Rapport de stage : Expressions and proverbs in English vs French

Durant le stage en Irlande il fallait rédiger un rapport de stage ayant pour problématique une comparaison de traduction français/anglais. Mon sujet porte sur les expressions, idiomes et proverbes.... Bonne lecture

INTRODUCTION

When you spend some time in a foreign country, you understand very quickly that the communication isn’t always simple, as every language has its own particularities and structures. But the language is also representative of the country and its inhabitants. It lives along with them and vehicles their mentality, their culture, their history, and their traditions…. a whole part of themselves. That’s why languages are so different from each other, even if they have common origins and if their roads have met throughout history, influencing each other at those occasions. A language is lively and is in perpetual evolution, because the people who speak it are lively and in perpetual evolution!
Popular expressions, proverbs, are used daily to express feelings, hopes, warnings, tips, opinions…. The list of things they can express is endless, as is the number of expressions and proverbs! Some of these expressions are exactly the same in French, some don’t use exactly the same terms but can be guessed, and some necessitate a real work on them to understand their meaning and, then, find the French equivalent (if there is one!). In English, as in French, expressions and proverbs have a huge importance and a great usefulness in communication the translator has to be aware of…because each expression carries a message and it has to be respected in the translation.
The aim of this report is not to give an endless and complex list of expressions and proverbs (that would be impossible anyway!), but to try establishing links between English expressions used frequently and their French equivalent, and compare their meanings, regarding some cultural and historical particularities of both French and English.
This work shall be done in three main parts: the first one deals mainly with famous common proverbs and expressions that can be translated word for word into French or at last which translation is the same than the initial one. The expressions in the second part are divided into four sections – the ones mentioning animals, food, cooking, the ones expressing states, feelings and a last section containing the unclassified ones – while the third part deals with more difficult expressions that necessitate a work on the context they are used in, and on their meaning, to be translated.

I. Expressions having an identical equivalence in French


1) Popular and famous proverbs

First of all, it is important to define clearly the nature of a proverb: ”n. a short familiar sentence expressing a moral lesson or something supposed to be true.[1]”
There are thousands of proverbs, in every language, in every country. But some of the most common ones exist in many languages; they are universal.

For example, “unity makes strength” has to be translated word for word with « l’union fait la force ». This proverb, meaning that when people are united, they are stronger, has exactly the same meaning and the same message for both the French man and the English man. Or “better late than never” is in French “Mieux vaut tard que jamais” and the French for “Prevention is better than cure” is “Mieux vaut prévenir que guérir”. Their word for word translation doesn’t affect their deep message.

“To throw pearls before swine” in French: “C’est donner des perles à des cochons!” presents a slight difference. The word for word translation from English into French would be: “C’est jeter des perles devant des cochons” and from French into English: “To give pearls to swine”. The English says “to throw” and uses the preposition “before” where the French uses “to give” and the preposition “to”. However, this is irrelevant for the translator, as the meaning of the proverb is so clear in English that the French proverb, using the same keywords (“pearls” and “swine”), immediately comes into mind. The difference here is in the vocabulary, but doesn’t affect the message.



2) Common expressions

Expressions are not proverbs; proverbs generally are fixed in the language and the tradition, whereas expressions are constantly evolving with people and many of them could be considered as popular sayings. An expression used fifty years ago has big chances to disappear with the rise of a new generation who will invent and create a new way of speaking. For example, young people deliberately use words from their creation so that the parents cannot understand them (take for example the SMS language). It’s their way of expressing their desire of freedom and intimacy. Also, people from a particular area or in particular context at a particular time will create their own expressions and ways of speaking to recognize each other as part of a social and cultural group.
By doing that, those people, without realizing it, make their language evolve and make their mentality part of the national culture when their expressions become of every day use for the whole country! And so the next generation will have to create itself new expressions, etc…permanent evolution. And that is less true for proverbs, also there always are exceptions.

Common (and polite) expressions are used daily by different people, in different contexts…and in different countries, to express various things. “We are all in the same boat” is a saying used to speak about people who are together in a difficult situation and where they should be united because they all have to go through it. It’s also used to reassure one member of the group who is discouraged; someone will tell him “We are all in the same boat” so he can see that he’s not the only one to suffer or to be afraid. The French expression is word for word the same: “On est tous dans le même bateau”, and the context in which it’s used, the meaning and the message are exactly identical. This expression might come from the time when political prisoners were forced to row in galleys in horrible conditions and were dying from disease, famine, or bad treatments. They were called galley slaves. The word is still used today in English to designate an overworked person.

