In this post I look at the origins of the expression "sent to Coventry"

It wasn't until the 19th century that the word "pollution" came to be associated with humans' degradation of the natural world. Before the Industrial Revolution, "pollution" had purely religious and moral connotations to do with impurity and defilement.

In this post I discuss the meaning behind the term "fait divers" and argue for a more ethical approach to crime reporting.

Scepticism about the disruptive capacity of AI is understandable, but we should also be wary of wishful thinking; the downside risk is significant enough that it's worth taking seriously.

People learning English as a foreign language (EFL) reliably trip up on certain words, either because they are “false friends” or because the English equivalent has a nuance that doesn’t exist in French.

In this second series on troublesome words, I want to look at common problems for people learning English as a second language.

Raising bilingual children can be challenging, but it is also rewarding — for parents and children alike.

I discuss the evolution of English between the Middle Ages and the Modern Era

Legal English is often so obscure that it has its own term: legalese.

Ambiguity in communication is inevitable given the limitations of language, the arbitrary nature of signs, variability in how they are interpreted, and the evolution of meaning.

It’s one of those odd quirks of language that makes true bilingualism so difficult to achieve; in French, the person who will be missed (“tu”) is the subject of the verb and the person experiencing the feeling (“me”) is the object, whereas in English it is the opposite.

I consider myself very lucky to have dual nationality; I have two countries. Two cultures. Two languages? It’s complicated…

“Activité” is another one of those words that is superficially similar to its English equivalent, with the same etymology and many equivalent definitions, but whose usage differs in unhelpfully subtle ways that can make translating corporate communication unexpectedly perilous. Larousse defines “activité” in this context as follows: Meanwhile, Oxford Languages defines “activity” as “a thing that a person or group does or has done”, such as a "firm's marketing activities". The

Poor corporate communication is so ubiquitous that it has almost become a cliché in itself. The Internet abounds with articles and memes ...

How improving carbon sequestration in the soil by 4% per year could offset practically all new carbon emissions and help farmers adapt to the reality of climate change.

Bill Bryson claims that “200,000 words are in common use” in the English language compared to “a mere 100,000” in French. The case of “métier” certainly goes some way to helping me believe that statistic.

“Efficace”: What does it mean? Effective? Efficient? Efficacious? All of these things? What it the best way to translate it? Let's start by looking at the definition of “efficace”: 1. Se dit d'un produit, d'une méthode, d'un appareil, etc., qui produisent l'effet attendu ; bon pour : Un médicament efficace contre le rhume. 2. Qui remplit bien sa tâche, qui atteint son but, qui aboutit à des résultats utiles. Now let's look at the definitions of the three

The word "enjeux" originally meant the sum you are willing to gamble in a game. This blog discusses how to translate it in a modern context.

There are subtle differences in how the word “performance” is used in French and English, which can be seen in the difference between the Larousse and Merriam-Webster dictionaries’ definitions: - Larousse: Résultat obtenu dans un domaine précis par quelqu'un, une machine, un véhicule (souvent pluriel): “Améliorer ses performances”. - Merriam-Webster: The manner in which a mechanism performs: “engine performance”. OK, so this might seem like nit-picking, but hear

A light-hearted look at translators’ troubles with problematic prose. #translation #traduction