Русское предложение изменилось. Вероятно, француский перевод тоже следует изменить.

Dima, "жить" means "to live" and "мучительно" is an adjective, right? "Durement" in this translation is an adverb. I wonder if it matches the Russian.

Tommy, here "мучительно" is an adverb, too. This word can be a short adjective (used as predicate) as well, but not in such situation.

Oh, there are two "мучительно" in the Russian. The first one is an adverb and the second one is a predicate short adjective. :-)

Oh, really? But I'm still not sure if this matches.

I understand "Pourquoi vivre si durement" as "Why do I (have to) live such a hard life" and "Почему жить так мучительно" as "Why is it so hard to live". Maybe I take both wrong, though.

@marafon, may I have your opinion?

Unfortunately, I don't understand French at all. Let's wait for Marina.
You understood the Russian perfectly, by the way. :-)

I feel like "Pourquoi vivre si durement" corresponds to "Зачем так мучительно жить", although it sounds a bit weird, in Russian at least. "Почему жить так мучительно" in French would be something like "Pourquoi est-ce si dure à vivre" or, better perhaps, "Pourquoi la vie est-elle si dure".

Dima, it seems we were confused by the word "adverb".
Let me ask this way. Am I right to assume that "Почему жить так мучительно" means "Why *is* жить so мучительно"?

I think you're right. We can get rid of verbs and adverbs and produce the following equivalent phrase: Почему жизнь так мучительна ~ Why life is so painful.

I think "мучительно" in "жить мучительно" is a категория состояния.
http://padeji.ru/morfologiya/ka...ak-chast-rechi

Basically, they look like adverbs but act as predicates.

> I think "мучительно" here is a категория состояния.

That's really possible indeed. Though it will confuse most of learners and a lot of native speakers, too. :-)

@tommy_san
You're right.

Почему жить так мучительно? = Pourquoi vivre est-il si dur (pénible / douloureux) ?

> Though it will confuse most of learners
> and a lot of native speakers, too. :-)

Well, life is hard. :) As for native speakers, I think they touch this subject at school nowadays, at least we did. Although that doesn’t mean most of them won’t be confused, of course. :P

2Wezel
You really did study category of state, predicate words and stuff at school? Lucky you! :-)

I’m not sure about predicate words, but we definitely had category of state. ^^' In, like, 8th or 9th grade.

Actually, I don't remember if we had studied those topics at school. I have to check my ancient textbooks. :-D

Люди постарше могли не изучать в школе категорию состояния, потому что выделение её в отдельную часть речи ещё не стало мэйнстримом ;) (традиционное изложение рассматривало её как разновидность наречия)

Pourquoi vivre si durement > Pourquoi vivre est-il si dur
?

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