Mots Maudits #10: Performance

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 (read?) me out — I really feel there is something to this…

The operative words in the respective definitions are “résultat” and “manner” — this is where the nuance seems to lie. You can often see this subtlety at work in sports reporting, where English writers often talk about a result being disappointing despite a good performance, whereas for French journalists, “performance” is generally synonymous with “result” and indeed, “contre-performance” normally refers to a disappointing result or defeat .

Of course, an elite sports team is not exactly the same as a company – where one would hope that good team performance more reliably translates into good financial results – but this usage has parallels in business French too. If a press release or annual report mentions a “très belle performance malgré la crise”, for example, it is generally referring to the company’s results (most likely turnover or profits, but sometimes as shorthand for the financial statement as a whole) and not how hard its employees have worked (in the latter case, French writers will often refer to employees’ “engagement”).

Moreover, “performance économique” is often used interchangeably with “résultats de l'entreprise”, whereas in English “economic performance” is more commonly used to describe macro-economic indicators such as GDP, inflation, investment and national spending.

And finally, in management speak, I often hear the phrase “gagner en performance”. To return to the mechanical usage example in the above definition, just as “engine performance” can refer to power (output) or efficiency, employee performance can refer to results (output) or productivity (efficiency). These nuances are subtle, but it is often worth asking what specific metric “performance” refers to when looking for the best translation.