Richard’s ongoing bilingual compendium, readers’ input is actively sought.
Bête noire means pet hate, pet peeve, bugbear. One pet hate
we all have in our respective mother tongues is tautology
(redundancy, needless repetition, pléonasme in French). Of
course, tautology can be used for comic, ironic or emphatic
effect, but in general it tends to irritate, infuriate or provoke
heated debate. Please email me your favourite examples of
tautology, in either language, and we’ll put them to the vote in
a subsequent issue.
Here are a few to get you going, to put the cat among the
pigeons (lancer un pavé dans la mare). Since there appear to
be three possible reactions, I suggest the following ‘tri-state’
rating system (rather than a ‘binary’ yes/no system, which is
too categorical). Rate the examples below as follows:
-1= I hate/to be avoided at all costs/mercilessly hunted
down and banished!
0 = OK in certain circumstances (for emphasis,
distinction, comic/ironic effect etc)/not always
redundant/ in any event, I won’t lose any sleep over it.
1 = Doesn’t bother me at all/what’s all the fuss about?
In bold, the offending words:
ENGLISH
• PIN number
• HIV virus
• free gift
• pan-fried (do we need to specify ‘pan’,
unless comparing with say, deep-fried)
(a town) located/situated in …
(commonly said/written by ex-pats, ‘in’ suffices)
• my personal opinion
• pre-recorded programme
(ex-pat franglais for préenregistré?)
• a certain number of (ex-pat franglais
for un certain nombre de?)
• unexpected surprise
• new innovation
• necessary requirement
• ATM machine
• dot.com (do we need to write the ‘.’?)
consensus of opinion |
YOUR RATING |
FRENCH
• au jour d’aujourd’hui
• abolir/bannir/anéantir complètement
• collaborer ensemble
• marcher à pied
• préparer à l’avance/réserver d’avance
• exporter à/importer de l’étranger
• enfin, pour conclure (one or the other, but not both, surely?)
• monter en haut
• option au choix
• un bref résumé
• vingt heures du soir
• voire même
• monopole exclusif
• faux prétexte |
YOUR RATING |
|
Downtime 
