Comment peut-on traduire la phrase suivante: 'They would have liked to attend the wedding, but they were too tired to bring themselves to make the two-hour long trip'.

One possible translation of the sentence would be: Ils auraient aimé aller au mariage, mais ils étaient trop fatigués pour effectuer le trajet de deux heures.'Would have liked' is translated by conjugating the verb 'aimer' in the past conditional, whereas 'were' is translated by conjugating the verb 'être' in the imperfect. The past conditional is used for an event or action that had the potential to take place, but didn't end up happening.The student needs to look out for false friends, such as the verb 'attend' in English, which is often confused with the French verb 'attendre', which means 'to wait'. Furthermore, the phrase 'to bring themselves to (do something)' cannot be translated literally, and the French version would opt for simply using the verb 'to make' (effectuer). Finally, the word 'trip' is often translated as 'voyage', however in this case they couldn't make the 'trip' because of its duration, therefore the word 'trajet' is more fitting, because it refers more specifically to the drive.