Another expression used every day is “touch wood” (also used as interjection) It expresses a hope, a desire that luck will stay or come soon. The person says the words and at the same time touches something wooden superstitiously. The words and the context are exactly the same in French: “Je touche du bois”, although the French conjugates the verb “to touch” regarding who touches the wood, or how many people do it, when the English doesn’t. However, there’s in English a derivation of this expression “Knock on wood”, less employed but without a French equivalent.

“To follow someone’s steps” means to follow the same example than someone, usually someone older and that one admires. Let’s take as an example a man who was a doctor. His son decides to become a doctor as well. People will say “He’s following his father’s steps.” The expression and its message are exactly the same in French, but there are two possibilities. The French either says “Suivre les pas de quelqu’un”, so using the word “steps” or “Suivre les traces de quelqu’un”, using there the word “tracks”. So the French has two possible translations for this expression, but the difference is pure vocabulary and at the end, the message is the same.
Also, the translation of “It’s on the tip of my tongue”, “Je l’ai sur le bout de la langue”, (literally “I’ve got it on the extremity of the tongue”) presents only a grammatical difference (the French uses the verb “to have” and conjugates it regarding who’s speaking, while it could say “C’est”) but not in the meaning. In both countries, this expression is used when something is not quite within someone’s ability to recall and say.

An interesting expression is “To be born with a silver spoon”, meaning to be born in a rich family, having a spoilt start in life, in a wealthy, moneyed environment. The French expression says “Être né avec une cuillère d’argent dans la bouche”. It is interesting, because the French uses word for word the same terms, and the context and meaning are respected, but it has to precise that the silver spoon is “in the mouth”, whereas it is obvious for the English that a spoon is made to go in the mouth! This is a good example of one of the most important differences between English and French. In English, a lot of things are unsaid because they seem obvious. For example, you’ll see on the door of an office a sign “Walk in”. It’s an invitation to come in. But if word for word translated, you could obtain “Marchez à l’intérieur”…the Frenchman would never say that! To respect the message of the English “Walk in”, a possible translation could be “Entrez sans frapper”.

The British people are well known for being tea-drinkers, which is actually quite true! Thus, you hear the word “tea” very often in expressions, but as a good example, there’s one commonly used: “It’s not my cup of tea!”, Let’s take an example to illustrate this expression: someone is speaking to me about modern art, and I will say: ”Oh, you know, it’s not really my cup of tea!” I mean by saying this that modern art doesn’t give me special enjoyment, I’m not particularly interested in it, or maybe I’m even not interested in modern art at all. This expression in French exists in the same exact terms: ”Ce n’est pas ma tasse de thé!”, the context in which it is used is the same, although there’s a slight difference: the Frenchman can sometimes use it to say that he may be interested, but he isn’t very talented in that particular field.

II. Expressions which equivalence in French can be guessed

This part deals with everyday expressions that have a lot of common with the French. When you hear or read them for the first time, their French equivalent comes to you easily, for example because of similar terms employed, or because of the message that can be obvious, or the syntax of the expression. The translation nearly springs to your mind, although sometimes they can be tricky and could necessitate a minimum amount of research to be absolutely sure of their message.

1) Expressions using metaphors with animals

In every country, language, culture, the cultural reference animals do have a very important role to play in the communication, as well as in the traditions, the myths, etc… They are one of the four species that lives on our planet, and nearest to mankind. Both species are so near and at the same time so distant from each other, but animals played and still play a capital role in the development of human civilisation, and today they are part of the everyday life of millions of people all over the world.
It is fascinating and somehow troubling and disturbing to see how much animals can behave like men and vice versa. Thus, they are very often used as an element of comparison in the human societies and cultures, and frequently used in expressions, in a metaphorical way, to illustrate a human idea, concept or fact… or simply as a mirror of mankind.

“It’s the last straw which breaks the camel’s back” is an expression frequently used in a particular context: you’re in yet one more unpleasant situation which makes you refuse to put up with the situation (or with things in general) anymore. The French equivalent is quite different, and the main difference between them is that there is no reference at all to any animal in the French version: “C’est la goutte d’eau qui fait déborder le vase”. There’s here the idea of a vase getting filled up and filled up until it is completely full, whereas in English it’s the idea of loading the back of a camel, which can transport huge charges, loading it until the camel’s back breaks; until the camel can’t anymore. But in both languages, it’s a very tiny thing, a nothing that makes the situation explode (For the English it’s a just straw and for the French it’s just a drop of water). You get progressively full, and at the end the things are so unbearable that a very little detail makes you explode. The English expresses better the idea than the French because of the metaphor with the camel: It’s an animal, it lives and carries charges, but when the charge gets too heavy it can’t anymore and his back breaks. Like men, when they carry burdens.
There is also something interesting to mention about the use of this expression: the English often just say “It’s the last straw”, like the French, who say “C’est la goutte d’eau”.

