{"id":2200,"date":"2026-01-16T13:06:59","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T13:06:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/?p=2200"},"modified":"2026-10-04T14:02:54","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T13:02:54","slug":"gallicisms-of-structure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/?p=2200","title":{"rendered":"Gallicisms of Structure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four members give their impressions of this workshop: Carol Hebden, Amanda Mannix, Maddie Sangway and H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Wilkinson<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Carol Hebden<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Gallicisms of Structure<\/em> \u2013 an enticing workshop title. I signed up to learn more about the pitfalls and best practice of translating between French and English. Grant Hamilton shone light on the cultural idiosyncrasies of language structure, talking us through more than thirty examples taken from professional websites. Takeaway nuggets included the English love of doublets and their dislike of nouns (they are far more partial to verbs).<\/p>\n

The art and craft of translation. There\u2019s a doublet for you, right away. To quote Grant, \u2018English sounds like two people chatting to one another\u2019. And we use doublets without even realising it: nooks and crannies, bits and pieces, ups and downs, ins and outs. And around one third of the doublets that Grant had found in the Anglocom archives also relied on alliteration: impacting and influencing, elevating and empowering, compiling and combining, restore and renew. Doublets occur in French too, of course, (des hauts et des bas) but don\u2019t always translate naturally; it\u2019s the flow that counts. The omission of the doublet here below indicates a cultural pattern at work.<\/p>\n

Les decisions doivent \u00eatre adapt\u00e9es \u00e0 la r\u00e9alit\u00e9 des differents milieux.<\/p>\n

The decisions must reflect the needs and concerns<\/strong> of different types of communities.<\/p>\n

Are you struggling to decide between \u2018’safety\u2019 or \u2018security\u2019, when translating \u2018s\u00e9curit\u00e9\u2019? Grant suggested trying both. He pointed out several reasons for resorting to this strategy: the sentence falls flat without a doublet; the doublet helps clarify meaning. His advice was to listen to the rhythm and decide what the text might have been had it been written in English from the outset.<\/p>\n

If the English are partial to a doublet, they are resistant to the overuse of nouns. Grant pointed out how English speakers are hardwired to favour action, and how French speakers prefer contemplation. The frequency of either is key. Overuse of one or the other can be disquieting for the target reader (too action-packed for French readers, or overly contemplative if English-speaking).<\/p>\n

Take the following example, from a survey of attendees at an event. It contains the question: \u2018Avez vous une meilleure compr\u00e9hension de la litt\u00e9rature financi\u00e8re au term de l\u2019\u00e9v\u00e9nement?\u2019 \u2018Did you have a deeper understanding\u2026\u2019 might fit the bill. It follows the language structure and makes sense. But how might you beef up the verb for a stronger English appeal?<\/p>\n

Did the event deepen <\/strong>your understanding of\u2026?<\/p>\n

Did you leave<\/strong> the event with a deeper understanding of \u2026?<\/p>\n

I would highly recommend attending further talks by Grant Hamilton on the topic of cultural structures. It has certainly given me some different angles to consider when assessing my own work. As a parting gift, he shared a link to Word of the Week on the TRSB website. For the TermStormers of the ITI French Network, here is Match That Word!<\/a><\/p>\n

Carol Anne Hebden, French to English subtitler, literary translator.<\/strong><\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

Amanda Mannix<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Without providing any statistical evidence, I can confidently say that AI has been by far the most-discussed topic among language professionals over the last couple of years \u2013 and for good reason \u2013 so it was a breath of fresh air to see the FrenchNet events team announcing Grant Hamilton\u2019s Gallicisms of Structure<\/em> workshop in October. His background as a translator, agency owner and trainer means he is well placed to point out the easily-spotted as well as the more covert characteristics of French grammar and structure that can smuggle themselves in to translations, creating less-than-natural English text. Attendees were given the 37 examples discussed in the workshop in advance, and I greatly appreciated the opportunity to focus and reflect beforehand.<\/p>\n

