American eyes needed!

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
Exactly. I sent mine back just a bit ago (I was out all evening).

I love the sense of "other". If you're writing about Paris, you're going to talk about the Rue de St-Faubourg Honore or somesuch - if you're writing about, say, rural Ohio, you're going to have "State Route 54" or "Mechanicsburg-Bellefontaine Road" (that's pronounced "Bell-fountain" by the way). Tulsa, Oklahoma has "The BA" - but in Dayton, Ohio, a freeway like that is "I-75". El Paso, Texas has an entire area of streets named for golfers: Lee Trevino (6-lane surface road), Tom Weiskopf (residential), and others. Back to Tulsa, and the equivalent is 65th Street - and Springboro, Ohio would be Market Street.

BUT... There will be people who don't "get it". (I did get a little stuck on kebabs... Never had them for breakfast... Then I realized that was so not the same thing.) Also - here a tarmac is at an airport, and asphalt/road is what you drive on...
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Very true Step.

Tarmac didn't phase me.....nor did the kebabs. Actually they didn't register as I took them both in context with the story. lol

I have a British friend I've known for many years. (that also may not be helping as she's not all that Americanized) One day when she asked her daughter to fetch something out the the "boot"........she totally lost me. So I asked her what a "boot" was. Of course it's the trunk of the car. lol Now there are many places in the states that would use the same term with the same meaning. (it's caused me to notice) Yet in most others people wouldn't have a clue unless it was used in context.

I imagine it's a fine line they walk with translation. If an odd word comes along and it's meaning is supported by the context surrounding it, it doesn't really register with me much.......except that I might think to myself Oh cool that means such and such.
 

KTMom91

Well-Known Member
Just got mine; am spending my day with first graders, so I'll start reading later this afternoon.

HaoZi, I have your book...and yes, you may borrow me!
 
H

HaoZi

Guest
Thanks KT!

Step, you hit a lot of the same things I did, lol.

Hound, I have yet to hear anyone in the States say "boot" in regards to vehicle outside of the boot they put on it for parking offenses. Where were you when you heard it? I'm familiar with the "boot" and "bonnet" terms, but I was waiting for "torch" and "bumbershoot".
 

Malika

Well-Known Member
I should perhaps point out that kebabs are not standard fare for breakfast in either France or England! The character is Japanese (there you go - these foreigners :) ) and is having an early morning breakfast after working hard at the fresh produce market... so I guess that accounts for the strange choice.
Thanks again. HaoZi and Step picked up on very similar things which reassures me that you both speak the same language! So many small words, that I would not have thought of, are different in American English...
And (sorry Haozi!), interesting to get your point of views re keeping the "otherness" intact...
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
LOL - Malika? What exactly IS that type of kebab, anyway? It sounded like a sausage-and-egg McMuffin.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
I've heard it in the "hills" around here quite a bit depending on where I go. Which sort of surprised me as I'd not really expected it in this area. We have "hills" and the classic "hillbillies" to go with them. It's used often in those various areas. I've only heard it a couple of times here in town. Heard it in a few rural towns/cities in the area too, though not near as often.
 

Malika

Well-Known Member
Any possibility your hillbillies could be keeping large boots (as in footwear) in the back of their cars to store their bits of straw, etc, in and this is what they are referring to? No, sorry, I will stop being silly...
We are getting there with your help and by the end of it, this translation is going to be more American than... apple pie? Abraham Lincoln? Walmart?
There remain a few little bitty questions if I can submit them to the public vote:
1. I am having some trouble translating what is literally in French a "bourgeois building". This refers, in the context, to those old, solid, ornately decorated Parisian buildings, implying wealth in terms of both the architecture and the inhabitants... How, if at all, might this be rendered in American terms? What do you call those fine townhouses in NY, for example?
2. HaoZi had never heard of secateurs - is it because she is not a gardener or that they do not exist in the States?
3. What do you call what British English calls "betting slips" - ie forms you fill out to make a bet on a horse at the races?
4. Do you talk about "castings" in US English - ie either screen tests or auditions for parts in films, TV, ads, and so on?
5. Is "haggling" a term used in US Eng?

This is translation by committee! Very interesting. Thank you.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
1. No clue really. I've heard them referred to as townhouses and brownstones ect........

2. Secateurs I missed. Sorry. But I assumed due to context it had to do with gardening........and while I garden, I'm not that into it to know all the terms.

3. Actually.......gamblers I know call them betting slips. lol

4. Casting- casting call is used here as well as screen tests and auditions

5. Yup. Haggling is a common term used here.

:D
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
I missed secateurs entirely - and I've no clue what it means!!!

I would say "historic building". Or brownstone, etc.
 

ThreeShadows

Quid me anxia?
I haven't read the story yet. If the sécateurs are used in cooking they are "poultry shears", if in gardening, they are "pruning shears".
 

ThreeShadows

Quid me anxia?
If the buildings share walls with neighboring buildings you might call them "townhouses", though I'm not sure that would convey a sense of opulence.

Are you familiar with wordreference.com? You might get a better answer in their French forum.
 

Malika

Well-Known Member
I am familiar with wordreference - out of interest, I searched "immeuble bourgeois" on it and their suggestion was "middle-class apartment building" - which is fine as far as it goes but unfortunately is not a phrase one would ever naturally use in English! At least not in British English... It is one of those untranslatables, really.
How about "exclusive townhouse" - is that a phrase you would use in the States?
 
H

HaoZi

Guest
Stately, elegant, those might work. Ornate implies wealthy owners as well as the architectural features one would associate with the word.

The betting slips and lottery slips I questioned only because it seemed strange to be going over them in a giant greenhouse place.
 

Malika

Well-Known Member
Ha, ha :) They are not going over them in the "giant greenhouse place" but in a bar in the middle of it where people who work there and customers go to relax for a bit... But you may not care very much!
 

Malika

Well-Known Member
Sorry... (HaoZi loves three dots...) One more thing! Author talks about football fields - meaning British and French-type football which I believe you call something else entirely ?? Why you don't call things by their proper names, I don't know :) Anyway, what does the phrase "football field" convey to you?
 

ThreeShadows

Quid me anxia?
Exclusive townhouse sounds like a real estate ad. That descibes the price and the type of clientele rather than the appearance of the building.
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
Yes, to us a football is an oval thing with kinda pointy ends. Soccer, on the other hand, is called football elsewhere. (I would not catch it because we have football... LOL)
 

Malika

Well-Known Member
Soccer for us is just another word for football (for us) - ie soccer to you! And football to you is... rugby to us?! And yes, le foot is our football or soccer and your soccer. I think!! It's enough to make your head spin.
 
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