“One swallow doesn’t make a summer” is a reference to nature and to a yearly phenomenon: the migration of birds in winter. Swallows are insect-eating birds with long wings, and every year they fly away from our countries, like thousands other different birds, to spend the winter in a warmer climate. But they are the firsts to come back at the end of the winter, around March usually, so when people see swallows at this time of the year, they know it’s a sign that the winter is over. But, as this saying says, if you see just one swallow, it doesn’t automatically mean the warmer seasons is arriving. The metaphor is clear: if one sees an isolated sign annunciating something, it doesn’t automatically mean that this thing or event is going to happen right now. The French expression contains exactly the same message (“Une hirondelle ne fait pas le printemps”), but there’s a remarkable difference in the terms used: the English speaks of “summer” where the French uses “printemps”, the Spring. Where does this difference come from? It might be that the summer is the best time of the year for the English, as their Spring can be quite damp with heavy rainfalls, so there’s no real marked contrast between winter and spring, as if they were directly going from winter to summer. Whereas in some part of France, Spring can be really different from the winter, and this season has a certain importance in the French culture. The reference to spring time is more frequent in French traditions and language as in the English.

The expression “There’s a snake in the grass” is interesting, as it is supposed to be no snakes in the British Islands. At least in Ireland where according to the Irish tradition, St Patrick threw them all away. The snake represents in the common knowledge and idea, something evil, dangerous. It’s a snake that tempted Eva in the Eden; snakes are not very popular throughout the world, although they are represented in medical symbols.
The expression here is used when a situation seems strange, bizarre, and one feels there’s something hidden, unsaid, unclear. The funny thing is that a certain variety of harmless and ringed snakes are called grass snakes in English. It might be that it is where the expression “there’s a snake in the grass” comes from.
The French equivalent is “Il y a anguille sous roche”, which is quite different from the English, although the deep meaning is the same as well. Literally, it could give “There’s an eel under the rock”. The eel is a snake-like fish, with a long cylinder-shaped or ribbon-shaped body; it moves like a snake in the water, and is so smooth that it slips in your hands when you catch it. It has something mysterious, secret in the way it moves and behaves, like a snake. The idea of the French expression is the same as in English: there’s something mysterious, something secret hidden.

A famous popular saying, illustrating the gravity of thieving: “He who steals a calf steals a cow” can have two interpretations. If you steal a calf, it’s not just a calf; it will grow up and become a cow or a bull or a beef, a source of food and money. Right now, it’s useless, but in a few years it would be useful and could make people live, so stealing it is bad. The other possible interpretation is that if you steal a calf, even if it’s useless, this is as bad as if you were stealing a cow. No matter what you steal, the preciousness or the value of it, you still are a thief and this is grave.
Now French people say “Qui vole un oeuf vole un boeuf”, which seems to have only one interpretation, because beefs don’t come from eggs! If you steal an egg, it is as serious as if you were stealing a beef. No matter the size, the value, you are a thief. The message and meaning is the same in English as in French.

Another good and more complex sentence, frequently used “To be like a bull in a China shop” is a metaphor to express a certain like of tact, even an idea of moral brutality. Imagine a situation where a friend has been left by her boyfriend, she’s been crying all day but you spoke to her and now she is slightly better. There comes someone who says to her that it may be her fault because she hasn’t loved him as she should have done, in other words that she deserved what she got. The metaphor of the bull being in a China shop is clear: the bull is a huge, heavy and very strong animal, in the common idea violent and unpredictable. One has the image of the bull attacking, charging, with smoke coming out of its nostrils, eyes wide with anger, destroying everything around, even killing sometimes. A China shop is a place full of delicate and highly breakable goods, like crystal, porcelain, glass… And a shop is commonly a tiny place, full of shelves. It is easy to imagine the results of a bull charging in such a shop!
The interesting thing in the translation of this expression is the use of the word. The French says: “Comme un éléphant dans un magasin de porcelaine”; it uses the metaphor of the elephant in a shop selling porcelain…worse than a bull! But where do these differences come from? The fact that it’s a porcelain shop in the French expression might come from the fact that France is one of the first porcelain producers, because of the famous old manufacture in Limoges. The porcelaine de Limoges is world known and very expensive. The elephant could also be explained as a cultural and historical reference to the old French colonies in Africa, and the bull might come from the English colonial empire time; India as a main colony and part of the Commonwealth, is a country where some animals are sacred and can’t be touched because of religious believes. It’s the case with the cow, for example; the bull may be sacred as well, as it could represent the image of virility or power, for example.

