So I'm beginning chapter two of my fic, and low and behold I hit a snag.

How do I handle the fact that, for a good three chapters, there will be very little English spoken? There will be German, Italian, French and possibly some Spanish or Portuguese, but very limited English.

Do I just say "he began to speak in fluent French..." and then just type it in English? Should I write it in French (the only language above besides English I understand marginally) and then translate next to it in italics?

On the one hand, reading the italics can be tedious, on the other, just saying they're speaking a different language kind of kills the flavor for me. Maybe I could do half and half, like translate for a few lines then transition into plain English typing? My character fancies himself a Roman general or a French nobleman, I feel not putting some French/Italian lines would take away from the flavor of his character.

Ideas? Suggestions? For scenes where the language isn't as important to the feeling of the character, I'll probably do the first option and write in English, but I'm kind of conflicted for my Italian/French noble, as well as a few other characters.

 

The best way I have personally seen it would be something along the lines of:

then thought out the rest of that chapter use italics for French. That way you don't have the annoying list at the top. There isn't any double languages which get annoying. (having it written in French, then English next to it)

 

I would use the Translating Charm/Amulet plot device.

 

For random words in other languages, type it in italics in that language.

For entire passages and sentences and whatnot, you have options. One of the better ways I've seen to express this is to type it in English but without quotation marks. I think that novel was trying to make an artistic statement, so I don't recommend doing that in fanfic, but it looked nice if you could keep up.

I think your first option is best, but only if other characters understand the language. If not, it might be best to just say, "So and so spoke in rapid French," or whatever for long sentences. For shorter ones, go ahead and write it in the other language.

I hope I helped and didn't confuse...

 

Another way to do it is different punctuation for different languages. Use "" for English, and for other languages use [], <>, **, {}... although it can be really annoying.

 

My favorite way of languages done is to quote whatever the person is saying in the language being said, and then in italics translate it into English. This way you're giving the reader a taste of some knowledge that perhaps they didn't initially have. If you have a lot of dialog in a foreign language, my suggestion would be to start off as said above, and either have the character paraphrase if he knows the language, or just write the dialog in English and say that said person is speaking said language.

If you need assistance in either Chinese or Spanish drop me a line, and I'll give you hand.

 

A few of the options:

1. Just write it in English. However, if you do this, it really doesn't feel like a foreign language.

2. Write it in the language with the translation provided. However, this breaks up the continuity of the story.

Both of these aren't the best of options. There is one situation where just writing it in the foreign language would be best, and that would be if your main character (the one from who's POV you are telling the story) doesn't understand the language. In this case, I'd suggest not even providing a translation.

However, if your POV character does understand the language, then I feel that the best way is a mixture of English and the foreign language. For example, if you were writing French, the majority of it would be in English so that the reader can understand, but to show that they're speaking French you have the occasional French word that people know, like bon (good) and bonjour (hello) etc.

So, for example:

etc.

And to stress the Frenchness more, you just have to say something like...

Or whatever.

 

Writing it in another launguage with a translation next to it gets really lame to read and a lot of the time your readers will just skip the French/Italian/Whatever and just read the English anyways. And it can get annoying for you as an author because you will have every French native/Italian native in the enrtire goddamn world breathing down your neck about how you screwed up the French grammer here or how another Italian word fits better there.

But not adding in any French at all does take a way a little something from your fic. And writing in 'Harry shouted in French' 'Harry whispered in French' 'Harry anunciated in French' can get lamer then hell.

So I recommend following Taure's advice and adding in words throughout that the normal, idiot reader understands. You'll still get the French feel and I don't think you'll have to write in 'in French' every bloody time even for the always confused reviewer who comes back asking 'Uhh... was he speaking in French or English here? <Insert obviously still French dialouge>. I know he was still talking to the same guy but, uh, you never made it clear int hat last paragraph which language he was speaking in.

 

I agree with Taure. It seems to be the best solution. If you need some help with German, feel free to PM me.

 

I think that's probably the way I'll go. I can handle the Frnehc for now, but I'll be doing a non-Gringotts bank scene (why is it everyone thinks Gringotts is the worlds only goddamn bank?) in Switzerland, and German will be the common language Harry will need to use. It's a short scene, but if I think I need your help I'll PM you, thanks for the offer .