Beemer (dr_tectonic) wrote in linguaphiles,
Beemer
dr_tectonic
linguaphiles

Translation of some French phrases

Greetings, linguaphiles!

I don't speak French, but have made a moderately successful attempt at understanding a comic in French using Google Translate, with some added web research for the trickier bits. However, there are a few phrases that I have had no luck at all with, and I'm hoping this community may be able to help.

1) What does "ca va un temps" mean? (Or maybe "ça va un temps"?)

2) How would you translate "Gna! Gna!"? From context, it's clearly some kind of complaining or mocking noise, but would it best be translated as "blah blah", or "yeah yeah", or "nag nag nag", or what?

3) What's the best way to translate "Le plan immatériel" into English? My instinct would be to use "the astral plane", but given that French 'plan' can translate to either 'plane' (a higher plane of existence) or 'plan' (the plan covers all contingencies), I wonder whether there are some connotations of divine planning.

4) Does "passé maitre" mean the same thing as its literal translation of "past master", i.e., someone with expertise born of long experience?

5) What seems like the most likely completion of "si tu me disais ce qui se passe..."? Google says it means roughly "if you are telling me what's happening", but I don't understand tenses and moods enough to know whether to translate it as something that ought to be followed up with "...I will do something about it" (threatening), or "...I would've never believed you" (expression of disbelief), or "...I wouldn't have come here" (expression of regret), or something else entirely.

Thanks much!
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