ma petite

English translation: girlfriend

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

French term or phrase:	ma petite
English translation:	girlfriend
Entered by:	NancyLynn

17:18 May 2, 2005

French to English translations [PRO]
Linguistics / bilingual teen novel

French term or phrase: ma petite

in the sentence:
" T’arrête de me postillonner à la figure où je t’en colle une, ma petite."
(a young girl to another)

I thought of 'missy' but I don't think teenagers would use this word among themselves.
any suggestions greatly appreciated!
TIA!

Sandra C. KudoZ activity Questions: 289 (none open) (1 without valid answers) (15 closed without grading) Answers: 712 France
Local time: 11:39

girl, girlfriend

Explanation:
I realise 'girlfriend' is used between friends, but I imagine it can be used in a pugilant manner, like 'buddy' or 'pal' with men.

Missy is good, too, but with the proliferation of Melissas in the past couple of decades it has become more of a proper name.

Selected response from:

NancyLynn
Canada
Local time: 05:39

Grading comment

thanks Nancy. "girlfriend" fits best with my context. :-)
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

4 +3

sister

IanW (X)

5 +1

girlie

alizee

bitch / beeatch

Pierre Renault

young lady/madam

canaria

dear

analeonor

3 +1

sugar baby, honeybunch,

suezen

3 +1

you bitch

Rachel Davenport

3 +1

Report from the mean streets of north London + recommendation

Charlie Bavington

girl, girlfriend

NancyLynn

Discussion entries: 14

Charlie Bavington

"girl" tout court, maybe - in fact it fits quite well. "girlfriend" in this context? I doubt it very, very much.

09:02 May 5, 2005

Non-ProZ.com

15:22 May 4, 2005

thank you all! Especially you, Charlie, for all your research! ;-)))

Non-ProZ.com

CB:

13:59 May 3, 2005

wow! no way... you serious? be careful, man! don't hesitate to call if you need backup!! ;-D
but remember: can't bail you out if you get pinched! i'm all the way out here, in Canuck land...! but i'll send you some oranges! well, thanks and best of luck.

Non-ProZ.com

sarahl:

13:54 May 3, 2005

the one speaking is not creole; it's the one being insulted that is creole...

Charlie Bavington

I live near a girls' school. I'll amble up there at half 3 and listen out for a fight developing, and if all looks too calm, I'll start one, in the interests of research.... (and I'll try not to get nicked for suspicious behaviour :-) )

12:11 May 3, 2005

sarahl (X)

Sandra, ma petite is not really cr�ole, they say "timafi".

06:32 May 3, 2005

Non-ProZ.com

00:43 May 3, 2005

No, they really don't like eachother. But there is also no direct swearing in this book; bitch is too much (the author would never even use a word like 'garce'). By the way, they're 13 years old (sorry, I thought that most people knew, since I posted quite a few questions already! My mistake, I shouldn't have assumed:-))

Charlie Bavington

I think it would be useful to know whether this is jocular (they're freinds, really) or a serious threat to lump someone she doesn't like, both for the "ma petite" bit and the tenor of the phrase generally....

22:51 May 2, 2005

Non-ProZ.com

18:57 May 2, 2005

I need UK English.

IanW (X)

I've no idea if that would be perceived as racist, Sandra - let's ask our US colleagues.

18:57 May 2, 2005

IanW (X)

What type of English are you looking for: UK, US, Irish, NZ - I'm sure each variant would have its own versions.

18:55 May 2, 2005

Non-ProZ.com

18:30 May 2, 2005

well, the girl's mom (the one she's calling 'ma petite') was from Guyana. In this case, 'sister' could IMO be perceived as a pejorative term (isn't 'sister' used predominantly among people of black descent?) as in 'i'm gonna smack you good, sista". Know what I mean? :-)

IanW (X)

What do you mean, Sandra?

18:23 May 2, 2005

Non-ProZ.com

Ian:

17:32 May 2, 2005

unfortunately, sister would not work in my context: the 'petite' in question is 'creole'. It might be perceived as a racist remark... :-(

Answers

2 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

girlie

Explanation:
little girl- girlie

alizee
Native speaker of:

French,

Spanish

3 mins confidence:

girl, girlfriend

NancyLynn
Canada
Local time: 05:39
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 21

Grading comment

thanks Nancy. "girlfriend" fits best with my context. :-)

36 mins confidence:

dear

Explanation:
a way to say to somebody

analeonor
Local time: 06:39
Native speaker of:

Spanish

11 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +3

sister

Explanation:
How about "sister"?