2) Metaphorical expressions with food, taste, drink….

Food takes an important place in a culture. Countries are known among others for their food, their specialities (or their lack of specialities!), their culinary art. It is also part of the every day life of people, and apart from being a primary necessary need to survive, it plays a social role: there’s no successful party or meeting without any food. It is synonym of pleasure; it is a pleasure to cook, a pleasure to serve, a pleasure to eat, but also of conviviality. Who doesn’t remember at least one family lunch around the table of a sunny Sunday, or going to a good restaurant along with friends, and spending a good evening, eating, drinking and laughing?!

“To be like peas and carrots” could be translated into French with “Être comme les doigts de la main” (or more familiar and vulgar “Être cul et chemise”). This expression is used when speaking about two persons that are absolutely inseparable, united, bound by a strong friendship. The French sentence expresses more strongly this idea of being inseparable by using the metaphor of the fingers on a hand, whereas the English uses two different vegetables, peas and carrots. It may have a link with dishes based on peas and carrots; these two vegetables are usually served together, because they are complementary in taste and vitamins. If you want to buy frozen vegetables in a supermarket, you will always find a mix of peas and carrots in the same package, as if they were absolutely necessary to each other, as if alone, they don’t have enough qualities, enough taste, enough good, so they need the other to exist. This is a very strong expression of friendship or partnership, the idea of a fusionnal relationship.

As mentioned earlier, tea plays an important role in the British society and this drink is more frequently used in English as in French. Another good example of this is the expression “For all the tea in the world”. However, it is not used alone; it begins or finishes a sentence; for example: “I will never give up, even for all the tea in the world!” The aim of it is to accentuate the idea of “never”; even if you’d give me all the tea in the world, I would never do this or that. It somehow implies that tea is precious: if you give all the tea that can be found in the world, it is richness. It is funny to observe that the French means exactly the same and uses the expression in the same context, but the most important richness you could give to a Frenchman is not tea, but all the gold that can be found in the world! “…pour tout l’or du monde!”

“To be above the salt” means to be among those of high social rank (It can also be used to express the contrary: “to be below the salt”, to be among those of low social rank) and the French equivalent could be “Faire partie du gratin”. The gratin is a French culinary speciality, different regarding the areas of the country. The origin of the word to designate the high society in the French language could come from the aspect of this dish: the surface, usually made of cheese, is a little bit burned and hard; it covers the rest, which is the dish itself. It is above all, it is superior and usually is the best part of the dish. But the English employs the metaphor of the salt. It might be because of the fact that there are no salt mines in Britain, and that the British are no salt producers and exporters; it might be that in history, the English had to buy their salt, making an expensive and prestigious good out of it, only for the richest people.

A very interesting and famous expression: “Vengeance is sweet”, or “Vengeance is a dish that’s eaten cold”. First of all, the reference to food and taste exists in the two cases, linking both the concept of vengeance and the concept of eating, swallowing, digesting. Does this link mean that someone doesn’t “digest” (accept) something that’s been done to him until he avenges himself? The idea of sweetness could be related with the dessert, which comes only at the end of the meal, thus an idea of waiting for one’s time to come. Both expressions express waiting, even a certain patience. Then, there’s an interesting linguistic fact: in English, both expressions are used. One is used in German, “Vengeance is sweet”, word for word “Rache ist süss”, and the other one in French: “La vengeance est un plat qui se mange froid”. In both languages, they are the only ones, there is no other sentence expressing the same message. This example illustrates well the influence languages can have on each other, and their common roots.


3) Expressions about health, mental or physical state

There are many ways to express a state in which one is, to express feelings, sensations, how does one feel. Very often, people use metaphors to express themselves, metaphors in expressions which meaning is clear for the one who hears it.

“To have a splitting headache” is employed by someone who’s having a headache to express how painful this is, which kind of headache he’s suffering of. This idea of “splitting” is very strong. Here is the definition of “to split”: “1: To cut or break lengthwise. 2: To break in pieces. 3: To divide into parts.” [2] The headache is so painful that the person has the feeling his head is breaking in pieces. The translation for this could be “Avoir un mal à vous fendre le crâne”, “fendre” meaning in English “to split”. The idea is exactly the same in both languages.

