Deciphering language used in French news bulletins

Watching or listening to the news (les infos or le JT/journal télévisé) in France can be a richly informative experience. Not only do you get a Gallic take on current affairs but you will also learn some useful language in the process. 

However, newsreaders (présentateur or présentatrice) tend to deliver their tightly-crafted texts in rapid-fire bursts, which means that if you are not prepared you may miss some vital clue to what the story is about. 

What follows are some tips on how to decipher these daily bulletins.

Firstly, do not try to grasp everything that is being said. Choose a story you are interested in or familiar with (eg. something about the UK) and you will have a better chance of getting the gist of what is being reported. 

Secondly, do not get lost in dates and numbers. It can be hard to translate numbers when they are coming at you fast, and by the time you have worked out what quatre-vingt-dix-neuf-mille looks like, the news will have left you behind.

Thirdly, know your abbreviations – a subject covered in a previous article. The main political parties and trade unions are invariably referred to by their initials rather than full names: respectively RN, RE, LFI, PS, LR and others; and FO, CGT and CFDT.

You might also need to know that an HLM is a block of subsidised flats; le Smic is the minimum wage; le CAC40 is France’s Dow Jones index and le CRS is the riot police.

Fourthly, familiarise yourself with the code which news writers use. They know their consumers will understand certain words whose meaning is not obvious to the casual listener. 

When you hear l’Hémicycle you know they are talking about the Assemblée nationale (parliament). A bilan is an assessment of a situation, or a report. An arme blanche means a knife or sometimes sword. 

To save repeating a place name, you may hear metropolitan France called l’Hexagone (because of its shape), Toulouse called la Ville Rose (because of its brick architecture) and Paris referred to as the City of Lights.

Fifthly, do not be fooled by false friends. For example, a cité is not a city but a collection of buildings with a common purpose, most usually a problem housing estate.

Sixthly, you can expect journalists to speak decent French but the people they interview may be more fluent in slang words.

Finally, do not be thrown by common metaphors used in the news. You will frequently hear that two arguing or warring parties are engaged in a battle of bras de fer. This is what in English we call arm wrestling, ie. a power struggle, a test of strength or resolve. 

Other metaphors include Jour J (D-Day – the start of something important), and bémol, literally a ‘flat note’ in music, is used to indicate that the subject in hand has a downside or drawback. 

Occasionally slang expressions creep into serious news: a politician may be accused of traîner une casserole, which in this context has nothing to do with saucepans but rather corruption or a shady past.

Figuring out the news takes practice but is worth the effort. It is good to know what is happening in this country whether you live here, have a second home or are just visiting.