From working with different tenses (present perfect and conditional), to being reminded of the many differences between variants of English, Grant\u2019s sample sentences \u2013 all drawn from actual jobs \u2013 gave us plenty of material to help us get under the bonnet of our craft.<\/p>\n

Some of the more apparent structural transfers included using the literal \u2018It is possible for customers to\u2026\u2019 for \u2018Il est possible de\u2026\u2019 in a bank\u2019s literature, amended to the more personal \u2018Customers can\u2019, and retaining a hanging phrase at the start of a sentence \u2013 \u2018Honor\u00e9s, la ville\u2026\u2019 \u2013 in the translation as \u2018Deeply honoured, the city\u2026\u2019, ultimately corrected to \u2018This was a great honour for the city\u2026\u2019. Grant used a number of examples to remind us that producing a more natural flow in English of noun-heavy French can be obtained by using verbs, giving the translation of \u2018Bo\u00eete de courriel r\u00e9serv\u00e9e aux concessionnaires\u2026\u2019 as \u2018Created a dedicated inbox for dealers\u2026\u2019, or energising the target text by adding verbs, as in \u2018Challenges that life may bring\u2019 for \u2018Les d\u00e9fis de la vie\u2019 or \u2018The feedback you share\u2019 for \u2018Vos r\u00e9ponses\u2019.<\/p>\n

Some of the structural elements that might be more easily overlooked are punctuation, such as the ellipsis (typically used in French to represent \u2018etc.\u2019 in English), the order of items in a list \u2013 which doesn\u2019t necessarily remain the same in the target text \u2013 or singular nouns in English where French commonly uses plurals (\u2018cardiovascular disease\u2019 for \u2018maladies cardiovasculaires\u2019).<\/p>\n

A useful tool highlighted by Grant that I have not used much in my own work was back-translating, to produce a more objective view of the source text structure and help get to the real message of the text. I also valued the discussion around bringing couplets into a translation, such as \u2018needs and concerns\u2019 for \u2018la r\u00e9alit\u00e9\u2019 or \u2018fine-tune and adapt\u2019 for \u2018s\u2019adapter en transformant\u2019.<\/p>\n

Along with enjoying and learning from the lively and fertile chat generated in Grant\u2019s workshop, my biggest take-away was the importance of approaching a translation from two different viewpoints: the detailed \u2013 where the subtleties of individual words, phrases and sentences are considered and debated \u2013 and the more general, where we step back and see the structure of the source text with a more critical eye.<\/p>\n

Amanda Mannix MITI, French to English translator and copy-editor, specialising in social science, education and marketing texts<\/strong><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Maddie Sangway<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Have you ever wondered what it is that makes a translation sound so much like a translation? Ever pondered the specificities of what makes English English<\/em>? Grant Hamilton, celebrated French-English translator and founder of the Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois translation company Anglocom, has the answers.<\/p>\n

Over a two-part workshop this past November, Grant provided us eager translators with more than 30 examples of translations that were all passable, but which didn\u2019t necessarily have the flair of English writing. It proved to be a very fruitful two hours, during which we flooded the chat box with our answers and solutions to what<\/em> didn\u2019t sound quite right<\/em>, and from which we emerged with some concrete answers to help our translations feel more believable.<\/p>\n

As a student of translation who has barely commenced her translation career, I found these workshops to be invaluable, particularly as someone who likes the rules of language explained.<\/p>\n

Our first example of French-influenced English featured a hanging adverbial at the beginning of the sentence, which Grant pointed out is something rarely found in English.<\/p>\n

We then looked at the cognate major<\/em> for the French majeur<\/em>. Whilst this cognate can sometimes be a good solution, Grant highlighted that it is often overused and that English offers plenty more adjectives which would be better suited to the specific context of the text.<\/p>\n

We continued to analyse the abstraction vs concretisation of French vs English, specifically the English love of a personalised sentence. Where the French will use their impersonal on<\/em> as the subject, the English will specify clients, customers, we, <\/em>etc.<\/p>\n

