Blogue 90 degrés

Dans un monde où l’on accède à de nombreuses sources d’information anglophones en un seul clic, le rédacteur du dimanche a souvent la fâcheuse tendance de recourir aux anglicismes pour exprimer sa pensée. Cette semaine une collègue m’a sensibilisé à ce sujet.

C’est pourquoi j’ai choisi de vous proposer aujourd’hui les équivalents adéquats de plusieurs termes que nous utilisons quotidiennement dans le merveilleux monde du Web. »

Sometimes I so envy the French. You have so many words that perfectly encapsulate a feeling or a concept. Words that have no direct equivalent in English. Like relève. And farfelu. And intervenants. Yes, I could offer “emerging professionals” and “eccentric” and “stakeholders”, but none of these English translations equal the French in terms of succinctness, range and mouthfeel.

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Reçu par courriel : quelques perles de traduction française.

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The most authoritative French-English dictionaries offer a surprising variety of options:

• Québécois (Grand Dictionnaire)
• Quebecker, Quebecer, Québécois (Robert Collins)

Termium offers the same basic translations as Robert Collins, but with one notable difference: Québecois without the second accent on the other ‘e’.

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Your slippery  translation dilemma of the week is chef. And no, I don’t mean the one with the white toque.

In French, the term chef generally refers to a boss, leader, or head. It is a versatile little word that can be used in various contexts. In English however, simply replacing it with “chief” will not do in most cases.

Once again, the translator must become the versatile one to find the exact meaning to suit the specific context.

For example:

• Chef de produit becomes Product manager
• Chef de secteur becomes Department head
• Chef assistant du son becomes Sound camera operator
• Chef choriste becomes Choir master
• Chef de file becomes leader
  
• Chef boucher becomes Butcher, Meats manager or (comically, to me) Head butcher

There are occasions when the literal translation of “Chief” is correct, for example, in chief engineer and chief of state.

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Anyone who works in translation will tell you that there are certain words (or phrases) in French that have no direct equivalent in English – and vice versa. For example, la relève, coup de coeur and responsable (as a title). Or in English, there is insight, leverage and queer, among others.

But the term that causes the most difficulty for our copywriting room is concepteur-rédacteur.

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