EN: material to grind / to be ground

beri

Senior Member
France
something else with "to be"

1 kg par tonne de matière à broyer
is
1 kg per ton of material to grind
correct or is it only "to be ground"?
Thanks :)
 
  • Hehe, the French sentence is slightly ambiguous here. (de la matière à broyer could mean some stuff which you use to grind something else).
    But basically I guess the second translation (to be ground) is correct.
    Not being a native, I can't be dead cert, though.

    EDIT : I've found 707 google hits for "material to be ground" which is a fairly good result for such a precise wording.
     
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    to me the French sentence is clear, it's not "grinding material".
    if by any chances, a native comes by, may they please tell me "dead certly" if 1) is ok :)
     
    En attendant l'aborilingue qui tombe à pic :

    1. Depending on the amount of material to grind, Jones contracts his grinders for a minimum of one day.
    (http://www.vermeer.com/vcom/EnvironmentalEquipment/Line.jsp?PrdlnID=3305&NewsID=10789)
    et aussi
    2. It takes a hard material to grind hard material...
    http://www.microgrind.com/news4.htm

    Sentence #1 : here, I think to grind and to be ground would be interchangeable
    Sentence #2 : Very different as you can see and of course, you couldn't use "to be ground" there. (the first "hard material" obvioulsy has an active function)

    Any native around ?:)
     
    to grind or to be ground both convey the meaning, i would usually stick with to be ground though. it's the more usual contruction in my opinion. which isn't worth much hehe.
     
    I agree with Benjy that 'to be ground' is better, although both are possible. I think with 'to grind' the emphasis is on the grinding, as if that is the objective in itself, whereas 'to be ground' suggests that the grinding is just a means to an end.

    […]

    1 ton of material to be ground :tick:
    1 ton of material to grind :tick: (but with the distinction mentioned above)
    The ton of material is to be ground :tick:
    The ton of material is to grind :cross: (because the material is not doing the grinding)
     
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