Book Club

Mind your language!

by Alison Morton

As a language nerd, translator and a writer of fiction (and in a previous existence of proposals, reports, corporate documentation, advertising and PR copy), I’ve always been interested in the power of words. Tone, style and formality are equally important. Although multi-lingual, I write in my mother-tongue English, but when writing a story in a country where the residents speak a different language or other characters speak a different language, I drop in a few appropriate words of the foreign language. It can add to the flavour of the setting and/or to a character’s background.

However, there are many traps along the way. Overdoing it is one pitfall to avoid and using Google Translate is the Big Don’t. One choice horror to avoid is inserting the English translation in brackets after the foreign language expression spoken by a character. I have seen it and I cringe. A good writer will find other ways to show what is meant either by the context or another character’s reaction or reflection on what was just said.

Swearing is the other place you can use foreign words. The context will convey the distress or anger of the character saying it, but the language will hopefully not upset readers as much as if the swearing was in plain English. Bon dieu or bon sang should hopefully not ruffle the sensibilities of religious believers as much as the counterpart words in English. In my modern contemporary thrillers written in English I can have my French-speaking ex-military special

forces heroine under great stress say ‘putain’ which conveys strength of feeling without English readers being upset by the f-word in black and white.

Language traps

In French, we have several problems, one of which is the tu/vous conundrum. In English ‘you’ covers all relationships. If you want to go beyond the odd bonjour, au revoir and merci, for instance, for one character to ask if another has understood what the first one said, you need to know what the relationship is. There’s a world of difference between Tu piges? and Vous comprenez? It’s all about context!

The other things to watch are gender and verb conjugation. Dictionaries usually give the infinitive form of verbs or the singular form of nouns. Stringing them together and, in the case of German, using the correct article and adjective cases can be tricky. Even though Google Translate can provide a (rickety) translation of large chunks of text from a foreign language into English for information purposes, when going from English into another language like French, it doesn’t know its conditional from its coordinating conjunction.

When to use foreign language in your story

Above all, you want your readers to grasp what is being said. Nothing throws a reader out of a story like something baffling or jarring that leaves them wondering what just happened. If you stick to short expressions like greetings, or ma chére, mon ami, or s’il vous plaît, very few readers will feel lost. Instead, they may well be charmed. The odd word or phrase in a foreign language adds a piquancy to the narrative, dialogue and atmosphere. But you should check with a mother-tongue speaker or professional translator that vocabulary, grammar and style are correct for the time and place of the story or your credibility as a competent author could be at stake.

Bonne chance!

If it’s a moment of high drama where a French-speaking character would say something such as “Va-t-en!” and push the other person away, that second character can reply, “No, I’m staying right here until you tell me what’s going on.” The reader will understand from the context what the French words meant.

Alison has compiled a selection of articles from this column into ‘The 500 Word Writing Buddy’, available in print and ebook. Her new Roma Nova novel, set in the 4th century, JULIA PRIMA, is now out.

This Month’s Book Reviews

Twenty-one Nights in Paris by Leonie Mack

Review by Jacqui Brown

My book selections this month have been picked to help you get into the festive spirit. When the stress of Christmas hits, make yourself a hot chocolate, pick up one of these books and find the magic of Christmas once more. Ren and Sacha should never have met, but when their worlds collide a bit of Paris magic begins, and it didn’t take me long to fall hook line and sinker into this rich storyline.

Ren was vulnerable and easy to warm to, despite her rich-girl naivety. Her enthusiasm for the hidden Paris she discovers with Sacha shines from the pages. Sacha is broody, and mysterious enough to make him intriguing. The situations they find themselves in are often awkward, sometimes hilarious, embarrassing (if her grandmother is around), but also heart-melting. The emotions in this book are complex and not always easy, but I loved every page.

To begin with, I thought I had this book sussed. I quickly realised I was wrong. It was so much more than an unexpected boy meets girl romance. It was about faith, about discovery and about letting go of past traumas to realise the future is always up for grabs for those who are brave enough. It was poetry, it danced in the shadows, it shone with hope. It was one of those books I couldn’t put down, but I didn’t want to reach the end either. As you would expect from a Christmas novel full of romance, Paris as a location sparkled just as much as the story and I felt like I was there, seeing it all for the first time, just like Ren.

This is a book worth reading this Christmas.

A White Christmas on Winter Street by Sue Moorcroft

Review by Jacqui Brown

As Sky picks up the keys to The Corner House, in Middledip, she is at a low point in her life, but is thrust into the spotlight as hers is the only house that could let down the street in the Christmas decorating competition. There is no time to slowly adjust to her new life as she is drawn into the community, despite her fiercely independent nature. Sky was a lovely character, (one of those who you wish you could be real-life friends with). She is passionate about nature and wildlife, and if she can make a difference to the environment, she will. Her enthusiasm was infectious, and I wanted to be more like Sky. As Christmas in Middledip draws closer, this book is full of community spirit, crisp snow and warming hot chocolate, but there are lots of tough issues for many of the characters to deal with too. These rollercoaster emotional situations added an extra dimension to the book that made the characters and the village feel real. I cried with Sky, laughed at Wilfs antics and felt safe when Daz was around. In fact, I’ve got a confession to make. I read most of this book on the drive back from a UK visit and became so wrapped up in it that for a brief moment I actually thought we were driving back from celebrating Christmas and completely forgot that husband and son in the car hadn’t been with me in Middledip – oops! One of the things I’ve come to look forward to reading every winter is Sue Moorcroft’s latest Christmas novel set in Middledip. If you are looking for a festive escape filled with Christmas magic and sparkle, with lots of emotional scenes, that will warm you like a rich and creamy hot chocolate, this one is another winner. If you haven’t discovered the magic of Middledip yet, this is your chance.

800 words

short story competition 2022

closing date 31/12/22More info at www.thedeuxsevresmonthly.fr/800Words.html

Send entries or questions to 800.words@thedeuxsevresmonthly.fr

Write an original fictional story in English.