People use the expression “To be on top of the world” when they are feeling very well and happy. There is mention of “the top”, expressing the idea of being high, up, above everything, nearly touching the sky. Even being in the sky, as what’s the top of the world? Is it the Everest? Or is it higher, for example the sky? The French expression doesn’t give any doubts on the height: “Être sur un nuage”, literally being on a cloud, floating on a cloud, has a stronger sense of happiness than the English sentence; it could be apparented to exhilaration. But in both countries, happiness is expressed in terms of heights, tops or skies.

“To be dead tired” literally means that you are so tired that you feel almost dead; you couldn’t move, think or do anything else anymore. The metaphor of death is an exaggeration that qualifies and quantifies the degree of tiredness, meaning “to be exhausted” The French have two ways to put into words this idea of being “dead tired”: either “Je suis mort(e) de fatigue” or simply “Je suis mort(e)”. The second one is interesting: the Frenchman just says he’s dead, people will instantly understand that he means he’s exhausted. But if you say to a British that you’re dead, he may not see immediately what you mean.


“To be fresh as a daisy” is usually employed in the morning of after having taken a nap. It means that one had a good sleep and is fit and well rested. The French expression is “Être frais comme une rose”. The fact that the English uses the image of the daisy where the French uses the rose is remarkable. The rose is usually a symbol of beauty, of blooming, of life dawning, of love… It carries many different symbols.

The example “To be between the devil and the deep blue sea” expresses a feeling of despair and is quite outstanding; the French equivalent expression is: “Être entre le marteau et l’enclume”, word for word “To be between the hammer and the anvil”. This expression is employed in a particular context, when one is in a desperate situation, between two choices that one refuses, and knows that whatever the choice, something bad will happen, with a feeling of complete loss and powerlessness. The English expression opposes two huge notions, two giants: the devil and the sea, both symbolic. The devil is the allegory of Hell, traditionally symbol of evil, sin, punishment, a burning place of nightmare, of pain and suffering. The sea, the “deep blue sea” is a symbol of greatness, deepness, eternal quietness. On the contrary, the French uses a more concrete image, the reference to the blacksmith that forges something by putting it on the anvil and hitting it violently with a hammer until it takes the desired shape. This idea of a man being between the hammer and the anvil is very strong and violent and the parallel could be made here with past executions, when people were beheaded: The head is between the support and the axe.

“To weather a storm” uses the metaphor of sailing and means that one went quite well through an ordeal. In the French expression, the metaphor with sailing exists as well: “Tenir le cap”, keeping going in the same direction in spite of the storm, figuratively going on as usual after an ordeal, staying on the same path.

4) Various expressions

“To toe the line” and its contrary “To put a toe out of line”, is a funny example of the differences that exist between English and French. The first one means to act as one ought, according to rules or laws, and the second one, to break a rule or law laid off. The first expression could possibly be translated with “Se tenir à carreaux”, but it doesn’t express exactly the same thing as the English. It is generally used when one has already broken a rule and has been punished or warned and now is very careful not to do something forbidden again. On the other hand, there are a few possibilities of translation for the second one: “Dépasser les bornes” or “franchir les limites” are an option but have just one slight difference: the line here is more a moral one than a line representing a rule. The nearest translation would be “mettre un pied hors de la ligne”. It is funny to observe that the French employs “foot” where the English says “toe”; were French people laxer than British??!

When someone doesn’t understand for example a vocabulary specific to a certain field (science, technical terms or jargon…), he says “That’s Double Dutch to me!”, he means that his interlocutor is speaking a foreign language to him. The French say the same thing, although they don’t use the reference to Dutch to voice their incomprehension, but either Chinese or Hebrew “C’est du chinois pour moi !” or “C’est de l’hébreu pour moi !”. Dutch people, language or culture are often mentioned in English, through not always very kind expressions “That’s Double Dutch” is a good example of it: according to the English, Dutch is an incomprehensible language! They also speak of the “Dutch courage”…the courage induced when you’re drunk! This light animosity could come from the time where the English and the Dutch were two main colonial and naval powers in the world and absolute rivals on the seas.

There are many ways to express the fact one has enough of something or someone, the most common (and a little familiar) being “I’m fed up with…”, carrying the idea of being full up, like food; the most faithful French translation of it is “J’en ai marre de..”, respecting the familiar aspect and tone of the English, but there are a lot of possibilities for the translation.
But there is a linguistic trap for the foreigner learning English: the expression “To be up to one’s eyes in…” It doesn’t mean that you have enough of something, that you can bear it anymore, it means that you are deeply involved in a given situation. The French equivalent is “Être dans quelque chose jusqu’au cou”, with the idea of being immersed in a situation, metaphor of bathing, and you’re so deeply immersed that you only your head sticks out at the surface. In English it is quite the same, but you have water until your eyes; the metaphor is strong: as you are up to your eyes in the water, you can theoretically not breathe anymore…. The situation in which you are is fretting you, hurting you.

