Matching game
Consacrer un écrivain: dedicate time or establish a reputation?
Distinguish French consacrer du temps à, consacrer une étude à and un prix consacre un écrivain through contextual matching and a short reading check.
- C2
- 6 pairs
- Tap to match
- Learn this in the C2 notebook →
In short
Consacrer du temps à means devote time to; un prix consacre un écrivain means a prize establishes or confirms a writer’s reputation. The object and surrounding context decide the sense. The noun consécration likewise has several uses, including literary recognition and a religious ceremony.
Yellow the idea to rememberBlue French to learn
Do not translate the verb before identifying its object. In elle consacre deux heures à cette lecture, the resource being devoted is two hours. In elle consacre une étude à cette œuvre, the study is devoted to the work. In ce prix consacre sa carrière, the prize gives authoritative recognition to a career; nobody is donating a quantity of time.
Tap one on the left, then its partner on the right.
Bref commentaire littéraire
Reconnaissance et lecture
Le prix a consacré l’écrivaine auprès d’un large public. La revue lui consacre maintenant un dossier, et plusieurs lecteurs disent consacrer davantage de temps à ses premiers livres. Ces trois emplois ne désignent ni la même action ni le même acteur.
A commentary can then ask what kind of authority the recognition carries. A prize, a critical institution and a community of readers do not act in identical ways. Explaining that distinction requires evidence about the situation; the verb alone does not prove literary merit, sales or universal acceptance.