can some one help me translate this?

[Datka]

La plaine, les haies, les ormes des clôtures, tout semblait mort, tué par le froid.

In this centence I cannot guess the meaning of les ormes des clôtures. Can some one help me to get the meaning of it?
Thanks
datka

[Johnny4eyes]

From what I can find, "orme" means elm or elm wood. So, "les ormes des clôtures" could mean, the elm wood that picket faces are made from. An interesting quote. I gather the author isn't exactly a country boy?

Hope this helps.

John

[_petiteclaire_]

Actually, it's not "the elm wood picket fences are made of", it's "the elm trees (along) the fences". "Along" is not directly written (by the way, it's "le long de" in french), but the meaning is that the elm trees standing between the fields, woods, whatever are in themselves marking the boundaries between the different places.

Your whole sentence means :

The plain, the hedges, the elm trees along the fences, eveything seemed dead, killed by the cold.

Elm wood would be "orme" in the singular (short for "bois d'orme"). Materials are almost always in the singular (oak trees = des chênes, oak wood = du chêne), except for a few old-fashioned expressions. Of course "orme" in the singular could also mean one single elm tree. Only the context, and sometimes the article (un vs le) can help you there. "Un orme" is always "an elm tree", "l'orme" can either mean "the elm tree" (definite) or "elm wood".

"the elm wood picket fences are made of" would be "l'orme des clôtures" (singular); "picket fences made of elm wood" is "des clôtures en orme".