Just that. I need someone who speaks both English and French. While rewriting a few scenes of my fic (not necessary for the translator to read it) I came across this block. My French is very basic and not up to the task of sounding like a real French citizen. If any of you can give me a hand it'll be greatly appreciated.

The following are the lines of dialogue I need translated. Please keep in mind these will be said by French Aurors in a pretty terrifying situation (ie: being chased by a fire-breathing creature in a narrow tunnel and coming to a dead end) so swearing is acceptable.

Three different speakers.

"There's no fucking way out!"

"That's Potter -- get him!"

"Screw Potter, Dubois! Have you seen that thing? We'll be dead in seconds if we don't portkey the hell out of here."

That's about it. Sorry if this isn't the correct sub-forum for this, but "Support" is the closest to "Help-Me-My-French-Sucks" I could find.

- Nick

 

"There's no fucking way out!"

“Il n’y a aucune sortie !” (polite)

« Il n’y a aucune putain de sortie ! »

"That's Potter -- get him!"

« C’est Potter ! Arrêtez-le ! » or « C’est Potter ! Attrapez-le! ».

The first one can be translated more accurately as “arrest him”, the second as “catch him”.

"Screw Potter, Dubois!”

« Dubois, oublie-le ! »

« Dubois, oublie Potter ! »

« Oublie Potter, Dubois ! »

“Have you seen that thing?”

« As-tu vu cette chose ? »

I find the world « chose » to be imprecise even if it’s technically correct to use it.

“ We'll be dead in seconds if we don't portkey the hell out of here."

“Nous serons tués (en quelques secondes) si nous n’utilisons pas un portoloin pour sortir d’ici rapidement. » (Litteral translation that I don’t really like. Portoloin is the word used for portkey in the french version.)

« Nous serons tués si nous ne partons pas d’ici rapidement. »

« Nous allons mourir si nous ne partons pas d’ici au plus vite. »


I don’t think I made any mistake with my French, but it’s always possible. I'm from Quebec: there’s some minors differences between how we speak, so it may not be what you’re looking for (accepted English words, curse, ...)

 

Totally untrue. More than once I've turned to JWH, and he's always helped me out.

 

Hurray, Tylendel!

I don't have a clue if what you translated is correct or not. French all sounds and reads the same to me, so you could be cursing my bloodline and I wouldn't notice.

Anyway, thank you very much for the help. I'll give credit where it's due when I post it. Maybe some French dude will PM me and say I'm doing it wrong. Again. God I hate French. No offense.

Cheers, Tylendel!

- Nick

 

Tylendel got it exactly right every time, so if you stick to what he said, not even the French should bother you. (Though I'd use "crever" instead of "mourir" in the last one to un-polite it a bit.)

Also, <3 Vlad.


Not so ninja edit, since Hari Seldon raises a point on the believability of the transaltions. And since I have time to waste.

Slightly more vulgar version (hence maybe more realistic, IDK) of Tylendel's traductions :

"Y a [pas de]/[aucune] putain de sortie !"

"Voila Potter ! Chopez-le !"

"Dubois, t'occupe pas de Potter" / "Dubois, laisse tomber Potter"

"T'as vu ce truc ?" (I can't find anything to express the same level of incredulity as in your sentence, but this is my best shot.)

"On va crever en deux secondes si on utilise pas le portoloin pour se barrer d'ici"

 

He did get it grammatically correct, but who actually speaks like that? No french person I've ever heard... Then again maybe you people from France speak it differently then we do in Northern Ontario

 

I do try to speak like that and I’m able to (most of the time)... And Montréal is relatively close to Northern Ontario. I hardly, however, in a terrifying situation.

I have some minors problems with parts of JWH more believable version when someone is in a terrifying situation (“Voilà” instead of “c’est” *— two syllables instead of one — and “Laisse tomber/t’occupe pas” instead of “oublie” — for similar reasons), but I won’t debate on the subject since he is more familiar with the French spoken in France than me and it's more a matters of opinion than anything else.