[WWI] French Question, both OT & ot

[Mike O'Hare]

"Le Armee De Air" would be gramatically incorrect, so anyone using it would be technically wrong.

Literally translated, it would be 'the army of air' (le = the; armee = army; de = of; air = air).  While I suppose that could be technically possible (though it has a distinctly Jules Verne-esque ring to it), in French, when an article such as le, la, de, du comes before a word starting with a vowel, it gets contracted and apostrophe-ed (le - l'; de - d').  

So it would contract to "L'Armee D'Air."  That still means 'the army of air', just written "properly".

'Armee de l'air' would translate literally to 'army of the air'.  A 'le' in front of 'armee' would be implied, same way 'the' is implied before 'air force' (there's not really a big difference between "The Army Air Corps" and "Army Air Corps" - planes may have just said 'AAC', but it was 'the' AAC).  So saying "L'armee de l'air" would be equally valid

All of which is a really long and wordy way of saying, I suspect your recollection is probably either a little off, or whoever said/printed/whatevered it was wrong, and that they actually meant "(L') Armee De L'Air"

Cheers for now: Mike
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Steven Perry 
  To: World War I Modeling Mailing List 
  Sent: Monday, March 09, 2009 8:13 AM
  Subject: [WWI] French Question, both OT & ot


  What are the names that the French Air Force has gone under since 1914. I ask because I bought a model from a fellow at the flying field yesterday. It is a very ot French aircraft of the propless pusher variety. The decal on the side says: "ARMEE DE L'AIR" . Didn't they start the war in 1914 as Aviation Militare? ITIR, (I Think I Recall), the term Le Armee De Air being bandied about at some point. 

  Can someone shed light on my ignorance please?

  BTW the new model flies great :-)

  sp


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