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D'après les données or d'après l'auteur: what supports a French claim?

Edited by Chris Lee · Updated · About the library

Match French attribution phrases to counts, reported reasons, interpretations and assurances, keeping what a source says separate from what its evidence establishes.

In short

Name the source that actually supports the claim. D’après le relevé can introduce a recorded count; d’après l’autrice attributes her interpretation. Neither phrase automatically proves the conclusion. Use à mon sens when you move to your own judgement.

Yellow the idea to rememberBlue French to learn

Plain counting beads and an empty measuring vessel sit beside blank sheets and a light-splitting prism.
Compare what les données record with what an author interprets from them. Illustration: Atelier

Attribution answers where a statement comes from. Evaluation asks what that source establishes and with what limits. A reliable record of attendance may support a count without testing why people came. An author can interpret that count, but the interpretation should remain hers in your synthesis.

What kind of support is explicitly named?

Tap one on the left, then its partner on the right.

A measurement and a motive are different claims

Le relevé indique 42 entrées ; l’autrice attribue cette fréquentation aux nouveaux horaires.

The log records 42 entries; the author attributes this attendance to the new hours.

The first clause reports a count. The second reports an explanation. Combining them as les données prouvent que les horaires attirent 42 personnes would add a causal claim that the log alone does not establish. Even a questionnaire about motives records respondents’ answers, which should be described as reported reasons rather than access to every possible cause.

Make your own contribution visible

À partir de ces éléments, il me semble utile de prolonger l’essai.

On the basis of these elements, it seems useful to me to extend the trial.

The writer can recommend an action after synthesising the sources. The phrase il me semble marks that judgement as the writer’s. It should still connect to the available elements. Personal attribution is not a substitute for a reason, just as a source label is not a substitute for examining the claim.

Question 1No account needed
A table counts cancellations but gives no causes. Which wording fits?

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

Le tableau indique trois annulations.. The recorded count is supported; the causal and satisfaction claims are not.

Question 2No account needed
How should the author’s untested causal explanation be reported?

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

As an explanation attributed to that author.. Attribution preserves whose interpretation it is.

Question 3No account needed
Does “le responsable affirme que…” establish that the assurance is true?

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

No; it establishes who makes the assurance.. Reporting an assertion and verifying its content are different operations.

In your notes, put a claim beside both its source and its evidential basis. When those differ, keep the distinction in the sentence. Your reader should be able to tell which part was counted, which was reported and which was inferred.

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