The French Academy delivered a report on Tuesday, February 15 denouncing the confusion due to the abundance of Anglicisms in institutional communication, and the risk “of a loss of linguistic landmarks”, relates Le Figaro. Entitled For French institutions to speak French, the thirty-page report was written by a commission made up of six academics. The Academy, guardian of the language of Molière, detects an “invasive (and worrying) anglicization”.
According to her, “a number of Anglicisms are used instead of existing French words or expressions with the inevitable consequence of the gradual erasure of the French equivalents”. For example…
– “Go to the drive” : in the case where, by metonymy, “drive” designates the place where the collection takes place, we can speak of a “car collection point” or simply a “collection point”.
– “Click and collect” : the General Delegation for the French language and the languages of France, which works to give French equivalents to Anglicisms, offers various synonyms: “clicked-paid”, “clicked-delivered”, “clicked-retired”.
– “Spoilers” is the fact, according to the definition of Larousse, to “reveal a key element of the plot of a work (book, film, series, etc.), to the point of spoiling for others the effect of surprise and the pleasure of discovery”. In French, we would say “divulgâcher”, it is also the word that Quebecers use, because they do not like Anglicisms…
– The “best-of” is the “best” of something.
– He makes his comeback : his big comeback after a long absence.
– The “Follower” : you can tell the subscriber…
– “Punchline” designates a fall, the end of a sentence. “We will be careful not to use this expression since the French language has the means to convey these ideas; it can do so, by also borrowing from the language of the noble art, thanks to the use in affixing of the name and expression shock and punch”, says the French Academy. So prefer: punch phrases or shock phrases.
– “Give feedback” : give his feelings.
– Found a start-up or “start-up”, a recently created, innovative and fast-growing company. Start-ups are found above all in cutting-edge sectors such as biotechnology and information technology.
– Make data : the most accurate translation would be “processing or exploitation of data”. But be careful all the same, data comes directly from Latin (it’s the plural of datum). Most “data-words” come more or less from English: data-science, data-engineering, big data, data-visualization (also written with s or z). According to those who use these words the most: “Big data sounds better than ‘big data'”.
– One dated or date.
– Go shopping to go shopping.
– “I’m giving you a call” for “call”…