French Language notes - August 2018

When President Macron chided a brazen teenager who cheekily asked him “How’s it going Manu?” (the shortened name given to those called Emmanuel) at a recent official engagement, it made headline news.

It was not just the youngster’s over-familiarity with the country’s most powerful person (and, lest we forget, his senior by many years) that provided click-bait, but also Macron’s full-on, instant reproach of the child’s ‘insolence’.

But just where do we all stand with using people’s nicknames (surnoms)?

The first thing to remember is that the French do not tend to use nicknames as ,liberally as the British, says Camille Chevalier-Karfis of French Today language courses. “The French tend to be sort of formal with names,” she says. “It’s still very common to use Monsieur and Madame to talk to someone you may be acquainted with, and it may take some time before you go on a first name basis – it may actually never happen.”

As for shortened names... “We do have some common ones such as ‘Caro’ for Caroline, Nico for Nicolas, and indeed Manu for Emmanuel. But it is not set in stone and it’s not because your name is Caroline that people will call you Caro.”

Calling someone by a common nickname without their permission can easily be seen as a lack of respect, she says. “Especially if there is no indication that this person actually uses that nickname.”

A similarly tricky problem is when to use tu and vous, based not only on familiarity and permission to use tu (granted by the more senior party) but also status and age.

Just make sure you make the switch when it is offered, says Camille. “The thing is when one person offers to say tu, it’s extremely impolite to refuse. Like someone offering his friendship and you saying: “no thanks, I’d rather keep things formal between us”.