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 13 mins (2005-05-02 17:32:16 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Not quite as aggressive a context, but not between friends either:

\"Listen, sister,\" I said, \"I ain\'t got the time for all this Percy Flage. This is politics, baby. It\'s the big supermarket. It\'s a fast flight on the red-eye to a little town called \'mid-term elections\' - ever hear a\' it? Sometimes your ticket gets stamped \'No Return\'. So I gotta know, baby, and I gotta know now, you on board or what?\"

http://www.dystopical.com/W2/f.bamboozle.html

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr 45 mins (2005-05-02 19:03:45 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

OK, now that it\'s UK English, I can safely say that I wouldn\'t use any of the current suggestions (including mine). In this case, I\'d go for \"darling\" or \"petal\", for the reasons that suezen mentioned, which are equally relevant in the UK.

IanW (X)
Local time: 11:39
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English

13 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

sugar baby, honeybunch,

Explanation:
using an endearment at the end of a threat is typical black teenage humour

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr 58 mins (2005-05-02 19:16:20 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

In answer to Ian, I think that in the UK you could very easily say*If you don\'t get out of my face dahhhling you\'ll be looking at a bunch of fives!!!!
or
If you don\'t want a Glaswegian kiss, honeybunch, then you\'ll get a smack in the face
In fact, I think one of the problems with this sentence is the fact that ma petite is at the end, where in English it would probably be at the beginning or in the middle
Look, sweety pie, keep out of my hair or else ....

suezen
Local time: 11:39
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 31

5 hrs confidence:

bitch / beeatch

Explanation:
As in "Get outta my face, bitch, or I'm gonna rip you a new one" (or whatever colourful description of physical abuse you can come up with).

bitch would be more appropriate
Use "beeatch" (pronouced "bee atch") if the speaker is being polite (yeah, right...)

Pierre Renault
Local time: 05:39
Native speaker of:

French,

English

3 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

you bitch

Explanation:
Depends how young. Also I think it would be possible to leave it out.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 13 hrs 48 mins (2005-05-03 07:07:16 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

How about \'cow\'? A bit more \'polite\' than \'bitch\'.

Rachel Davenport
France
Local time: 11:39
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English

15 hrs confidence:

young lady/madam

Explanation:
this is what my daughter's granny (from St Lucia)says to her when she threatens to give her a clump, unless of course she strays back into patois as is so often the case in which its 'tifi' (not sure how you spell that or what the equivalent would be in Guayana)

canaria
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:39
Native speaker of: English

1 day 30 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

Report from the mean streets of north London + recommendation

Explanation:
I fear this will be of no use to you.
But as I ambled up the road, who should I run into but the 14 year-old cousin of a friend of mine. I presented a brief outline of the scenario, being careful not to lead the witness. After making sure that I wasn't gonna tell her mother, she then proceeded to turn the air blue. Which I suppose I should have guessed since when I was at school, we were always partial to a spot of industrial language. To cut a long, post-watershed only, story short, the two commonest insults bandied around by 13 year-old girls from what is far from being one of north London's roughest areas are bitch and whore. Anything milder exposes one to ridicule of the highest order.

That said of course, I suspect that "ma petite" isn't exactly on the insult cutting edge either.

One useful thing to come out of it was that far and away the best equivalent for "je t'en colle une" is "you're gonna get such a slap".

Your trouble is that if you make it "real", no-one's going to publish it, but if you err too far the other way, no kid's gonna take it seriously.

This is a problem faced in the UK by the kids' TV show "Grange Hill", set in a London school, where as we know, effing and blinding is in reality the order of the day. It's been on for ages; when I was a lad, it was liberally peppered with "flippin' 'eck", whereas we of course wouldn't have dreamt of saying anything milder than "f*****' 'ell". The language aspect aside, it's always been fairly realistic and is still relatively popular amongst kids (else it wouldn't have been running for 25+ years). I wonder whether some surfing for "Grange Hill" websites might give you pointers into how to use realistic-ish yet relatively inoffensive UK slang (altho set in London, the programme is broadcast nationwide so it can't be too insular). I seriously think that if you aim for a "Grange Hill" style in your book, you will be very much on the right lines. Don't know why I didn't think of it before.....

(NB: confusingly, there is a real "Grange Hill" as well, so make sure you get hits that relate to the TV show)

Charlie Bavington
Local time: 10:39
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 8

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English translation: girlfriend

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