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  3. General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters

C’est plus une atteinte presque à la personne

English translation: it's almost more like a personal attack

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
French term or phrase:c’est plus une atteinte presque à la personne
English translation:it's almost more like a personal attack
Entered by: Yolanda Broad

20:55 Jun 4, 2015
    The asker opted for community grading. The question was closed on 2015-06-08 12:54:09 based on peer agreement (or, if there were too few peer comments, asker preference.)


French to English translations [Non-PRO]
Art/Literary - General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters / Quotes in academic paper
French term or phrase: C’est plus une atteinte presque à la personne
This is a quote from an academic paper on how consumers find their identity by purchasing brand names. For example, one line from the introduction reads: "Brands become individual sanctuary for consumers helping them to deal with the threats of everyday life."

There are various quotes from novels, journals, biographies etc. illustrating individual character's/musicians feelings of alienation, loneliness and other aspects of vulnerability we may possess.

This is from someone's description of how they went straight to the Apple Store to replace a broken iphone, knowing that it was the brand, rather than the item's use, that they were more concerned with. The context reads:

"Ce que j’aurais envie de dire c’est, ‘je me suis cassé le bras, il faut vite que je le répare, ou je me suis cassé le poigné comment on fait pour le réparer le plus vite possible’. C’est plus une attente presque à la personne. Il fallait effacer ça toute de suite et le soulagement je me rappelle…"

Is this about how we have expectations of the way things should be?
Lara Barnett
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:31
it's more like almost a personal attack
Explanation:
I think it's important to maintain the imagery here, of someone's portable gadget's being so much an extension of themselves that when one gets damaged, it's almost like an attack on themselves — note the prior references to breaking legs and wrists. And I don't think 'attack' is too strong a term to use, given the wya this is being used illustratively.

And of course, as Sylvain has already pointed out, that should obviously be 'atteinte'.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 12 heures (2015-06-05 09:12:15 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

The trouble is here we are focusing on the result, rather than the agent — I suppose one could turn it round to make it: "it's more like I'd almost been attacked personally" — by using the passive, we eliminate the need to specify some imaginary agent. Or change the verb to a noun:
"It's almost more like a personal attack on me" — I think that keeps it neater.
Selected response from:

Tony M
France
Local time: 12:31
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
3 +3it's more like almost a personal attack
Tony M
3 +1It is more like a personal affront/offense
Verginia Ophof
3 +1It's almost like I'd been assaulted.
Terry Richards
3It's almost as though I'd been physically attacked//was the victim of a physical attack
polyglot45
3 -3It is practically an attempt against the individual
Ana Vozone


Discussion entries: 3





  

Answers


21 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): -3
C’est plus une attente presque à la personne
It is practically an attempt against the individual


Explanation:
Something along these lines.
An attempt here means something bad, an agression, an offence.



Example sentence(s):
  • In the Roman state, one gave up his children, another his brother, to death, to revenge an attempt against common liberty.
Ana Vozone
Local time: 11:31
Does not meet criteria
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in PortuguesePortuguese
PRO pts in category: 8

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
disagree  Victoria Britten: Damage or harm, not attempt. This is not an attack from the outside, but something that happens to the speaker.
40 mins
disagree  Tony M: Agree with Victoria — if the typo were corrected, this still wouldn't really make a lot of sense in EN.
1 hr
disagree  AllegroTrans: agrre with above 2 comments, and anyway you would need to specify "attempt at/to...something..against the individual" for this to make sense
1 hr
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +1
C’est plus une attente presque à la personne
It is more like a personal affront/offense


Explanation:
suggestion


    Reference: http://news.pogo.com/they-take-it-as-a-personal-affront/
Verginia Ophof
Belize
Local time: 04:31
Meets criteria
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 53

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  AllegroTrans: yes for personal affront
3 mins
  -> thank you AllegroTrans !
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11 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
C’est plus une attente presque à la personne
It's almost as though I'd been physically attacked//was the victim of a physical attack


Explanation:
I don't like "personal" unless you say .. as though someone had attacked me personally

polyglot45
Meets criteria
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in FrenchFrench
PRO pts in category: 227
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +3
c’est plus une atteinte presque à la personne
it's more like almost a personal attack


Explanation:
I think it's important to maintain the imagery here, of someone's portable gadget's being so much an extension of themselves that when one gets damaged, it's almost like an attack on themselves — note the prior references to breaking legs and wrists. And I don't think 'attack' is too strong a term to use, given the wya this is being used illustratively.

And of course, as Sylvain has already pointed out, that should obviously be 'atteinte'.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 12 heures (2015-06-05 09:12:15 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

The trouble is here we are focusing on the result, rather than the agent — I suppose one could turn it round to make it: "it's more like I'd almost been attacked personally" — by using the passive, we eliminate the need to specify some imaginary agent. Or change the verb to a noun:
"It's almost more like a personal attack on me" — I think that keeps it neater.

Tony M
France
Local time: 12:31
Meets criteria
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 348
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  katsy: I prefer "attack" in this context, too
19 mins
  -> Thanks, Katsy!
agree  Michele Fauble
7 hrs
  -> Merci, Michele !
agree  Martha Webber-Desforges
10 hrs
  -> Thanks, Martha!
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12 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +1
C’est plus une attente presque à la personne
It's almost like I'd been assaulted.


Explanation:
This is another alternative to the answers you've already been given, which are perfectly satisfactory. I've given this a confidence level of 3 to match the others. I would probably have given it a 4 under other circumstances.

Personally, I like the use of "assault" here. But maybe that's just me :)


Terry Richards
France
Local time: 12:31
Meets criteria
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 28

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Tony M: I must admit, if I had the right to change the source tex, I'd want to say "It feels almost like an assault (etc.) on me personally" — I think the 'feels like' would be the key point here... if only...
2 mins
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