Another expression using a metaphor with parts of the human body is “To twist someone round one’s little finger” means to be able to make someone do what one wants; the image of making someone twist around your little finger expresses in a stronger way this idea of obtaining what you want from a person. It is often used to illustrate toddler’s tantrums or even older children who know very well that they just need to cry for their parents to rush into the room and give them whatever they want to make them stop crying.
For the translation into French, quite a few can possible, but here are two of the most commonly used “Mener par le bout du nez” or “Faire marcher à la baguette”. They have the same message than the English, but they don’t immediately come to mind to the Frenchman who sees the English expression for the first time; he may need to ask around for the context in which it’s employed and the meaning of it to be able to find the equivalent in his mother tongue.



III. Expressions which translation can be problematical


1) Expressions & proverbs having a French equivalent

Although many sayings and proverbs are universal and thus are the same in different language, some of them are difficult to understand, and the Frenchman hearing them for the first time may need to do some research work on their meaning, the context they are employed in, their message, and even, if possible, ask for an explanation on the cultural, traditional or historical references it uses. The translation can be more problematic.

This is the case of the proverb “The proof of the pudding is the eating”. At the first sight, this proverb seems impossible to translate into French. Even word for word “La preuve du gâteau c’est de le manger” doesn’t appeal to the Frenchman, no expression or proverb using these terms or particular this semantic range existing in French.
But if we go deeper into the comprehension work, we have chances to grasp the message: the moral lesson of this proverb is that one has to try something to be sure of it. In other words, using the metaphor of the proverb, if one wants to be sure that it’s really a pudding, or that is good, he’ll have to taste it. “The proof of the pudding”, the proof that the pudding tastes either bad or good is “the eating”. The message is quite clear: don’t judge someone on the first look, don’t trust appearances, but try to go deeper, to investigate deeper to know what’s behind the visible, and you may discover a completely different aspect of the person.
The meaning of the English proverb may ring a bell to the Frenchman, who will realize that a proverb expressing that particular message exists also in French through the proverb: “L’habit ne fait pas le moine”.

“The world is one’s oyster” is also an interesting example; literally translated into French, it gives: “Le monde est son huître”. Let’s take a example to illustrate the context where this expression is used in; a last-year student has just graduated and leaves university for the active life; he’s full of dreams, plans….the world is his oyster! People sometimes use this expression when they speak about a toddler making his first steps and going to explore the house: the world is his oyster. It is always employed in a positive context. How can we find the French way of expressing this idea?
The oyster is a shellfish which shell is in two workable parts, and used as food, generally for the New Year feast. It is very expensive, often associated with an idea of luxury. But some kinds of oysters can contain under the shell one pearl, a natural extremely precious pearl: a great and guaranteed source of richness. Thus the expression carries the message that the world is a source of richness for someone (not necessarily a financial richness, it can be a personal richness: happiness, peace of mind, knowledge, love, success, discovers…) who’s starting a new life (the toddler that walks, the student that graduates, the retired man going at last to travel around the world, someone who’s been ill and is now going out from the hospital, ready to love life…). Now that the context and the use of this expression are clear, its equivalent in French can be guessed: “Le monde lui appartient !” (Literally “The world belongs to him/her”).

In the same range, the lovely expression “You’d think butter wouldn’t melt in his/her mouth” necessitates the same work. People use it when they speak about someone, generally a little child who looks simply angelic (well-behaved, quiet, well brought up, polite…). But it is also used to speak about unsuspicious persons; let’s take an extreme example. Imagine someone that everybody likes, an always charming, nice and respectful person. But suddenly the truth comes out: this person is a murderer. Neighbours are in shock and may say around “I just can’t believe it, he was such a lovely man, you’d thought butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth!”
The French expression is “On lui donnerait le bon Dieu sans confession!” word for word: “you would give him God without confession”; he wouldn’t need to confess to go to Heaven, because he such a good person he doesn’t have anything to confess.

