The French Terms of Order of Events

The French Terms of Order of Events The English word then has two distinct meanings: one related to consequence and the other to time. These two meanings translate differently into French, and the various synonyms fall roughly into two groups: Words commonly used to explain the consequences or effect of an action, like  ainsi,  alors, and  donc,And terms used to indicate the sequence of events, such as  aprà ¨s,  ensuite, and  puis.   Cause and Effect Ainsi 1. so, thus, therefore  (adverb)   Ainsi, jai dà ©cidà © de partir.   So I decided to leave.Jai perdu mon emploi, ainsi je ne peux pas acheter la voiture.   I lost my job, so I cant buy the car. This use of ainsi is roughly interchangeable with donc (below). 2. this way, like that Si tu vas agir ainsi, je ne peux pas taider.   If youre going to act like that, I cant help youCest ainsi ; tu dois laccepter.   Thats the way it is; you have to accept itAinsi va la vie.   Such is life.Ainsi soit-il.   So be it. 3. ainsi que:  just as, like, as well as  (conjunction) Ainsi que javais pensà ©Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã‚  Just as I thought†¦   Je suis impressionà © par son intelligence ainsi que son honnà ªtetà ©.   I am impressed by his intelligence as well as his honesty. Alors 1.  then, so, in that case  (adverb)   Tu ne vas pas la fà ªte ? Alors, moi non plus.   Youre not going to the party? Then I wont either.Elle ne comprend pas, alors il faut laider.   She doesnt understand, so we need to help her.Je nai pas mangà ©, alors il est difficile de me concentrer.   I didnt eat, so its difficult to concentrate. When used in this way, alors is more or less interchangeable with the first meanings of ainsi and donc; however, alors is not as strong in its cause-effect.  It means so or then rather than therefore. In other words, ainsi and donc indicate that something happened, and specifically because of that, something else happened. Alors, on the other hand, is more well then I guess this will/did happen.2.  so, then, well  (filler)   Alors, quest-ce quon va faire ?  Ã‚  So what are we going to do?Alors l, je nen sais rien.  Ã‚  Well, I dont know anything about that.Et alors ?   And then? So what? 3.  at that time Il à ©tait alors à ©tudiant.   At that time, he was a student. /  He was a student at the time.Le prà ©sident dalors Bill Clinton†¦Ã‚  Ã‚  The president at that time /  Then-president Bill Clinton†¦ 4.  alors que: at that time, while; even though  (conjunction)   Il est allà © la banque alors que je faisais les achats.   He went to the bank while I did the shopping.Il est sorti alors que je ne voulais pas.   He went out even though I didnt want to. Donc 1.  therefore, so, thus  (conjunction)   Il nest pas arrivà ©, donc jai dà » manger seul.   He didnt arrive, so I had to eat alone.Je pense, donc je suis (Renà © Descartes).   I think, therefore I am. This usage of donc is interchangeable with the first meaning of ainsi. The only difference is that donc is a conjunction and, in theory, must join two clauses, whereas ainsi can be used with one or two clauses. In reality, donc is often used with just one clause as well: Donc je suis allà ©Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ So I went†¦ When used in this sense, both ainsi and donc indicate a cause-effect relationship. 2.  then, it must be, in that case Si ce nest pas Philippe cest donc Robert.  Ã‚  If its not Philippe then it is (it must be) Robert.Jai perdu mon stylo donc celui-ci est toi.  Ã‚  I lost my pen so this one must be yours. 3.  then, so  (intensifier or filler)   Donc, elle à ©tait enceinte ?   Was she pregnant, then? So was she pregnant?Voil donc notre conclusion.   So here is our conclusion.Qui donc à ªtes-vous ?   So who are you?Allons donc !   Come on (already)! This usage is similar to the way so is used in English. Technically, so indicates a cause-effect relationship, but it is often used colloquially as a filler. For example, you might greet someone and say So I bought a car or So, are you going out tonight? even though nothing was said previously that the so is linking back to. Sequence of Events Aprà ¨s 1.  after  (preposition)   Il a tà ©là ©phonà © aprà ¨s toi.   