Can this sentence "C'était la dernière fois que tu m'as dit que tu m'aimais." be translated in 2 ways?

Mohit A.C1Kwiziq community member

Can this sentence "C'était la dernière fois que tu m'as dit que tu m'aimais." be translated in 2 ways?

According to the article, to express the previous time - we could use la dernière fois + the clause of the sentence. (la dernière fois is used interchangeably with la fois dernière if without a clause)

We can also use the same to express the last (final) time - la dernière fois + the clause.

How do I know which one this refers to? It could mean both the final time, or the previous time in the above sentence. 

Asked 1 year ago
CélineKwiziq team memberCorrect answer

Bonjour Mohit,

You are correct (and Chris's explanation is very good) although in most cases it would mean "the last time". We've discussed this question within the French language team and we've removed it to avoid any ambiguity.

I hope this is helpful.

Bonne journée !

Chris W.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

C'était la dernière fois que tu m'as dit que tu m'aimais. -- It was the last time that you told me you loved me. (You're never again going to tell me.)
C'etait la fois dernière que tu m'as dit que tu m'aimais. -- It was last time that you told me you loved me. (This clearly speaks about last time we met, as in: it was only last time that you told me that. You may tell me again sometime in the future.)

The first English sentence is a bit ambiguous standing without context. Its interpretation would depend on how it was said and what was said before. The French is a bit clearer about this, although even in French it's not a hard and fast rule.

Can this sentence "C'était la dernière fois que tu m'as dit que tu m'aimais." be translated in 2 ways?

According to the article, to express the previous time - we could use la dernière fois + the clause of the sentence. (la dernière fois is used interchangeably with la fois dernière if without a clause)

We can also use the same to express the last (final) time - la dernière fois + the clause.

How do I know which one this refers to? It could mean both the final time, or the previous time in the above sentence. 

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