Just
over a year ago, I wrote a post on "strategic reflections on transversal actions" – the art of turning dreadfully mangled Franglish into something
resembling real English without offending the French colleague who's asked you to read their carefully crafted prose. Having spent
the last couple of days reviewing a particularly dire translation as a favour
to a friend, I thought I’d add a new “borderline” category to the danger list.
“Borderline”
is all the stuff you can just about get away with. Used once, it’s ok. Used several
times and the underlying French becomes immediately noticeable, the verbal
equivalent of discovering a pile of steak-frites hidden behind the Chesterfield.
So
here goes: the ultimate guide to borderline Franglais, and how to avoid it:
- Au service de. As in, une expertise pointue au service d’une approche opérationnelle. The sort of phrase that used to inspire panic in me when I first started writing French. How lofty. How elegant. But really, how utterly, totally meaningless – and, as it turns out upon closer inspection, lazy. In English, stringing together random ideas is considered perfectly normal. Because French finds this horrifyingly non-Cartesian, links are created where there are none. So be daring. Replace au service de with a simple and. Should anyone take umbrage, embark on a smug and lengthy explanation of the relationship between Descartes’ thinking and the structure of the French language.
- Atout. As in un atout culturel, un atout précieux. Frequently preceded by constitue as in X constitue un atout important. Most translators plump for asset, but really, how often do you talk about assets in English, other than when making out your will? Time to be daring again! Replace the whole lot with a single adjective. E.g. La famille et les amis peuvent souvent constituer un atout important - Family and friends are often vital
- (…) In French, you can write long lists of examples in brackets, followed by “…” at the end when you run out of inspiration. In English, you can’t. It really is that simple. Of course, this being a fairly innocuous difference between the two languages, you can definitely get away with it the odd time, should your life, or relationship with your French boss depend on it. However, where possible, replace with (for example x, x and x).
- Adjectival phrases. Hard to describe, easy to spot. All those sentences in French corporate literature that start out with something like Véritable spécialiste des…., nous… The ultimate borderline, because used once or twice, they’re perfectly English. The problem is overuse. Used over and over again in English, it’s a structure that sounds – well, like French.
Now I’ve started, I could go on for hours. (In fact véritable, in the point above, has just made it onto the next list – a real specialist, a real asset… as if the reader would otherwise expect a load of fakes). Uncomfortably, you will find that the worst overuse of borderline words and phrases is in bad French, but it’s generally safer to avoid tackling that one head-on. Just take pride in the fact your English “translation” ends up being better than the véritable thing.
