Why french journalists use four words when one would do

It is traditionally considered bad form in written French to repeat a name, job title or place name in an article and French journalists therefore use a range of sometimes exotic-looking

alternatives to get around this problem. As we explain in our October edition in which one of our French journalists, Théo Larcher, discusses French and 'Anglo-Saxon' newspaper

training, French journalists also take pride in being ‘wordsmiths’. They like to show off their culture, sometimes at the expense of getting quickly to the point… Here are some of the more

common or amusing examples you may come across (hint: the ones we used above refer to the city of Marseille and being born). IN POLITICS Paraphrases in political articles are very common,

and you may find entire articles where the ministries or governments are never referred to by name. For instance,_ Matignon_ is a synonym for the Prime Minister, _the__ Quai d’Orsay_ for the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, _Bercy_ is the Finance Ministry, the _Élysée_ refers to the President, and the_ Palais du Luxembourg _is another name for the Senate. All of these are based on

the addresses of buildings where they are housed, such as '10 Downing Street' in the UK. Just to complicate matters, French journalists might add to this, such as referring to the

president as le locataire de _l’Elysée_ (the Elysée’s tenant). Members of the Constitutional council are called _Les Sages_ and members of the Académie Française are called _Les Immortels_,

which is why the institutions themselves are sometimes also called by that name. Some famous figures also have monikers that the French press enjoys using, such as _Le Pontife_ for the Pope,

_Le Maréchal_ for Philippe Pétain or _Le Général _for De Gaulle. IN GEOGRAPHY There is no shortage of nicknames for countries and cities in French, some of which may be obscure even for

French people. The most famous ones are _La Ville Lumière_ for Paris, _La capitale des Gaules_ for Lyon, _La ville rose _for Toulouse or _La cité des papes_ for Avignon. _La cité__ phocéenne

_for Marseille is named after the ancient Greek city of Phocaea, whose sailors founded Marseille. China is also known as _L’Empire du Milieu_ and Japan as _Le royaume du soleil levant_.

Britain can sometimes rather unkindly be referred to as _Le Perfide Albion_, a pejorative phrase used within the context of international relations, literally the untrustworthy white land

originating from the White Cliffs of Dover. To avoid repeating language names, French writers like to refer to their most famous literary figure. For instance _la langue de Molière_ for

French, _la langue de Shakespeare_ for English, _la langue de Dante_ for Italian or _la langue de Goethe_ for German. OTHER COMMON PHRASES Some common words in French also have flowery

synonyms. For instance, sometimes a person isn’t born, they _voir le jour_ (literally ‘see the day’). They do not die either, they _s’éteindre_ (extinguish themselves). A country does not

surrender, they _déposent les armes_, a person does not give up, they _baissent les bras_. Different categories of the arts all have their own numbers, for example cinema is sometimes

referred to as _le 7eme art_ (seventh art) or cartoons are _le 9e art_. Petrol is known as _l’or noir _(black gold). The press, meanwhile, may be referred to as _le quatrième pouvoir _(this

term also exists, but is not very common, in English, as ‘the fourth estate’). READ MORE: WHY ARE NEWSPAPERS KNOWN AS CANARDS (DUCKS) IN FRENCH? Football may be called _le ballon rond_, in

opposition to rugby which is referred to as_ le ballon ovale_ or _l’ovalie._ The latter would be roughly ‘ovaldom’ or ‘ovalness’ and refers to the world of rugby in general. It can also

refer, sometimes with a capital letter, to the part of France with the most major rugby clubs, ie. the south and south-west. HERE IS AN EXAMPLE: Now you are an expert on French

journalist-speak, we hope you can understand the following (hypothetical) phrase that we think a French journalist might have come up with: “_The Connexion_, journal ayant vu le jour en

2002, est un pilier du quatrième pouvoir écrivant dans la langue de Shakespeare sur l'actualité de l’ovalie, de la ville Lumière, de Matignon et du locataire de l'Elysée. Il va

publier un nouvel article sur une Immortelle qui s’est éteinte en août dernier.” RELATED ARTICLES COME AGAIN? COMMENT? WHEN SPOKEN FRENCH IS A MYSTERY SPOTLIGHT ON FLORID FRENCH OF RUGBY’S

RONAN O’GARA