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LEARNING FRENCH

Why is it so hard to translate French swearing?

The French language has a rich variety of gros mots, from the mildly vulgar to the truly offensive - but translating them into English is fraught with pitfalls. We asked a language expert for their tips on how to translate correctly.

Published: 26 January 2022 16:16 CET
Why is it so hard to translate French swearing?
Swearwords have a cultural, historic and political context. Photo: François Lo Presti/AFP

It’s a perennial issue for people wanting to speak colloquial French, but two recent examples from the world of politics have highlighted the problem.

The first was how to translate Emmanuel Macron’s vow to emmerder the unvaccinated – a phrase that was variously rendered in English-language media as “to annoy”, “to hassle”, “to inconvenience”, “to piss off” or “to drop in the shit”.

Going the other way and Joe Biden’s description of a reporter as a “stupid son-of-a-bitch” was variously translated into French as espèce de connard or stupide fils-de-pute.

So why is translation of bad language so hard?

Swearing or bad language has a wide range – from phrases that are vulgar, colloquial and a bit rude to wildly-offensive full-on insults that are likely to start a punch up if you use them in a bar.

You need to know what level you’re going for, but if you’re translating someone else’s comments, you need to render both what they said and also exactly how offensive their comment was.

READ ALSO Your guide to French swearing

Héloïse Prieur is a French language and culture coach who runs the London-based French language school Belle Entente. She said: “Whenever you’re translating something from the less formal end of the lexicon, cultural and historical knowledge becomes very important.”

Joe Biden’s “son of a bitch” has its closest exact translation as fils de pute (son of a whore) and if you use an online translation tool this is what you will get. But fils de pute is a strong insult in French – you would probably be screaming it at the man who has just smashed into your car or had an affair with your wife.

In English “son of a bitch” is not exactly polite, but it’s not a nuclear insult either, which is why many French publications went for the milder insult connard – think a phrase that you mutter at someone who has just slammed the door in your face or landed you in trouble with your boss.

Héloïse said: “I think there are three things that you need to consider

“Firstly you need to consider the speaker’s intent, and here it’s useful to look at things like the tone of voice and the body language to see whether someone is relaxed or angry.

“Secondly there is the intensity of the word of the phrase, whether you’re looking at something mild, in the middle or extreme. This really only comes through having a good general knowledge of the culture so we know which words are most often used in which situations. You would use a different word for someone being mildly annoying or for someone you’re really very angry and aggressive towards.

“And thirdly there’s the social and geographical context that people are talking in. A group of young people on a night out will use very different language to a president talking in an interview.”

Macron’s emmerder caused problems for translators because there is no exact translation – it means to make someone’s life difficult or inconvenient, but it is also vulgar (although not truly offensive) so for the president to use it in an interview made its own statement.

It is also loaded with historical and political significance, harking back to a famous quote by former president Georges Pompidou.

READ ALSO Why Macron’s use of ’emmerder’ proved hard to translate

And Héloïse’s advice for people who want to try out French swearing? Save it until you have really progressed in your language learning.

She said: “For me the difference between someone who has a high level of language and someone who is totally fluent or bilingual is knowing when to use slang, expressions or swearing – because that requires not just language knowledge but cultural knowledge to know what is appropriate to use in a certain situation.

“It’s worth learning these phrases so that you can understand them, and I always advise people to listen to French radio and watch as much French TV and film as possible because these are great at educating you on context and when certain words or phrases are used.

“But keep it in your pocket until you’re really sure of the use.”

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ELECTIONS

10 essential French phrases to help you understand France’s snap election

Here are some of the words and phrases that you're likely to hear during the campaign for upcoming parliamentary elections in France.

Published: 12 June 2024 15:48 CEST
10 essential French phrases to help you understand France's snap election

France heads to the polls at the end of the month, after President Emmanuel Macron called a snap election following a humiliating loss in the recent European vote.

If you’re either following French media or talking talking with your French friends, colleagues or neighbours then here are a few handy phrases to understand.

READ ALSO What would a victory for Le Pen’s party mean for France?

Législatives – these elections are parliamentary elections, where the voters are picking their local representative in the Assemblée nationale and therefore determining the make-up of the French parliament. They are known in French as les élections législatives or more commonly simply les législatives (pronounced roughly as lej-is-la-teev).

