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SCENARIO

A person that both Jean and Jason hate walks by.

Jean: What are you imagining right now?

Jason: Me slapping him. Why?

Jason’s full sentence would be “I’m imagining me slapping him.”. But it’s natural to hear “ Me slapping him.”

I’m trying to figure out how to say “ Me slapping him.” in French. I propose « Moi le gifle. » ou « Moi en étant en train de le gifler. ». Lol, I know that I just literally translated but is it the French equivalent?

SFR
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5 Answers5

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I'd suggest:

— Tu penses à quoi là ?
— À moi qui le gifle. Pourquoi ?

Moi le gifle breaks grammar, should be moi, le giflant.

Moi en étant en train de le gifler is almost correct, should be moi étant en train de le gifler (heavy) or just moi en train de le gifler (still a little verbose.)

jlliagre
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  • Thank you so so so much @jlliagre ! Lol I can’t believe I was close. I’m happy lol. So ”« Moi le giflant. » is fine? That is, is a construction like that natural or should I stick with « À moi qui qui le gifle. » because it’s natural and **« Moi le giflant. » isn’t ? – SFR Jan 20 '21 at 23:17
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    Yes, Moi, le giflant is not natural in such a dialog. That'd rather be the legend of a photo where this slapping occurs. – jlliagre Jan 20 '21 at 23:23
  • What do you mean by “legend of a photo where this slapping occurs”? I’ve never heard this before. – SFR Jan 20 '21 at 23:24
  • Sorry if I was unclear. Let me try to explain. Imagine I post on the net a photo of me slapping someone who was introduced previously. Moi, le giflant might be a legend of this photo. – jlliagre Jan 20 '21 at 23:29
  • Thélée_Lavoie's suggestions are better than mine. I overlook the person was walking by. – jlliagre Jan 20 '21 at 23:43
  • Thank you for explaining the definition of legend of a photo! What is the nuance between « À moi qui le gifle. » et Thélée_Lavoie’s « À le gifler. » ? I know the following is quite naive of me to say lol but « À moi qui le gifle. » has the word moi so I feel more inclined to use it. – SFR Jan 21 '21 at 00:02
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    Moi is implicit in à le gifler because the full sentence would be je pense à le gifler. A nuance between à le gifler and à moi qui le gifle is the focus. In the first case, it is on the action, it is close to je pense le gifler (I think I'm going to slap him) while in the second case, it is more focused on moi (I think about me...) À le gifler is also a sharper reply, like would be a slap ;-) – jlliagre Jan 21 '21 at 08:40
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    @jlliagre: I'd say à moi qui le gifle is the better translation in this particular context, because as you say it puts the emphasis on "me" rather than on the action - as does the English (compare "What are you thinking of? Me slapping him" with "...? Slapping him", where the latter puts the emphasis on the action much as À le gifler does in French). – psmears Jan 21 '21 at 15:29
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    @psmears Maybe. Accurately translating a text is tricky because you generally need both a deep understanding of the intended meaning of the source text, including tone, register, cultural references and a command of the target language that is usually only achieved by native speakers. The "best" translation is often a compromise. – jlliagre Jan 21 '21 at 17:01
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    @jlliagre: Of course. I'm just pointing out that the distinction between "focus on the action" vs "focus on the person", that you mentioned in your comment is present in French, is also present in English (in a different form), and the English source text uses the "focus on the person" alternative. Of course there may be many other considerations based on the wider context; I'm just commenting on choosing between these two specific translations based on this criterion :) – psmears Jan 21 '21 at 17:07
  • Même si on a abordé comme le voulait la question surtout la formulation, peut-être que pour le vocabulaire, la liste des synonymes de gifle au TLF est intéressante : « Synon. fam. ou pop. baffe, beigne, calotte, claque, mornifle, taloche, tarte; littér. soufflet. ». – Thélée_Lavoie Jan 21 '21 at 20:30
  • @jlliagre Thank you ever so much for explaining this nuance. I have one more question lol! Could you please explain to me the nuance between « moi étant en train de le gifler » and « à moi qui le gifle »? – SFR Jan 21 '21 at 21:17
  • @jlliagre Lol could you also explain to me the nuance between « moi étant en train de le gifler » and « à moi qui le gifle » please? – SFR Jan 21 '21 at 21:19
  • The first one is too wordy, think "me, being in the middle of the process of slapping him". We usually don't need nor use progressive in French. – jlliagre Jan 21 '21 at 21:46
  • Oh so just to confirm, there’s no nuance between (1) « moi étant en train de le gifler », (2) « moi en train de le gifler. » and (3) « à moi qui le gifle », it’s just that (1) and (2) contain more words than (3)? That is, (1) is more verbose than (2) which is more verbose than (3)? – SFR Jan 21 '21 at 22:01
  • Not just they have more words but also these words add nothing useful to the sentence. The fact we do not use progressive (I'm slapping him = *Je le gifle) is a common source of frustration for native English speakers who often insist to use en train de*. – jlliagre Jan 21 '21 at 22:35
  • Thank you ever so much for your help!!!! @jlliagre – SFR Jan 25 '21 at 19:56
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Pas nécessairement au visagea :

— [À quoi tu penses ?]
—
À le claquer.1
À lui donner/mettre une claque.2
À lui en claquer/mettre une.

— [Qu'est-ce que tu imagines ?]
—
Je m'imagine (en train de) le claquer.
Je m'imagine (en train de) lui donner/mettre une claque.
Je m'imagine (en train de) lui en claquer/mettre une.

a Autres pistes de traduction pour slap/to slap : Larousse en ligne ; Collins en ligne.
1 Aussi baffer (donner une baffe), surtout au visage.
2 « SYNT. a) Une claque dans le dos, sur les cuisses, les épaules, les fesses, la joue. b) Une claque sonore, retentissante; une grande, large claque. c) Recevoir, administrer, allonger, flanquer, ficher, foutre une claque. d) Une paire de claques. » (TLFi, « claque » )

Thélée_Lavoie
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2

You could also say:

  • A quoi tu penses ?

