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THE "CHASSÉ-CROISÉ" PATTERN
/ LE CHASSÉ-CROISÉ
This refers to a double grammatical transposition :
- He looked down : Il baissa les yeux
(looked : English verb → les yeux : French noun - down : English postposition → baissa : French verb)
A literal translation such as "il regarda vers le bas" would be erroneous. The question "vers le bas de quoi ?" would not fail to come to the reader's mind.
The chassé-croisé pattern exists in English-to-French as well as French-to-English translation :
- Il sortit du garage à toute vitesse : He rushed out of the garage
More examples :
- He was scared to death : Il était mort de peur
(English past participle scared → French noun : (de) peur - English noun : (to) death → French adjective mort)
- (Europe's) unemployed youths (AM 86) : les jeunes chômeurs (de l'Europe)
(English adjective unemployed → French noun chômeurs - English noun youths → French adjective jeunes)
- I don't suppose you'd be interested in an explanation : J'imagine que mes explications ne vous intéressent pas
(English verb in the negative form don't suppose → French verb in the affirmative form imagine - English object clause in the affirmative you'd be interested → French object clause in the negative ne vous intéressent pas)
- We walked back home : Nous rentrâmes
chez nous à pied
(English verb walked → French phrase
à pied - English postposition back → French verb rentrâmes)
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EXERCISE
Translate the following expressions into French using a "chassé-croisé".
1/ motorcycle riders blast past the police stations (AM 84) :
2/ He tiptoed back to his room :
3/ He kicked the door open :
4/ The car screeched to a halt :
5/ He flew across the Channel :
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ANSWERS
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