Apr 4 12:10
1 mo ago
34 viewers *
French term
United Kingdom
Sensible solutions
Native in: English (Variant: Wessexois) 
Works in: French to English, English, English to French
pièces à la suite
French to English
Tech/Engineering
Construction / Civil Engineering
Residential (France)
A CANNES (ALPES-MARITIMES) xx Avenue yyyy,
Maison individuelle avec vue mer, accessible du boulevard par un escalier, composée de 2 niveaux non reliés entre eux :
- Un premier niveau supérieur comprenant deux pièces à la suite à usage de chambre et un cabinet de toilette avec W.C.,
- Un second niveau inférieur comprenant une cuisine, un salon/salle à manger, une salle d'eau avec W.C. et une terrasse,
- Un appentis en contrebas du jardin avec un puits fermé.
Et jardin attenant en pente.
Are these "en suite rooms" or "interconnected rooms"?
Maison individuelle avec vue mer, accessible du boulevard par un escalier, composée de 2 niveaux non reliés entre eux :
- Un premier niveau supérieur comprenant deux pièces à la suite à usage de chambre et un cabinet de toilette avec W.C.,
- Un second niveau inférieur comprenant une cuisine, un salon/salle à manger, une salle d'eau avec W.C. et une terrasse,
- Un appentis en contrebas du jardin avec un puits fermé.
Et jardin attenant en pente.
Are these "en suite rooms" or "interconnected rooms"?
Proposed translations
(English)
| 3 +2 | adjoining rooms |
Kartik Isaac
|
| 4 +2 | communicating rooms |
Bourth
|
| 2 | en-suite rooms; comprising .... at the rear |
Adrian MM.
|
Proposed translations
+2
11 mins
Kartik Isaac
Switzerland
Switzerland
Native in English
Specializes in field
Switzerland
The Translating Engineer
Native in: English (Variants: UK, US)
Works in: German to English, French to English
Related KudoZ points
:
8
Selected
adjoining rooms
I understand it as two adjoining rooms.
Note from asker:
| Thanks, that was also my impression |
Peer comment(s):
| neutral |
Daryo
: "adjoining" as in "next to each other with separate entrances and a common partition wall" or as in "next to each other with an opening / a door between them"?
1 hr
|
| neutral |
philgoddard
: Daryo is saying that adjoining is not the same as interconnecting.
1 hr
|
| neutral |
Jennifer Levey
: The usual French term for 'adjoining (bed)rooms' is chambres communicantes.
2 hrs
|
| agree |
Yvonne Gallagher
: I think, without a floor plan, that this is the safest bet here.
5 days
|
| agree |
Andrew Bramhall
: I agree with Yvonne, and your comments to Bourth way too generous.
6 days
|
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
+2
2 hrs
communicating rooms
I expect the idea is to be honest without being too honest ...
My immediate thought is of the chambres en enfilade so typical of the upper floor of longères. Before I bought my house here in Normandy, I visited any number of longères which had the requisite number of bedrooms but generally they included a number à la queueleuleu where to get to one bedroom you had to walk through one of more other bedrooms.
Spelling out such a situation too clearly would not make for good sales pitch. As long as you don't say what such 'communicating rooms' communicate with, prospective buyers are free to dream.
Your text could be interpreted different ways, but I understand there to be two 'communicating (bed)rooms' and a washroom of some sort with toilet. How these three communicate is not obvious, but if the lady in the next bedroom has to walk through my room to use the loo, I might not have any objection.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2 hrs (2024-04-04 14:59:54 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Here in Eure you will find
"1ST FLOOR: 2 communicating bedrooms (1 double bed and 2 single beds),shower-room with toilets,"
https://en.normandie-tourisme.fr/furnished-guest-houses-and-...
For close to €2M you can have a house near Deauville (with pool; you can give your horse swimming lessons) that includes "The first floor also has two communicating bedrooms with en suite bathroom."
https://properties.lefigaro.com/announces/property-calvados-...
Still in Normandy, you can rent a place with "upstairs
distributed as follows: from the landing room serving as a small lounge:
on the left, 2 connecting rooms and bathroom (shower-sink-WC);
right: 2 communicating bedrooms and bathroom (shower-sink-WC)."
https://www.vrbo.com/1134379a
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 11 hrs (2024-04-04 23:15:28 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
I do still tend to think that here à la suite means en enfilade … but it need not always be the case, it seems.
In the following example, à la suite does mean 'adjoining', 3 bedrooms with two walls separating them all. The floor plan shows them all coming off the end of a short corridor.
"Notre 2ème idée, c'est de mettre la 3ème chambre à la place de dressing et de la salle de bain, donc nous n’aurons plus suite parentale avec notre propre dressing et SDE. Cela ferait les trois chambres à la suite, cote à cote. Comme ça, on pourrait profiter pleinement des pièces au sud pour un salon de télé et une salle à manger, et une très grande pièce à vivre du nord. "
https://www.houzz.fr/discussions/5021088/besoin-de-conseils-...
The difficulty is that the same site subsequently refers to this Proposition 2 as having Les trois chambres en enfilade (with the same floor plan), so we're really none the wiser.
Of Buckingham Palace (The Crown) it is said les appartements du haut étaient construits en enfilade, soit quatre chambres à la suite connectées par des portes plutôt que par un couloir…
https://www.vanityfair.fr/culture/ecrans/story/the-crown-l-h...