Another structural difference is the English adoration for a verb. Grant noted that even in technical documents, the audience is foregrounded and verbs are prevalent. So, when it comes to translation, take the French nouns and verbalise, verbalise, verbalise!<\/p>\n

One of my personal favourite discoveries from this workshop was that of the English love of a \u201credundant doublet\u201d: terms and conditions, hopes and dreams, needs and concerns\u2026 The more you think about them, the more doublets you\u2019ll find. This is a sure-fire way to move your translation further from the original French.<\/p>\n

Now, these may be elements that you know, that you think are obvious. But it can be all too easy to find yourself influenced by the structure of the original. By actively workshopping these sentences, we found ourselves far better equipped to produce English-sounding translations. Through Grant\u2019s assistance, we left with the words to explain exactly what the issues can be and what solutions may help.<\/p>\n

The overarching advice was to simply put on your writer\u2019s cap. Find the juice of the text and put the emphasis on that. Ignore the source structure and think English!<\/em><\/p>\n

Maddie Sangway, MA Translation student at the University of Surrey (English, French, and Spanish)<\/strong><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Wilkinson<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In November 2025, the ITI French Network organised a two-part webinar on Gallicisms of Structure<\/em>. It was facilitated by Grant Hamilton, who boasts a dizzying translating career spanning thirty years of translation \u2013 so far \u2013 \u201cfor the love of beautiful English\u201d. No wonder so many people attended this event. (You can find more details on his biography here.)<\/p>\n

The format for the session consisted of sentences written in French and the corresponding English translation. Grant then challenged us to spot anything that felt \u201codd\u201d. There were discussions on the chat (thanks to moderators Sarah and Alanah) and in the end, the gallicisms were vanquished, appropriate English terms and turns of phrase were produced and a more authentic version was created.<\/p>\n

Most people attending this training session would have been familiar with a number of gallicisms: for example, English texts prefer verbs to nouns and the opposite is true for French texts. However, things quickly got more complicated\u2026<\/p>\n

Here are just a few of my personal favourite points from those Grant offered.<\/p>\n

French readers require \u201cpermission\u201d before they get to the point. For example, \u201cCette solution nous permet<\/strong> d\u2019avancer dans nos projets<\/em>.\u201d (I made this up.) Actually, it serves no purpose at all \u2013 but \u201cpermet<\/em>\u201d is very, very frequent and should not subsist in English.<\/p>\n

Another example: an English reader coming across the words \u201ctry to find another tool\u201d (again, my example) wouldn’t feel like belittled. In a way, \u201ctry to\u201d is understated and just makes things more pleasant. Incidentally, it struck me that \u201cpermet<\/em>\u201d and \u201ctry to\u201d are really quite similar: both suggest a sort of politeness, or at least attenuation.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve already mentioned this above \u2013 but if in doubt, add a verb! In English not only does a verb often do the job without requiring a noun, adding another one can tell a story even better. As a case in point I was recently racking my brains over the French source text I was working on (one far too dry to reproduce here) and could only produce a particularly wonky translation. Yet all it needed was a little \u201cbe\u201d to jolt the rest of the sentence along nicely.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sorry to say that a touch of frost fell on the proceedings halfway through. One clan couldn\u2019t stomach \u201cyouth\u201d and the other found \u201camongst\u201d just too pernickety\u2026 However, I\u2019m pleased to relate that hostilities ended when we realised that there was a consensus among[st] (most?) attendees, who heartily hate \u201creaching out\u201d.<\/p>\n

The detail and analysis was enormously useful. It included discussions on the word \u201cos\u00e9<\/em>\u201d, which does not<\/em> usually map to \u201cbold\u201d; geographic issues; the subtle difference between competition and competitors; plurals and singulars (one of the many things that systematically oppose the French and English languages, just to make our task even harder); and compound sentences that could probably fill a book.<\/p>\n

One last word: Grant is known for the invaluable Match the word<\/a> tool, but I\u2019d like to add that FrenchNet\u2019s online TermStorm sessions are always useful too!<\/p>\n

H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Wilkinson, French to English translator and subtitler, specialising\u00a0in research and higher education.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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