The translation of the expression “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” is more problematical. At the first sight, the Frenchman would recognize the key-words “can’t teach”, “old” and “new tricks” and translate it with the French expression:”Ce n’est pas à un vieux singe qu’on apprend à faire des grimaces”. But this is tricky because if we take a closer look at these two expressions, a slight difference appears.
The English sentence says that you can’t teach something new to an old dog (the dog being of course a metaphor of an elderly person); why? Two possibilities: either that’s the fact that he’s too old to be taught something new, it would be too difficult for him, or that’s because he’s old, he’s not interested in new tricks, in the modern things that interest youth. It could be used for example to say that you can’t teach a ninety years old man how to surf on the Web!
The French sentence doesn’t exactly express the same thing; it says that you can’t teach an old monkey how to screw his face up. Monkeys are famous for being the grimaces specialists among all animals, and an old monkey may best know all of them! Thus, you can’t teach him how to screw his face up because he already knows it very well. You won’t teach German to a retired interpreter who’s bilingual French/German, for example! Or teaching a retired pastrycook how to bake a cake!
But there’s no equivalent expression in French carrying the same message as in “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”, and vice versa in English as in ”Ce n’est pas à un vieux singe qu’on apprend à faire des grimaces”, can we consider them as equivalents in the translation?

When you “think the world of someone” (or something), it means that you have a very high opinion of that person (or that thing). The Frenchman would rather say in that case: “Penser le plus grand bien de quelqu’un ou de quelque chose”, but it is interesting to see that the English uses the term “world”, a heavy notion, expressing a strong idea of trust and extremely good opinion. There is another expression in English expressing this idea: “to think highly of”, translated into French with “faire grand cas de”; there is a difference though in this translation. “Faire grand cas de” has sometimes a slightly pejorative tone; it can be used either to make fun of someone who exaggerates the admiration one has for a person or a thing, who repeats it over and over again, or to show that you disapprove with one’s opinions or tastes, in an ironical, sarcastic way.

“To take French leave” means to depart secretly without any warning, in an impolite way. The amusing fact about this expression is that, to express exactly the same idea, the French say “Filer à l’anglaise”…. “To take English leave”. It seems obvious that past rivalries deeply affected the languages and the mentalities on both parts of the Channel!

Death is and had always been a major concern and issue for human beings who need to express their feelings towards it, a fact that’s visible for example through arts (literature, paintwork, music….), or in the proverbs and expressions. Of course, some of them are very lofty and literary and some are less…elegant. For example, “to kick the bucket” is a highly colloquial expression to describe the decease. It is almost impossible for the Frenchman to understand what it means (literally “Donner un coup de pied dans le seau ????”) unless someone tells him and specifies the popular and colloquial nature of it. Now that he has the keys to understand the deep meaning and the context in which it is used, he can consider the different possibilities of equivalence his mother tongue: the best equivalent French expression is “Passer l’arme à gauche” (word for word “To put the weapon on the left side”), extremely colloquial in the French language too, but not rude. It might have its roots in wars or fights, when, after a man had died, his fellows would put the dead’s right hand on his heart (sometimes even with the weapon between the hand and the heart, as the majority of people were and are right-handed, most of these fighters would carry their weapon with the right hand) to honour for example his bravery and courage, or, as a reference to the Christ, they would cross the dead’s arms on his chest. By doing this, the weapon would be on the left side of the body.
The English for example also uses the expression “To push up the daisies” to simply say “to be dead”. It is different from “to kick the bucket”, which happens at the moment you are dying, the instant of your death, whereas when one “pushes up the daisies”, he’s already dead and buried. There doesn’t seem to be an equivalent in French for this expression.

2) Expressions that cannot be translated at all

Despite a complete and deepened work for the translation on the meaning and the context of a saying or an expression, it is not always possible to find the equivalent from the English into French. There exist hundreds of these “untranslatable” expressions, but in this part we shall concentrate on merely a few of them.

“To keep up with the Jones’s” is quite redundant and common in the English language; it voices possibly a certain criticism towards the consumer society. The idea is that when someone “keeps up with the Jones’s”, he basically needs everything his neighbours have. For example, Mr X lives next door from Mr Y; if Mr Y buys the newest car, then Mr X will buy a new car as well, to be at the same level as his neighbour. “Jones” is a frequent surname in English-speaking countries, like “Dupont” or “Martin” in France, and the use of this name in the expression gives the idea of “Mr Everybody”.
There’s no equivalent in French; it could possibly be translated with “faire comme tout le monde” or “faire comme Monsieur Tout-le-Monde”, although these are absolutely no idioms. The translator will have to express the same idea in his own words.

