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Glossary entry

French term or phrase:

tout aussi hors-normes

English translation:

quite as OTT (over-the-top)

Added to glossary by Lara Barnett
Oct 22, 2013 20:18
10 yrs ago
4 viewers *
French term

tout aussi hors-normes

French to English Other General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters in a Film Synopsis
This is from the first part of another question I have just submitted regarding the post-colon phrase. The context reads:

"Au Brésil le football est un grand spectacle. Et comme tous les grands spectacles, ils ont leur animateurs tout aussi hors-normes que leur passion : les commentateurs sportifs. Leur fameux cri de victoire est dans toutes les oreilles."

I have tried to find an appropriate translation for the context:

"... Like all great entertainment, it has its leaders who are just as **extraordinary / irregular/ atypical** as their passion: the sports commentators."
Proposed translations (English)
3 +5 quite as OTT (over-the-top)
3 +1 as much larger than life
3 it has its hosts who are as unconventional as they are passionate ....
3 without equal/unrivalled / exceptionnel
Change log

Oct 22, 2013 21:16: writeaway changed "Field" from "Art/Literary" to "Other" , "Field (specific)" from "Cinema, Film, TV, Drama" to "General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters" , "Field (write-in)" from "Film Synopsis" to "in a Film Synopsis"

Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

Non-PRO (1): Nikki Scott-Despaigne

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Discussion

Nikki Scott-Despaigne Oct 23, 2013:
tout aussi... "Just as..." seems like a fine solution to me ans it's what you suggest yourself in the body of your question.

As for "animateurs", here, I'd go with "presenters".
And for "commentateurs sportifs" : sports commentators.

Standard.
David Goward Oct 23, 2013:
@Karen Football (particularly in Brazil) is a form of showbiz, entertainment, or whatever. And like other forms of showbiz (circus being a particularly good example), it has someone who "leads" the show. In other forms of showbiz, this may be a compere, a ringmaster, etc., but in Brazilian football, it's the commentator. If you're going to translate "animateur" as commentator, how do you propose dealing with the whole sentence?
DLyons Oct 23, 2013:
@Karen That's what I think too. Tony and David disagree. C'est la vie.
Karen Vincent-Jones (X) Oct 23, 2013:
animateurs Surely the 'animateurs' ARE the sports presenters/commentators- renowned for their febrile commentaries.
David Goward Oct 23, 2013:
Totally agree with Tony to the extent that I would consider using "show" and "host" for "spectacle" and "animateur".
DLyons Oct 22, 2013:
@Tony You could well be right. My bedtime approaches.
Tony M Oct 22, 2013:
@ DL Ah, I see it quite differently!

To me, the writer is seeking to draw a parallel with the kind of 'animateurs' one finds in 'spectacles' — I've mentioned examples below of things like a circus ring-master or a music-hall Chairman — and the equivalent in football, which would be the commentators.
DLyons Oct 22, 2013:
@Tony I see where you're coming from on this. My reading is that "commentateurs sportifs" are fairly clearly "sports commentators". Now how are they related to the "animateurs"? The animateurs mentioned here are "commentateurs sportifs" hence they are a subset of broadcasters rather than a superset of them as you suggest.

Sorry for the math jargon, it's getting late!
Tony M Oct 22, 2013:
@ DL Sorry, I really can't agree with 'broadcasters' to translate 'animateurs' — IMHO that amounts to serious over-interpretation. Talking about the world of 'spectacle' these people are 'animateurs' — but there could easily be no connection whatsoever with broadcasting of any kind!
The trouble is in EN, we don't have one single word like 'animateur' that fits in all situations; so they might be 'play / group / activity leaders', for example, in some contexts, 'TV presenters' or 'gameshow / chatshow hosts' in another, and so on.
Lara Barnett (asker) Oct 22, 2013:
@ DLyons Thank you. That does sound better.
DLyons Oct 22, 2013:
The. the first may be "broadcasters" and the second "sports commentators".
Tony M Oct 22, 2013:
@ DL Yes, but the problem is, Asker's text talks first about 'animateurs' and then about 'commentateurs' — we need to retain some means of making the comparison between the people who 'present' other shows, and their football counterparts, who are the commentators.
Lara Barnett (asker) Oct 22, 2013:
@ TOny Thanks for extra comments. I was playing with the idea of using "hosts".

