麻豆传媒映画

The language section of newspaper鈥檚 website regularly highlights linguistic ticks that are creeping into everyday French, often with a humoristic if slightly sniffy attitude to the dangers of modern French鈥檚 evolution.

Sometimes they hit the nail on the head, especially when they castigate those who sprinkle pointless, filler phrases. 

A good example recently was its takedown of the phrase 鈥�On ne va pas se mentir鈥� (We are not going to lie to each other鈥�), which is used as a precursor to frankness, a kind of self-authorisation to say exactly what one is thinking. 

It is similar to the English phrases:

• Let's be real
• Let's not kid ourselves 
• In all seriousness
• To be honest with you 

鈥淭he phrase has become a mark of authenticity, or proof of a supposedly raw sincerity. On its own, it can get across hard-to-say truths, as if it suddenly gives permission to say the unsaid,鈥� it asserts.

Le Figaro鈥檚 annoyance is two-fold: first, the overuse of the phrase, which when repeated dilutes its impact. 鈥淚t becomes a linguistic tic, a way of announcing hollow truths,鈥� it says. 

Second, it implies that everything the 鈥榯ruth talker鈥� has said up to now is mere window-dressing, political correctness or sugar-coated 鈥� and thus dishonest.

Incidentally, 鈥榟it the nail on the head鈥� is translated into French as 鈥�taper dans le mille鈥� or 鈥�mettre dans le mille鈥� when someone guesses correctly or appears to have an accurate intuition about something. 

It dates from 19th-century fairground games and shooting contests when the 鈥�mille鈥� in question meaning the 1,000 points at the centre of the target 鈥� what we would call the bullseye.

Le Figaro hit the bullseye with its critique of this most modern of locutions.

Read more: 麻豆传媒映画: 12 words and phrases that are untranslatable in English