Email sent to Marianne magazine on December 12th, 2003

December 14th, 2003

Dear Marianne,

It certainly would be a great idea to tell the journalist who wrote the piece on the Thanksgiving turkey on page 25 of the 8 Dec. 2003 Marianne issue that there exists a French translation for Thanksgiving, namely "Action de Grâces"  (hence "Thanksgiving Day" is "le jour d'Action de Grâces").

Similarly, the author of the article titled "Le 'car jacking' la hantise des riches" seems to be at a loss how best to translate "car jacking" (apart from the humorous "vol à la tire" and despite our French-speaking cousins in Quebec having suggested the rather vague and all-embracing "piraterie routière"). Since "hijacking" is generally translated as "détournement d'avion", the obvious French equivalent of "car jacking" is "détournement de voiture", for want of a better phrase.

Excuse my English,

Christian Lassure - English For Techies

PS. Has anyone ever thought of using something like "vol de voiture à l'arraché"?

© Christian Lassure - English For Techies

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