I see what you mean about entertainment - I like showbiz or razzamatazz. Though I think showbiz might be safer for the moment.
DLyons Oct 22, 2013:
Animateurs might be just commentators/broadcasters? I can remember one such shouting the elongated word "Gooooooooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllll" in a single breath lasting nearly 30 secs.
Tony M Oct 22, 2013:
BTW... ...I'd hesitate to translate 'spectacles' as 'entertainment' — I think that rather waters down the notion of razzamatazz, showbiz etc. The writer seems to be likening football commentators to e.g. circus ringmasters or music hall Chairmen; maybe try to look at it in that sort of light?
Tony M Oct 22, 2013:
A thought... You might want to consider something like 'front-men' — though that's unfortunately rather too gender-specific, since there might of course be lady football commentators too.
Lara Barnett (asker) Oct 22, 2013:
animateurs Probably going to use "presenters" rather than "leaders", though this may not be relevant.

Proposed translations

+5
21 mins
French term (edited): tout aussi hors-normes que
Selected

quite as OTT (over-the-top)

Thinking of Brazilian exuberance in general, and sports commentators' in particular, I think this might suit.

I interpret 'hors normes' as having a sense close to 'hors gabarit', i.e. oversized, larger-than-life, etc., hence why I think OTT might work [note: ought to be OK for a GB readership, but I don't know if the abbreviation is widely understood in the US]

I don't know what you think, but I read 'leur passion' as referring back to 'ils' — i.e. it's not the passion of the 'animateurs', but of the 'spectacles'. I don't know if it's just me, but there seems to be something odd about the logic of the sentence here: we go from singular 'le football' to plural 'ils' (= 'spectacles') and 'leur', but then it seems to sit slightly awkwardly. I'd have understood it better, if it had said 'football, like any kind of show, has its ... that are as ... as its passion'. But maybe I'm just missing the finer points of the style in FR :-(
Peer comment(s):
agree Victoria Britten : Certainly works rather well for GB
41 mins
Thanks, Victoria!
agree Emma Paulay : Yes, I like this. I think "ils" actually refers to the Brazilians. It's not expressed very well, as you say.
8 hrs
Thanks, Emma! Yes, that's a possibility, isn't it? 'ils' refers to someone not already mentioned... I think you've hit the nail on the head there!
agree SafeTex : Surely though ... 'just as OTT' rather than 'quite as..'
9 hrs
Thanks, SafeTex! Not for me: I think 'quite' is stylistically better, and has a nuance of meaning highly desirable here: 'apples are just as good as oranges' (apologetic) 'apples are quite as good as oranges' (argumentative)
neutral polyglot45 : I fear OTT may be a little OTT ! they are anything but run-of-the-mill = big, larger than life personalities
10 hrs
Thanks, Polyglot! I think it could work, it's certainly in line with the feeling I get (perhaps wrongly?!) from 'hors-normes'
agree David Goward : although tending to side with SafeTex's view
11 hrs
Thanks, David!
agree Sheri P : But I would, in fact, avoid the abbreviation if this is for a US audience. I don't think it would be familiar to many US readers. The first time I came across "OTT" was here on ProZ, and I initially had no idea what it meant!
18 hrs
Thanks a lot, Sheri! I rather suspected as much; in the UK, it was the name of a '70s TV series, which I think is why some of us are familiar with it ;-)
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
18 mins

it has its hosts who are as unconventional as they are passionate ....

You probably need host/presenter etc. for animateur here.

Something like: "it has its hosts who are as unconventional as they are passionate: (in other words) sports commentators"

or "hosts whose larger-than-life personnalities are matched only by their passion - in this case sports/football commentators" (the latter might be possible if the whole text is football-specific
Peer comment(s):
neutral Karen Vincent-Jones (X) : This sounds like 'host nation'
15 hrs
It doesn't: see, for example, terms like match of the day host for football (as in the TV programme).
Something went wrong...
40 mins

without equal/unrivalled / exceptionnel

suggestion
Something went wrong...
+1
1 hr

as much larger than life

..
Peer comment(s):
neutral Tony M : Right idea, but sounds awfully unnatural using 'as much' with 'larger' like this in EN (which sounds like it's a comparative); it would really need to be 'larger than life to the same extent that...' which is clearly out of the question!
5 mins
agree polyglot45 : they have their own larger-than-life presenters
9 hrs
neutral Nikki Scott-Despaigne : "as much..." begs "as" so cannot be followed by "-er than""
15 hrs
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