So we're still on square one.
My immediate thought is of the chambres en enfilade so typical of the upper floor of longères. Before I bought my house here in Normandy, I visited any number of longères which had the requisite number of bedrooms but generally they included a number à la queueleuleu where to get to one bedroom you had to walk through one of more other bedrooms.
Spelling out such a situation too clearly would not make for good sales pitch. As long as you don't say what such 'communicating rooms' communicate with, prospective buyers are free to dream.
Your text could be interpreted different ways, but I understand there to be two 'communicating (bed)rooms' and a washroom of some sort with toilet. How these three communicate is not obvious, but if the lady in the next bedroom has to walk through my room to use the loo, I might not have any objection.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2 hrs (2024-04-04 14:59:54 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Here in Eure you will find
"1ST FLOOR: 2 communicating bedrooms (1 double bed and 2 single beds),shower-room with toilets,"
https://en.normandie-tourisme.fr/furnished-guest-houses-and-...
For close to €2M you can have a house near Deauville (with pool; you can give your horse swimming lessons) that includes "The first floor also has two communicating bedrooms with en suite bathroom."
https://properties.lefigaro.com/announces/property-calvados-...
Still in Normandy, you can rent a place with "upstairs
distributed as follows: from the landing room serving as a small lounge:
on the left, 2 connecting rooms and bathroom (shower-sink-WC);
right: 2 communicating bedrooms and bathroom (shower-sink-WC)."
https://www.vrbo.com/1134379a
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 11 hrs (2024-04-04 23:15:28 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
I do still tend to think that here à la suite means en enfilade … but it need not always be the case, it seems.
In the following example, à la suite does mean 'adjoining', 3 bedrooms with two walls separating them all. The floor plan shows them all coming off the end of a short corridor.
"Notre 2ème idée, c'est de mettre la 3ème chambre à la place de dressing et de la salle de bain, donc nous n’aurons plus suite parentale avec notre propre dressing et SDE. Cela ferait les trois chambres à la suite, cote à cote. Comme ça, on pourrait profiter pleinement des pièces au sud pour un salon de télé et une salle à manger, et une très grande pièce à vivre du nord. "
https://www.houzz.fr/discussions/5021088/besoin-de-conseils-...
The difficulty is that the same site subsequently refers to this Proposition 2 as having Les trois chambres en enfilade (with the same floor plan), so we're really none the wiser.
Of Buckingham Palace (The Crown) it is said les appartements du haut étaient construits en enfilade, soit quatre chambres à la suite connectées par des portes plutôt que par un couloir…
https://www.vanityfair.fr/culture/ecrans/story/the-crown-l-h...
So we're still on square one.
Note from asker:
| Thank you |
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
philgoddard
: French references would be better - we already know that 'communicating rooms' is a phrase in English - but I think this is probably the meaning.
3 hrs
|
| agree |
Daryo
: Far more likely - if from each room there was only access to a corridor you would expect this corridor to be mentioned separately. Like "a corridor/entrance hall leading to room A, room B ...."
12 hrs
|
| agree |
Kartik Isaac
: Better than my suggestion :)
14 hrs
|
|
Thanks, but your suggestion is not necessarily worse than mine: I've given an example where chambres à la suite means rooms side by side, each opening onto a corridor.
|
|
| disagree |
Andrew Bramhall
: "communicating rooms"??? Don't think so, but the asker got it right in the end.
6 days
|
18 hrs
Adrian MM.
Austria
Austria
Native in English
Austria
Retd.T&I, Barrister & Austro-Advokat
Native in: English (Variants: British, Scottish) 
Works in: Spanish to English, English to Spanish, French to English, and 5 more.
Related KudoZ points
:
11
French term (edited):
pièces à la suite; comprenant ... à la suite;
en-suite rooms; comprising .... at the rear
A floor plan is needed to resolve the apparent ambiguity, as a matter of routine conveyancing practice.
> pièces à la suite does not seem to be a term of art and, surely, ought to have been picked up on. Otherwise, two rooms en suite would connote a bathroom connected to the bedroom, as in '... à usage de chambre et un cabinet de toilette avec W.C.,'
... à la suite : to the rear; posterior, Ernst, Dictionnaire Gen. de la technique industrielle.
se mettre à la suite: join the back of the queue, Harrap's
> pièces à la suite does not seem to be a term of art and, surely, ought to have been picked up on. Otherwise, two rooms en suite would connote a bathroom connected to the bedroom, as in '... à usage de chambre et un cabinet de toilette avec W.C.,'
... à la suite : to the rear; posterior, Ernst, Dictionnaire Gen. de la technique industrielle.
se mettre à la suite: join the back of the queue, Harrap's
Example sentence:
en suite: used to describe a bathroom that is directly connected to a bedroom, or a bedroom that is connected to a bathroom:
Discussion
It's not about bathrooms, which is what 'en suite' means in English - though apparently not in French.
"en suite rooms" or "interconnected rooms"?
depending on how you twist the meaning of these words, these two rooms could be BOTH "en suite rooms" and "interconnected rooms". But together they make for sure "une suite".
My understanding is that there's no corridor giving access to two separate rooms, but when you get to that upper floor you have to go through one room to get to the next one (les chambres se suivent). Like "une suite" in a hotel.
A floor plan would help.