He called after you (did).Aprà ¨s avoir tout lu†¦ (past infinitive) After having read everything†¦ 2.  afterwards, later  (adverb)   Viens me voir aprà ¨s.   Come see me afterwards.Quest-ce qui sest passà © aprà ¨s ?   What happened later/afterwards? Aprà ¨s is not interchangeable with ensuite and puis. Those adverbs indicate a sequence of events, whereas aprà ¨s simply modifies a verb to say what will/did happen at a later time. There is no sense of progression from one action to the next when using aprà ¨s. 3.  aprà ¨s que: after  (conjunction)   Aprà ¨s quil est mort, jai dà ©mà ©nagà © en Belgique.   After he died, I moved to Belgium.Je vais le faire aprà ¨s quil arrivera.   Im going to do it after he arrives. Aprà ¨s que is followed by the indicative, not the subjunctive. However, when describing something that has not happened yet, the verb after aprà ¨s que is in the future, rather than in the present, as it is in English. Ensuite 1. then, next, later  (adverb)   Jai mangà © et ensuite je me suis habillà ©.   I ate and then I got dressed.Je suis allà © la banque et ensuite au musà ©e.   I went to the bank and then (to) the museum.Il ma dit ensuite que†¦   And then he told me†¦, / He told me later that†¦ Puis 1. then, next  (adverb)   Jai mangà ©, puis je me suis habillà ©.   I ate and then I got dressed.Je suis allà © la banque et puis au musà ©e.   I went to the bank and then (to) the museum.Puis il ma dit que†¦   Then he told me†¦ This meaning of puis is interchangeable with ensuite, except for the sense of later, which only ensuite has. They do not indicate a cause-effect relationship; they simply relate a sequence of events. 2.  et puis: and besides, moreover (conjunction) Je nai pas envie de sortir, et puis je nai pas dargent.   I dont feel like going out, and besides, I dont have any money.Nous devons à ©tudier, et puis toi aussi.   We have to study, and so do you.

A.D. (or AD) - How Christianity Underlies our Calendars

A.D. (or AD) - How Christianity Underlies our Calendars AD (or A.D.) is an abbreviation for the Latin expression Anno Domini, which translates to the Year of Our Lord, and equivalent to C.E. (the Common Era). Anno Domini refers to the years which followed the supposed birth year of the philosopher and founder of Christianity, Jesus Christ. For the purposes of proper grammar, the format is properly with the A.D. before the number of the year, so A.D. 2018 means The Year of Our Lord 2018, although it is sometimes placed  before the year as well, paralleling the use of B.C. The choice of starting a calendar with the birth year of Christ was first suggested by a few Christian bishops including Clemens of Alexandria in C.E. 190 and Bishop Eusebius at Antioch, C.E. 314–325. These men labored to discover what year Christ would have been born by using available chronologies, astronomical calculations, and astrological speculation. Dionysius and Dating Christ In 525 C.E., the Scythian monk Dionysius Exiguus used the earlier computations, plus additional stories from religious elders, to form a timeline for Christs life. Dionysius is the one credited with the selection of the AD 1 birth date that we use today- although it turns out he was off by some four years. That wasnt really his purpose, but Dionysius called the years that occurred after Christs supposed birth The years of our Lord Jesus Christ or Anno Domini. Dionysiuss real purpose was trying to pin down the day of the year on which it would be proper for Christians to celebrate Easter. (see the article by Teres for a detailed description of Dionysius efforts). Nearly a thousand years later, the struggle to figure out when to celebrate Easter led to the reformation of the original Roman calendar called the Julian Calendar into the one most of the west uses todaythe Gregorian calendar. The Gregorian Reform The Gregorian reform was established in October of 1582  when Pope Gregory XIII published his papal bull Inter Gravissimas. That bull noted that the existing Julian calendar in place since 46 B.C.E. had drifted 12 days off-course. The reason the Julian calendar had drifted so far is detailed in the article on B.C.: but briefly, calculating the exact number of days in a solar year was nearly impossible prior to modern technology, and Julius Caesars astrologists got it wrong by about 11 minutes a year. Eleven minutes isnt too bad for 46 B.C.E., but it was a twelve-day lag after 1,600 years. However, in reality, the main reasons for the Gregorian change to the Julian calendar were political and religious ones. Arguably, the highest holy day in the Christian calendar is Easter, the date of the ascension, when the Christ was said to have been  resurrected from the dead.  