Consulting Journal: Writing

Writing: Foreign words

by David Blakey

How should you show foreign words and phrases in your reports?

[Monday 3 February 2003]

Some people who write in English include foreign words or phrases in their reports or presentations. In this article, I shall discuss why they do it, why they should not, and then how they can do it well.

Why do it?

There seem to be two main reasons for people to use foreign words in English writing.

Making the meaning clear

One reason is that the foreign words seem to give a stronger emphasis than English words. Take, for example, the words ‘idée fixe’. It may appear that this phrase is stronger than writing ‘fixed idea’. Writing ‘The client has an idée fixe about competing for quality awards’ may seem to give a stronger negative image of the client's propensity for competing for quality awards. In fact, it does not. Writing instead that ‘The client has an obsession about competing for quality awards’ will present the writer's view much more strongly in English.

The skill is in finding the English word or phrase that will convey exactly what the writer means. While ‘fixed idea’ is weak, ‘obsession’ is especially strong.

Demonstrating their knowledge

The second reason for someone to use a foreign word or phrase is to demonstrate their knowledge. As fluency in a language other than English is not needed for most consulting assignments in English-speaking countries, this demonstration seems superfluous. It is also not a good idea to show a client that you know more than they do, even if your knowledge is irrelevant to the area of consulting.

There is a risk that you can appear pretentious, rather than knowledgeable.

There is also a risk that you will encounter a client who is more fluent in the language than you are. (They may have decided not to flaunt their knowledge.)

How to do it

There may be times when a foreign word or phrase will convey a particular meaning or nuance better than English. Here is how to use these words or phrases well.

Check for an English equivalent

You should, of course, always check for an equivalent in English first. If you can only think of English words that do not quite convey the meaning that you want, then use a thesaurus.

If writing reports is part of your profession, you should consider yourself to be a professional writer. Use a full version dictionary and thesaurus, rather than a ‘desk’ edition. For British writers, I recommend Chambers; for American writers, Webster's; and for international writers, or those writing for the Web, the Concise Oxford.

You will almost certainly find an English equivalent.

Use ‘Western’ languages

For English writers, it is acceptable to use French, Italian, German and Spanish words or phrases. Do not use any languages than use a different set of characters, such as Greek or Russian.

Use a few languages

Avoid using a mix of different languages, expecially in the same paragraph. Do not write ‘The crescendo of blitzkrieg reached its peak by May 1940 and was never again a force de frappe.’

Leave as plain text

Some writers place foreign words in quotes or in italics. I do recommend this, as it can make sentences seem jerky; it stops the smooth flow that the reader should have, even through the foreign words. Consider this example.

The crescendo of blitzkrieg reached its peak by May 1940 and was never again a force de frappe.

Many words move into English from foreign languages. You may consider the phrase ‘force de frappe’ to be foreign, but what about ‘crescendo’? Would you consider that to be an English word now? What about ‘blitzkrieg’? One of the problems with emphasizing a foreign word is that it shows that you think that it is foreign, rather than English. So, if you do not emphasize ‘crescendo’, should you emphasize ‘blitzkrieg’? And what of ‘café’? It looks French, because of its accent, but it is now certainly English.

Keep any accents

It has become common to omit accents, especially from French words that are now part of English. Some style guides even recommend this. I disagree. Consider the word ‘coupe’. Does it describe a car or a dessert? I suggest that the car should still be a coupé and that the dessert should be a coupe.

Answers

The sample sentence that I used above looks as if it belongs in an English test, so I shall answer the question: Improve the following sentence.

My solution is ‘The increasing power of blitzkrieg reached its peak by May 1940 and was never again a major force in warfare.’

Note that the phrase ‘increasing power’ is longer than the single word ‘crescendo’. This additional length makes the phrase more effective. You should always aim for brevity, but there are occasions when you can make your point better by using more words. The same applies to the phrase ‘major force in warfare’. The longer sentence makes the whole case more effectively to its readers.

Finally, you might consider explaining the word ‘blitzkrieg’. You can do this by using commas or parenthesis or dashes. Your choice should depend upon which you think is better in the circumstances. In this case I favour using dashes, as in ‘The increasing power of blitzkrieg - Germany's technique of rapid advance - reached its peak by May 1940 and was never again a major force in warfare.’

[ List articles on Writing ] [ View printable version ]