VN Ren'Py Aux français : la traduction du vouvoiement / The use of "vous"

Mar 29, 2018
44
33
Salut aux français !

Je viens de débuter ma toute première traduction de l'anglais avec pour objectif de la poster sur ce forum et j'ai une question qui me trotte dans la tête depuis un bon moment.

Comment vous faites pour le vouvoiement ?
C'est pas évident. En anglais, à n'importe quel stade de la relation, ce sera toujours "you", alors qu'en français, on commence par "vous", et à un moment, ça devient "tu".

Dans le jeu que je suis en train de traduire, le personnage principal fait la rencontre d'une femme et des sentiments se développent. Il va falloir que je trouve à quel moment les personnages passent du "vous" au "tu". C'est pas nécessairement obligé qu'ils changent, ça dépend du contexte. Mais bon, à notre époque par exemple, on ne vouvoit plus trop ses parents, ou les gens avec qui on s'entend bien.

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Hello,

I just started my first game translation and I was wondering something.

How do you handle the use of "vous" ?
Tricky, isn't it. In English, at whatever stage of the relationship, people will use "you" but in French, it starts off with "vous" and ends up becoming "tu".

In the game I'm currently translating, the mc meets a woman and they fall in love. I will have to find the right moment when they stop using "vous" and start using "tu". They don't have to change, but nowadays, people stopped using "vous" with their parents or the people they get along with.
 

Dictateur

Active Member
Aug 7, 2016
712
828
I wrote a big paragraph telling you how I felt about this topic but the automated back ups erased my answer because I could post it. Dang. So to be quick I said that you can switch to the " tu " pretty quickly since we're talking about young people and it seemed naturel to do it. With people with different age gaps it could be more troublesome.
Just don't take it too at heart.
 
Mar 29, 2018
44
33
I see what you mean.
Well, you're right, I may be taking this at heart too much, but this is my first game translation and I want it to be good. It may look like a detail but if the characters become too close too soon or too late, it might mess up with the story, and I don't know if you've already translated stuff from English to French, but the use of "vous" plays a big part in it.

If I take an exemple from my game, at the beginning, the guy is in jail and he gets interrogated by the woman. At first, she doesn't know him but she doesn't especially look down on him or anything.
So what do I do ? Do I make her say "tu" right off the bat? If I do this, the reader might have the impression that the woman does look down on him, when it wasn't necessarily the case in English.

You said that we can switch pretty quickly when it comes to people the same age, and I agree, although in my game, the man is a rich businessman and the woman is the ruler of a country.

Anyway, thanks for your answer. :)