Forum Language Subject French - No english equivalent

I found that list quite interesting, although I already knew the meanings in French of the more general terms. Also, a lot of them DO have English translations, it seems to have been written by someone with a limited understanding of English, here are some examples:

la superficie: "acreage" is given as a translation, it actually translates better as "surface area"
les lunettes: a bizarre and non-existent example is given in ENGLISH - "replace the glasses of the glasses" - this should be "lenses"
une caricature: This exists in English as a loanword from French and is widely understood
l'escroquerie: half a dozen English synonyms are listed, so clearly it does translate into English
le bricolage: DIY, a better example here would be "le système D" which does not accurately translate into English
crépu (adj): This does translate into English, it means "tightly curled" as in hair, and an accurate English translation would be "kinky" (but be careful with this one, it has another meaning)
la gourmandise: greed for food - gluttony, or another French derived word "gourmandising" or "gormandizing" in US English.

There are many more inaccuracies which I can't be bothered to add, take a look at the page and decide for yourself. It is a good resource for students of French, its just hard to overlook the bias towards French.

Comment written by

AndyJM on May 29, 2008 @ 19:05

I haven't read the whole list yet, but when I start at the beginning, I can see that most of the words can be translated into Czech easily and by one word.

patte -- "tlapa", "pracka"
gueule -- "tlama"
bouffer -- "ž rát"
gibier -- "zvě ř ina" (from "zvíř e" = animal)
tartine -- "krajíc" (from "krájet" = to cut), "skýva" (rather archaic, from German)
tartiner -- "(na)mazat" (also = to grease)
tartinière -- "prkýnko" (means "little board/plank")

What about other languages? :)

Comment written by

Quenduluin on Apr 26, 2008 @ 10:33