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Here is the sentence from Germinal by zola:

Once they had thrown his and Catherine’s clothes over his shoulders, he set off at the run, holding his burden up with one hand and carrying their two lamps with the other.

Why the preposition "at". I'm not satisfied with a meaning, I want to remove the mystery and weirdness of the English language which I struggle with as a non native speaker.

Should I compare it with "look at", I mean it's the "at" my problem. I want to understand the meaning as well as the grammar.

P.S. I also don't understand the use of "the run" instead of "a run"

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    Normally it is "at a run" and I've never heard or read "at the run" before.
    – TimR
    Commented Sep 13 at 19:06
  • I asked chatgpt about it. It says ""at the run" highlights the urgency and intensity of the situation, where the character sets off quickly with a clear goal in mind."
    – Nadirspam
    Commented Sep 13 at 19:43
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    @TimR - In BrE we can sometimes use 'at the noun' to discuss a mode of motion or action, often horsy - e.g. we can ride a horse at the trot, the canter, the gallop, and cavalry (horse-borne soldiers) can move at the charge (move rapidly towards enemy lines). People can sit, stand or walk at the slouch (with a drooping posture) and a soldier used to be able to carry a rifle at the slope, trail, or shoulder. All terribly old fashioned now, I think.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Sep 13 at 20:02
  • I was aware of the "at the {gait}" usage with defined equine and martial gaits, but had never heard "at the run". "At the run" strikes my ear as very odd since in AmE it's always "He took off at a run". How would you feel about "at the sprint"?
    – TimR
    Commented Sep 14 at 10:36
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    That's a mistranslation for: il partit au pas de course, = he raced off. It's not English that is weird, it's that translation.
    – Lambie
    Commented Sep 14 at 13:46

2 Answers 2

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We can use 'at' as a preposition to express a state or type of activity. To set off, 'at the run' or, alternatively, 'at a run', means to 'start off running'.

At preposition (CONDITION)

used to show a state, condition, or continuous activity:

a country at war
children at play

At (Cambridge Dictionary)

You have quoted a 2004 translation of Zola's 1885 French work. Here, for comparison, is an 1895 translation by Havelock Ellis, of the same section:

When their garments had been thrown over her shoulders he set out running, supporting his burden with one hand, and carrying the two lamps with the other.

We could go to the original French text, which (I am sure) some people may feel is off-topic, but if you, dear Nadirspam, are reading Zola in translation, you might be interested:

Quand on lui eut jeté sur les épaules leurs vêtements, il partit au pas de course, soutenant d’une main son fardeau, portant les deux lampes de l’autre.

Partir - to leave, set out, set off, etc

Au pas de course - at the double, very quickly, fast, etc.

If you know a little French, you may see why an English translator (2004) might see au and think 'at the', and select something handy ('at the run') but then again, as Ellis (who was Anglo-French) showed in 1895, one may be flexible.

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  • on lui eut jeté ... very nice.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Sep 13 at 22:42
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    "weirdness of the English language which I struggle with as a non native speaker." when in fact it's the translation that's weird. The Ellis translation is much better. But even better would be: he raced off. He set off at a run misses the Frrench idea of racing. and set off at the run, is bad.
    – Lambie
    Commented Sep 14 at 13:49
  • Yes, I see now that looking at the original in French helps understand the use of "at". As for the use of "the run" instead of "a run" I am very comforted to see that I'm not the only one who felt that it sounded strange. What I feel about phrases like that is important to me because I take it as a measure of my progress in the language.
    – Nadirspam
    Commented Sep 14 at 15:36
  • Il partit au pas de course is to race off, we make it a verb in English.
    – Lambie
    Commented Sep 16 at 17:15
  • @Lambie - yes. partir is a verb in French, and Larousse gives Au pas de course, rapidement, en courant ou en se dépêchant. - (rapidly, running or hurrying)
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Sep 16 at 19:01
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Regardless of comments (and links to a very few contrary examples), the reality is almost everyone has always used set off at a run rather than ...at the run in this context, as this usage chart shows...

enter image description here

OP's actual cited example is almost certainly a translation made by someone more fluent in French than English. A couple of centuries ago, at the gallop wasn't uncommon in equestrian contexts, and even now we still speak of doing something at the double (originally from military marching contexts), but those are exceptions. Idiomatically, it's nearly always [move] ...at a run / trot / brisk pace / ... today.

The specific preposition at isn't really significant - it's largely just "syntactic glue" with negligible semantic content. You could certainly set off with a brisk pace without raising any eyebrows, whereas to set of with the brisk pace would always sound "weird" to most native Anglophones.

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    the instead of a here is a mistake in the idiom.
    – Lambie
    Commented Sep 14 at 13:50
  • Well, it's definitely a "mistake" for the general context today, but there are currently 4 upvotes for Michael's misleading defense of a Victorian / domain-specific usage, and 2 downvotes for my truth. If learners want to sound like Zola's Victorian equestrian contemporaries, I guess that's their prerogative.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Sep 14 at 18:49

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