There are the same obstacles with the expression “To kick against the pricks”,. First of all, to make sure the meaning is clear, we need to define the term “pricks”; it is synonym here of “goad”: “Goad: 1- A sharp-pointed stick for driving cattle. (2- Something that drives a person to action). Also verb: to urge on to action; to torment, to annoy.” [3] The expression “to kick against the pricks” means that you resist when you can only hurt yourself by doing so. After researching, it appears that there is no French expression that puts this idea into words; the same reformulating process will be necessary in order to translate without distorting the original message.

When one is “not able to see the wood for the trees”, it means that one doesn’t understand exactly the nature and the purpose of something (a situation, a fact, etc…) especially because of too much concern with the details of it. Basically, it could simply mean that one is lost, which could be translated with the French idiom “Être dans le brouillard” or the verb “Tâtonner”. But these don’t express exactly the same idea; the first rightly means “to be lost”, whereas the verb “tâtonner”(to feel one’s way, and, figuratively, to grope) contains the idea of not being able indeed to clearly distinguish things (purposes or nature, for example), but there’s still a progression; in other words, although you are groping, feeling your way, you nevertheless move forward.

Finally, the expression “to eat one’s words” is a trap for the Frenchman; it is tempting to translate it word for word with “Manger ses mots”, which means not to articulate correctly (literally “To swallow one’s words.”). But humbly admitting that one was mistaken by saying something is the real meaning of the English sentence. As there’s no equivalent in French for this expression, we will have to translate it in our own words, for example:”reconnaitre humblement que l’on a tort”, or “Admettre humblement s’être trompé.” There are many possible ways to formulate this idea.


CONCLUSION


Idiomatical expressions, proverbs, sayings, are an important part of a language. They express many different things, often in a funny way, using metaphors or images, which makes them quite complicated to translate into another language. If some use word for word (or nearly) the same terms as in the French equivalent expression, others are more complicated to translate, as we could see in this report. Although only a very weak number of examples (regarding the number of expressions that exists) have been taken here, these examples may be quite representative of the variety of things sayings or idioms can express and the variety in their levels of difficulty, but also are some of the most frequent, as “everyday expressions”.
Idioms, sayings, proverbs can be traps even if some seem to look the same as in French. It is not so the form that matters, but the message. The translator has a moral and linguistic obligation to respect the meaning of the expression, and then transcribe the message as faithfully as possible. If the translation doesn’t basically express the original idea, the original message, then can it be considered as a translation? That is why, if the English expression has absolutely no equivalence in French, it won’t be translated with an expression that “sounds good” or sounds a little identical, but it will reformulated into words that don’t form any expression in French, just a basic sentence. In the translator’s own words (that is also why the same text can be translated in hundreds of different ways and words: a translator is a human being, and every one of us is different…. Each translator is unique, and so is each translation), but of course, even in its own words, he has to respect the tone of the original, the type of language (colloquial, literary, current, or even impolite…).
If sometimes, in front of an expression or proverb one simply has a feeling there is a trap and thus is on his guards, these traps can also exist where one doesn’t expect them to be; some idioms look so identical to a known French expression that it is tempting. But at the end, the deep message is not the same; the example of “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” is the perfect illustration of that fact and a typical trap. Now, there could be a discussion about it to decide if finally this expression can or not be translated with “Ce n’est pas à un vieux singe que l’on apprend à faire des grimaces”. Some might think the French expresses the same idea, has the same message, others not, and it might not end with a compromise… the debate might quite on contrary be endless!
And that is exactly what translation, communication, language is about: sharing ideas, experiences, examples, opinions; discussing endlessly about a possible translation, debating on the multiplicity of possibilities that a translator has. Translating is exploring a civilisation with its specificities, its traditions, its characteristics, his language which structures the mind and the mentality of the people who speak it and then linking it with one’s own civilisation, way of thinking.
Translating is bringing people and cultures together.


SOURCES



¶ The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

¶ The Chambers Dictionary 1995, Chancellor Press

¶ The Everyday Roget’s Thesaurus of Synonyms & Antonyms, Galley Press, 1972

¶ Dictionnaire Hachette, Hachette, 1998

¶ Le Dictionnaire des Synonymes, Références Larousse, 1977

¶ Expressions et Locutions allemandes, Françoise Tard, Coll. Bordas Langues, Bordas, 1994

¶ Many (very patient!) Irish people, newspapers, films, TV-programs, novels

[1] Chambers Harrap Handy Dictionary, Chancellor Press, 1995
[2] Chambers Harrap Handy Dictionary, Chancellor Press, 1995
[3] Chambers Harrap Handy Dictionary, Chancellor Press, 1995