  • Aux baffes qu' j'suis en train d'lui mettre.

grandtout
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0
  • À quoi penses-tu ?
  • À le gifler.

alternatively :

  • À moi, le giflant.
  • À lui filer une gifle !

en langage soutenu :

  • À lui octroyer la gifle qu'il mérite [depuis qu'il..].

"À le claquer" does not work for me as spoken, though probably correct in grammar.

"Aux baffes qu'j'suis en train d'lui mettre." in my perception implies that the action is truly taking place already, no longer imagined.

"Moi le gifle." is not grammatically correct.

Toto
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sarfati
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-1

Jean: À quoi tu penses en ce moment ?

Jason: Je me vois en train de lui mettre une gifle. Pourquoi ? (slap)

2 Jason: Je me vois en train de le gifler. Pourquoi ? (slap)

3 Jason: Je me vois en train de lui envoyer mon poing dans/sur la figure. Pourquoi ? (punch)

LPH
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  • Thank you so much for your help! I made a mistake. Jason said ”Me slapping him.” There is no comma. So is the French equivalent « Moi le gifle. » or is it « Moi en étant en train de le gifler. »? – SFR Jan 20 '21 at 22:33
  • @CubbyKushi "Qu'est-ce que tu t'imagines en ce moment ?", which is the exact translation of "What are you imagining right now?", would not be idiomatic in French in that context. I do not situate well "What are you imagining right now?" in English in the present context either. (I would not say that.) – LPH Jan 20 '21 at 22:35
  • Hm... I’m not quite understanding. Are you saying that “What are you imagining right now?” isn’t a question which is asked in English? – SFR Jan 20 '21 at 22:38
  • @CubbyKushi In the present context, no, I don't think you would say that. You'd say that possibly when someone is saying things that are nonsense as you say "don't go imagining things now."; but possibly things have changed and there is a modern context for that. Are you sure it is used often? – LPH Jan 20 '21 at 22:42
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    I’m an English native and there is nothing wrong with asking the question “What are you imagining right now?” in any context. But I really need to know the French equivalent of Jason’s response to the question which is “Me slapping him.”. Is it « Moi en étant en train de le gifler. »? – SFR Jan 20 '21 at 22:53
  • @CubbyKushi I've checked some of the books in which you find that (What are you imagining now?): https://www.google.com/search?q=%22what%20are%20you%20imagining%20now%22&tbm=bks&lr=lang_en You might be right, it seems it might have come to be used as "What are you thinking now?". All cases are rather recent. However, that should be verified. – LPH Jan 20 '21 at 22:56
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    Hm... what illogicality do you see in this question? It’s a very simple question. – SFR Jan 20 '21 at 22:58
  • @CubbyKushi Well, we haven't made usage and there is more to it than we can hope to understand; for one thing, you do say quite commonly in both languages "What are you thinking right now?"; it is usual. Do people imagine all the time rather than think? Do they do both together? I have the feeling that imagining belongs to only a particular type of thinking. In other words we are accustomed to think all the time but not to imagine all the time; how could we do that? I can tell you that it wouldn't do in French, unless things have changed. – LPH Jan 20 '21 at 23:04
  • @CubbyKushi No, "Moi en étant en train de le gifler" will not do; "Moi en train de le gifler." would be better but not it still is not good French. – LPH Jan 20 '21 at 23:05
  • I think it’s completely possible, common and natural behaviour to not think, to not imagine, to think, to imagine and to do both at the same time. Regardless if you don’t think it to be true, the question is “What are you imaging right now?” as in “in this moment in time.” :) – SFR Jan 20 '21 at 23:08
  • @CubbyKushi Yes I agree with all of that, the four possibilities, and that imagining is some type of thinking. But imagining might be rare in comparison to thinking. That is the problem: you ask someone naturally what they think but almost never what they are imagining in French, except, as I was saying, when they are telling strange things ("Qu'est-ce que vous vous imaginez ? or (common) "Qu'est-ce que vous allez vous imaginer ?" ). – LPH Jan 20 '21 at 23:21
  • Oh lol. Silly me. I’m sorry, yes I understand you now. I think you would be fine if I prefixed the dialogue by saying Jason imagines doing things that he doesn’t have the courage to do a lot. But still, even if Jason didn’t have that trait, I don’t find it to be a weird question. Jean could ask Jason “What are you imaging right now?” out of curiosity. – SFR Jan 20 '21 at 23:28
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    Just FYI, I believe that your first translation is way too "fancy" and thus doesn't really work since the original English sentence is more "colloquial" – Ælis Jan 21 '21 at 14:47
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    @Ælis I guarantee you that there is nothing formal about this translation; perhaps, provided you are very curious about that, you should ask for the opinion of more people that you can trust as knowing the language well. – LPH Jan 21 '21 at 14:51
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    @LPH I'm French. French is my native language, English is not. And I promise you, your first translation does sound overly formal. – Ælis Jan 21 '21 at 14:53
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    @Ælis I am also French, and surprisingly, this is not my opinion; what I'll concede to you is that this is not necessarily the language of the "street", but you don't have to confine yourself to that language; moreover the English makes use of no slang: it's all standard English. – LPH Jan 21 '21 at 14:57
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    I would have agreed if the sentence was "I’m imagining me slapping him", but in this case, what is being asked to translate is only the short version "me slapping him". – Ælis Jan 21 '21 at 14:59
  • @Ælis On this basis, I can begin to agree with you. – LPH Jan 21 '21 at 15:00