de 10 months ago
originally, as a noun, “le train” is “the going motion” of a horse, a human, it’s still used in “arrière-train” to designate the back legs of a quadrupède. “Aller de bon train” = to walk briskly.
In automotive, the “train avant” and “train arrière” are the front and rear axles.
There are other expressions like “le train-train quotidien”, meaning the daily grind.
Genius@lemmy.zip 10 months ago
I’m well on the way to writing that report, boss
Our company is on the road to developing those features
I’m on the path to forgiving you
HenriVolney@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
I’ve lost my train of thoughts
datendefekt@feddit.org 10 months ago
That saying actually predates railroad trains, which were called that because a train meant “that which is drawn along”
grue@lemmy.world 10 months ago
As a person learning French, I think it’s more closely related to “training” or “entrain.”