Learning French: Why translating word-for-word can help - or confuse
Sometimes even French people cannot explain a familiar phrase because that is ‘just the way it is’
Ask a French person to explain a phrase and they will usually conclude: Bah, c’est comme ça
Jacob Lund / Shutterstock
When learning another language, many of us are told not to translate phrases too literally.
However, doing so can often help us to remember them.
For example, ‘what is it that it is?’ still helps me to spell qu’est-ce que c’est?, even though I have lived here since 2004.
Many people do the same with ‘I have hot’ or ‘I have 21 years’.
Would you look at that!
One of my favourite French phrases is regarde-moi ça un peu, the literal translation of which would be ‘look at me that a bit’. Have you come across this one?
‘Look at me that a bit’ is used to point something out, with the goal of sharing laughter, or perhaps indignation.
For example, two mothers might be at the park chatting while their children play, when one child starts ordering the other kids around from the top of the climbing frame.
Her mother might nudge the other parent and say regarde-moi ça un peu, before they both start chuckling.
Our English equivalent is ‘would you look at that!’, but the reason I particularly love the French version is the moi, which is present even in the short version (regarde-moi ça).
Essentially, the speaker is inviting you to look at ‘that’ (ça) but actually begins with ‘look at me’ (regarde-moi), which is an impossibility unless you have independently functioning eyes.
At least they are only asking you to do this for a short time (un peu).
French people cannot explain it either
Here in Brittany, an event occasionally warrants an extension: regarde-moi ça un peu, là! means ‘look at me that a bit, there’, which now gives you three places to look.
Ask a French person to explain this phrase, and after an initial attempt at justification they will usually conclude: Bah, c’est comme ça.
Indeed, that’s just the way it is.
There are some phrases and aspects of French life that you simply have to accept and then move on.
Next time you want to point something out to a French acquaintance, invite them to ‘look-at-me-that-a-bit’ and you will sound like a native.
