❌ Don’t Translate Word for Word !! ✅ Translate the concept Instead

A common mistake French students make is they translate word for word from their native language. This often doesn’t work very well.

But when I was studying American Sign Language in college my professor told us to translate the concept, not word for word.

For example, let’s say you want to say “let it go” en français, the verb lâcher means “to let go”, but to translate the concept you’d say:

Laisser tomber - to let go of something (figuratively), literally: to let fall

But we can take this further and say:

C’est pas important - it’s not important (ce n’est pas…)

C’est pas grave - it’s not serious (ce n’est pas…)

Ça (ne) me dérange pas - it doesn’t bother me

Peu importe - it doesn’t matter

Some of these are not exactly the same thing as saying “let it go” and they have different connotations, but they could work, depending on the context.

A lot of French students get caught up trying to say something so precisely that they miss the forest for the trees

As long as you can communicate the general concept effectively and easily, especially if you’re a beginner, that’s probably a better strategy than getting frustrated because you can’t say something exactly how you would in your native language.

I hope that helps !

If you have any questions, please send me a DM on Instagram ! I’d love to help you

À bientôt !

Charlie