They are distinct from un élection présidentielle, which elects the president.

Scrutin – Scrutin, pronounced scroo-tan, is a word used to describe the vote. Le jour du scrutin = the day of the vote. 

Sondage – Sondage, pronounced son-darjh, is an opinion poll. 

They are frequently used in French media coverage of elections and provide a guide as to which issues are important for voters and which candidates are the most popular. 

As is always the case, however, they should be taken with a pinch of salt. Experts note that a number of variables can influence the result of a poll, including timing, phrasing, whether it is conducted online or in-person and the make-up of the sample. 

READ ALSO Who can vote in France’s snap parliamentary elections?

Aux urnes – Classic history rears its head every time there’s an election in France, with this snappy, headline-friendly term that dates back to antiquity.

Aux urnes – pronounced ohz urns – is the act of voting itself, and references the ancient Greek manner of voting, in which light or dark-coloured pebbles were placed into an urn to indicate a voter’s intentions. It basically means ‘to the ballot box’, but because its phrasing echoes the French national anthem’s famous line of Aux armes citoyens it’s used as a rallying call for people to vote.

Taux de participation – Taux de participation, pronounced toe de parti sipass-ion, literally means ‘rate of participation’. 

In an electoral context, this is used to describe the voter turnout – the percentage of the voting age population who cast their vote during an election. 

READ ALSO A voté: How to register and cast your vote in France

Voter turnout tends to be significantly lower in legislative, municipal and EU parliament elections in France – June’s European elections, the result of which in France prompted Macron to call the snap parliamentary poll, saw a turnout of 51.49 percent, one-and-a-half points higher than in 2019.

The opposite of a taux de participation is a taux d’abstention – toe dab-stenss-ion – abstention rate. 

Premier tour/ deuxieme tour – As in presidential elections in French parliamentary elections, there are two rounds of voting. These rounds are referred to as tours, pronounced tore. 

In the first round (June 30th) the electorate can cast their vote for any of the official candidates.  

If any of these candidates win an absolute majority in the first round of the election (more than 50 percent of the vote) then there is no need for a second round. If no-one gets 50 percent, the top-scoring candidates from this first round then face off in a second round (July 7th), with the highest scoring candidate winning.

In presidential elections only the two highest scorers from round one go through to round two. However in parliamentary elections anyone who got more than 12.5 percent of the vote goes through to the second round – so second rounds can be a three or even four-person run-off.

Dissolution – Britons in France, cast your mind back to history lessons in school, and Henry VIII’s ‘dissolution of the monasteries’, and you’ll be on the right sort of lines. In 21st-century French political terms ‘dissolution’ – pronounced diss-o-loose-eon – means winding up, or termination of the current parliament to prepare for the election.

READ ALSO Macron dissolves parliament and calls elections after big EU vote defeat

Front republicain – The concept of a ‘Front republicain’ – pronounced front re-publee-cahn – is far from new. It’s the idea that, when necessary, France’s mainstream parties put aside their differences in order to combat extremists, particularly those among the far-right movement.

It has been seen in the second round of the presidential elections of 2017 and 2022, when the final candidates were far-right leader Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron – and in that context plenty of people who detest Macron and all that he stands for cast their vote for him because they considered the alternative, a far-right president of France, was much worse.

For these parliamentary elections, the Front Républicain is more to do with political parties and essentially involves parties making agreements not to run candidates against each other in certain constituencies, to avoid splitting the vote and allowing in  a Rassemblement National candidate.

It’s sometimes also known as a Front populaire.

READ ALSO What happens next as France heads for snap elections?

Pari fou – This is not a standard election phrase, admittedly. Pari fou – pronounced, pretty much as it’s written, parry foo – means crazy bet. 

It has been used to describe Macron’s decision to go to the polls – and it has the advantage of being short and snappy, so newspaper subs love it because it makes for a punchy headline.

Barrage – Another non-standard French electioneering term. A barrage – pronounced bah-rarjh – is a dam.

In today’s politics, it is being used to describe efforts to block the electoral path to power for the far-right parties. As in the headline: Emmanuel Macron appelle les électeurs à se rendre aux urnes pour faire barrage à l’extrême droite – Emmanuel Macron calls on voters to go to the polls to block the far right.

READ ALSO Macron asks backing from all ‘able to say no to extremes’ in snap vote

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