The Christian church felt that it had to have a separate celebration day for Easter  than the one originally used by the founding church fathers, at the start of the Jewish Passover.   The Political Heart of Reform The founders of the early Christian church were, of course, Jewish, and they celebrated Christs ascension on the 14th day of Nisan, the date of Passover in the Hebrew calendar, albeit adding a special significance to the traditional sacrifice to the Paschal lamb. But as Christianity gained non-Jewish adherents, some of the communities agitated for separating out Easter from Passover. In 325 C.E., the Council of Christian bishops at Nicea set the annual date of Easter to fluctuate, to fall on the first Sunday after the first full moon occurring on or next after the first day of spring (vernal equinox). That was intentionally complex  because to avoid ever falling on the Jewish Sabbath, Easters date had to be based on the human week (Sunday), the lunar cycle (full moon) and the solar cycle (vernal equinox). The lunar cycle used by the Nicean council was the Metonic cycle, established in the 5th century B.C.E., that showed that new moons appear on the same calendar dates every 19 years. By the sixth century, the ecclesiastical calendar of the Roman church followed that Nicean rule, and indeed, it is still the way the church determines Easter each year. But that meant that the Julian calendar, which had no reference to lunar motions, had to be revised. Reform and Resistance To correct the Julian calendars date slippage, Gregorys astronomers said they had to deduct 11 days out of the year. People were told they were to go to sleep on the day they called September 4th and when they woke up the next day, they should call it September 15th. People did object, of course, but this was only one of numerous controversies slowing acceptance of the Gregorian reform. Competing astronomers argued over the details; almanac publishers took years to adapt- the first was in Dublin 1587. In Dublin, people debated what to do about contracts and leases (do I have to pay for the full month of September?). Many people rejected the papal bull out of hand- Henry VIIIs revolutionary  English reformation had taken place only fifty years earlier. See Prescott for an amusing paper on the problems this momentous change caused everyday people. The Gregorian calendar was better at counting time than the Julian, but most of Europe held off accepting the Gregorian reforms until 1752. For better or worse, the Gregorian calendar with its embedded Christian timeline and mythology is (essentially) what is used in the western world today. Other Common Calendar Designations Islamic: A.H. or AH, meaning Anno Hegirae or in the year of the HijraHebrew: AM or A.M., meaning Year After CreationWestern: BCE or B.C.E., meaning Before the Common EraWestern: CE or C.E., meaning the Common EraChristian-Based Western: BC or B.C., meaning Before ChristScientific: AA or A.A., meaning the Atomic AgeScientific: RCYBP, meaning Radiocarbon Years Before the PresentScientific: BP or B.P., meaning Before the PresentScientific: cal BP, meaning Calibrated Years Before the Present or Calendar Years Before the Present Sources Macey SL. 1990. The Concept of Time in Ancient Rome. International Social Science Review 65(2):72-79.Peters JD. 2009. Calendar, clock, tower. MIT6 Stone and Papyrus: Storage and Transmission. Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Prescott AL. 2006. Refusing Translation: The Gregorian Calendar and Early Modern English Writers. The Yearbook of English Studies 36(1):1-11.Taylor T. 2008. Prehistory vs. Archaeology: Terms of Engagement. Journal of World Prehistory 21:1–18.Teres G. 1984. Time computations and Dionysius Exiguus. Journal for the History of Astronomy 15(3):177-188.