18-04-2008, 09:27 PM
No language is perfect, and English is no exception. There are always words or expressions that cannot be rendered from one language to another. English supposedly has the largest vocabulary of any languages in the world (7x more words than French !), and well-educated people typically know less than 10% of them. There would be too many English words and nuances that do not exist in other languages (thousands in French, Italian or Japanese), but much less the other way round. Here are examples of the occasional French words that do not have an exact translation in English, or not in a single word.
Words with no specific English translation keeping the same nuance or connotation
patte : foot or leg of an animal (not claw). Used very informally or impolitely for humans.
gueule : mouth of an animal. It can also be used very informally or impolitely for humans, in which case the American words "gob" or "yap" could be used. It can also mean "face" with the same animal connotation. In that case the word "mug" exist in English.
bouffer : to eat, but normally used for animals or in a very informal (and rather impolite) way for humans. This word exists in German ("fressen") and in Japanese (食う "kuu").
gibier : "game", but only in the sense of "(meat of) wild animal killed by hunters".
tartine : "slice of bread" (no single word for that in English).
tartiner : to spread butter, jam, honey, cheese, etc. on a slice of bread
tartinière/planche à tartiner : board to spread butter/jam on one's slice of bread.
fromage à tartiner : soft cheese to spread on a slice of bread.
panade : baby meal composed of and fruits (typically a crushed banana, a grated apple and a squeezed orange) and crushed biscuit or "Cérélac" (of Nestlé).
cassonade : a kind of brown sugar that comes in light brown ("blond") and dark brown ("brown") version.
ravier: small dish, a few centimetre deep (e.g. for custard, chocolate mousse or olives)
écoeurant : the nearest translation is nauseating, but it is not necessarily used for food that makes one want to vomit. It is more common for food that is too sweet or too rich (e.g. in butter). Eating too much cake or chocolate can be écoeurant.
souriant : smiling/smiley, but not used in English in a sentence like "the staff should be more smiling" (le personnel devrait être plus souriant).
caricature : in the meaning of "satirical cartoon". A regular cartoon (or animation) is a dessin animé in French.
chaîne (hi-fi/stereo) : a hi-fi system, but not necessarily "hi-fi". A set, which typically includes an amplifier, a radio, CD, MD, and formerly also tapes and disk player. The componants aren't important as long as there is an amplifier, loudspeakers, with something else and it is a set.
téléspectateur : TV audience, TV viewers/listeners.
journal televisé : TV news, not in the sense of the 'news reported', but only the 'programme in itself presented by a newscaster'.
levé, debout : to be "up", but only with the meaning of "out of bed". English has state adjectives for asleep and awake, but no special term for "up/out of bed". French has two (debout can also mean "standing" or "on one's feet").
lunettes : "glasses", "eyeglasses". The English term is particularily confusing when we say things like "replace the glasses of the glasses" (in French rempacer les verres des lunettes).
montures : "frames of glasses".
superficie : translates as "acreage" (but not just in acres), "(land) area" (of a building, room or field). No unique term for that in English.
jante : "rim of a (car) wheel".
dejanter : verb meaning that the tyre is getting out of the rim of the wheel (used mostly in car racing).
Germain(s) (Germani in Italian, Germanos in Spanish, Germanen in Dutch and German) : means "German(s)", but as the noun of "Germanic" (germanique in French, germanico in Italian and Spanish, germanisch in German), not the inhabitants of the country Germany (Allemands in French, Tedeschi in Italian, Alemanes in Spanish, Deutchen in German).
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