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A French gradation needs a real scale: arrange the terms

Edited by Chris Lee · Updated · About the library

Read a French rhetorical gradation along an explicit scale. Compare increasing disruption, stronger commitments and random emotional vocabulary.

In short

Name the criterion that orders the terms. Un retard, une interruption, une fermeture durable can increase the severity of disruption. A gradation needs an intelligible progression in context; three dramatic words do not automatically form a scale.

Yellow the idea to rememberBlue French to learn

A repeated figure climbs three steps carrying progressively larger stones.
A gradation needs an intelligible scale. Illustration: Atelier

The first ladder orders consequences for service continuity. The second orders the speaker’s commitment. These are different scales. A rhetorical effect becomes clearer when the audience understands what increases or decreases.

Increasing disruption to service

Durable loss of service

  1. Une fermeture durableA lasting closureThe loss continues beyond a temporary interruption.
  2. Une interruption de plusieurs joursAn interruption lasting several daysThe service temporarily stops.
  3. Un retard ponctuelA one-off delayThe service still takes place, later than planned.

Limited disruption

Increasing commitment

Undertake

  1. Nous nous engageons à financer l’essai.We undertake to fund the trial.A specific practical commitment, assuming the speaker has that authority.
  2. Nous soutenons le principe d’un essai.We support the principle of a trial.A position in favour of a bounded measure.
  3. Nous examinerons cette possibilité.We will examine this possibility.A commitment to consider, not to adopt.

Examine

Question 1No account needed
What orders the first ladder?

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

Severity and duration of disruption. The progression moves from delayed service to lasting loss.

Question 2No account needed
Does examiner guarantee funding?

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

No. Considering a possibility is weaker than undertaking to fund it.

Question 3No account needed
Which needs more context before calling it a gradation?

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

Une lumière, une colère, une pierre. The first list supplies no clear common scale in this context.

The scale belongs to the passage

A delay can be more serious than a closure in a particular emergency context. The supplied ladder defines an ordinary service-continuity comparison; it is not a universal hierarchy of nouns. State the relevant consequences when the ordering might be disputed.

D’abord le retard d’un dossier, puis l’interruption d’un service, enfin la perte durable d’un accès : le discours élargit ici la portée du dommage.

First a delayed file, then an interrupted service, finally lasting loss of access: the speech broadens the damage’s scope here.

A descending gradation is also possible. Identify the direction and its effect rather than assuming every progression intensifies. The rhetorical analysis should explain what the order makes the reader perceive.

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