Comments on: How would the Hulk say "Hulk Smash!" in French?

Question: How would the Hulk say "Hulk Smash!" in French?

Naberius — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:31:08 -0800

If the Incredible Hulk were French, how would he say his famous "Hulk Smash!"??

Really that simple. I just need to know how to say Hulk smash! in French, and the automatic translation sites are giving me things that don't seem to have the context right. Thank you in advance...

By: Brocktoon

Brocktoon — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:43:28 -0800

He would probably say just "Hulk smash!" or maybe "Fracas Hulk!", according to Babel Fish.

By: Naberius

Naberius — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:46:30 -0800

Yeah, but I don't trust Babel Fish on this. If I back translate fracas, I don't get Smash, as in violently break something into little pieces. I get something more like clatter.

I need the connotation to be right, so I'm hoping there's an actual French speaker around.

By: From Bklyn

From Bklyn — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:49:44 -0800

"Hulk Creve!" (I can't get the accent gréve in over the first 'e') or maybe "Hulk Démoli!"

By: box

box — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:50:31 -0800

Hulk Devaste!

(Not according to Babelfish, but I'm not a fluent speaker either.)

By: fire&wings

fire&wings — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:50:37 -0800

Hulk fracasser!

By: martinrebas

martinrebas — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:59:13 -0800

http://picfu.com/link/3251/02f3ee2e7bc50ec9

By: Naberius

Naberius — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 15:00:08 -0800

A ha! Finding the right online resource helps.

http://www.french-linguistics.co.uk/dictionary/

1 fracasser Verb, transitive (a) to smash, shatter an object, smash down, smash a door in; se ~ contre to crash against

Present
je fracasse, tu fracasses, il/elle fracasse, nous fracassons, vous fracassez, ils/elles fracassent

So that actually agrees with the original Babelfish translation, plus giving me the correct form. So I'm going with Hulk Fracasse!

Thanks everyone!

By: jepler

jepler — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 15:02:09 -0800

suggestions:
here
here
and here (warning: java)

Since the original is not proper grammar, I have no idea what form of the verb you'd use, once you chose a verb.

By: Metroid Baby

Metroid Baby — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 15:02:19 -0800

I'm not a fluent French speaker and don't know the word for "smash," but I do wonder how it would be conjugated in order to reflect Hulk's particular grammatical charm. Possibly the infinitive?

And is "Hulk" pronounced "Oolk" in French?

By: box

box — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 15:04:22 -0800

(Also: they publish Hulk comics in French, right? No sense reinventing the wheel here.)

By: languagehat

languagehat — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 15:04:27 -0800

I can't find any direct translation ("Hulk smash!" on one side, French version on the other), but this page has "C'est Hulk, 'Puny humans, Hulk smash!' Pis là Hulk casse la baraque," where casse la baraque, literally 'breaks the hut,' is slang for 'brings the house down.' There are a bunch of pages with "Hulk casse..." but there may not be a canonical translation of "Hulk smash," since French fans may well use the English phrase. However, I did stumble on this insanely detailed French page on Hulk, which should serve you for all your other Hulk-related needs en français.

By: Naberius

Naberius — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 15:04:51 -0800

Oh, bloody hell. And then martinrebas comes along. Can't argue with that, I guess.

By: Naberius

Naberius — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 15:09:07 -0800

Oh yeah, the french-linguistics.co.uk page on Casser is nice too.

1 casser Verb, transitive (a) to break a glass, snap a twig; to crack a nut; (in the sense of damage, stop working) to break a toy, television; to break a pattern, rythm; to slash prices; (Infml) se ~ les dents, (Slang) se ~ la gueule to fall arse over tit (Slang, humorous), come a cropper (Infml)

(d) (Slang) to beat up, bash in; je te casse la gueule! I'll smash your face in!, I'll smash your head in!; ~ du pédé to go queer-bashing; ~ du beur to go paki-bashing

Casse seems good too. Okay, I'll give them a couple options.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 15:10:02 -0800

On non-preview:

He would probably say [blah blah blah] according to Babel Fish.

You realize this is like saying "he would probably say [blah blah blah] according to some random drunk I found on the street who had no idea what I was talking about," right? Babelfish is pretty useful for getting a vague idea of what some foreign webpage is about; it is completely useless for a specific equivalent like this. So is looking up "smash" in a dictionary; yes, there are a bunch of ways to say "break, smash" in French, and that fact really isn't of much use here if you want an actual French equivalent. The poster tried Babelfish himself; he presumably wants a better answer. I hate to sound like a broken record, but uninformed guesses don't help people find answers.

For what it's worth, "Hulk fracasse" gets significantly fewer hits than "Hulk casse."

By: chairface

chairface — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 15:33:42 -0800

While the Internet is fun and all, I'd suggest calling Marvel comics. I'm pretty sure they have a canonical answer for you. There is no substitute for actual research.

By: creasy boy

creasy boy — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 15:55:27 -0800

A few words on methodology here, to add to languagehat's complaint.

I am a translator. You do not translate by using Babelfish, nor do you translate by looking up the word in a dictionary. If you have a working knowledge of both languages, then you can use a dictionary to generate suggestions so that you can then weigh these suggestions in your mind and decide which suggestion would best stand in for that use in that particular context. If you do not have a working knowledge of both languages then do not consult your dictionary; dictionaries are for understanding, not for translating. What you do in that case is you ask a translator or native speaker. Optimally you would ask several native speakers, since often their spontaneous, conscious reflection upon their own language does not match their fluent use of that language.

You can smash a window but not a shoe or a dog, even though can destroy all of these things; and if a bomb blew up a car, it would be a little odd to say that the bomb smashed the car, even if the effects are identical to a Hulk smashing. The verb is used very selectively, and t could easily be true that the French word you happen to find in the dictionary for "smash" doesn't extend to the case in question the way you expect it to, since it's only a rough match.

I'm pretty sure From Bklyn is a native French speaker; he's actually from Canada.

In "Hulk smash", what word form is that? An imperative? Or is it a noun describing his action? Is he trying to use the royal 'we'? Or is he speaking about himself in the third person with bad grammar? Or is it that these two rather punchy and primitive slabs of language, the words "hulk" and "smash", represent his two bunched fists in expressing his dumb, violent rage? Is it possible that he is not trying to utter a proposition and thus has no need for grammar?

By: euphorb

euphorb — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 15:58:16 -0800

Hulk Ecrasé!

By: domi_p

domi_p — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 16:24:21 -0800

French speaker here.

I'm not sure what's the best answer, but i vote against fracasse. Fracasser, although it does have that meaning, is way too much of a nice word to be used by a green beast smashing things.

Why not go with martinrebas's link? Hulk va détruire!

Doubt there is one single word that would give the same 'feeling' as smash.

You can take the word from someone that had cereal boxes written english/french side by side to read off during breakfast.

By: Laura in Canada

Laura in Canada — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 16:32:17 -0800

My other half (a fluent French speaker & comic book/ superhero geek), agrees with Brocktoon... he'd likely just say "Hulk Smash!" (imagine it though with a French accent & no "h" sound on "Hulk"); although he's just guessing.

By: Shepherd

Shepherd — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:35:31 -0800

An anglo comics geek, Quebec resident and former professional F-to-E translator here: I'm also in the "Hulk Smash!" camp.

"Hulk va détruire!" is good, and backtranslates as "Hulk will destroy!" which is actually a much less specific verb than "smash" in the first place.

"Casse," to my understanding, is used more in the sense of "to break into many pieces" or "to render non-functional" than "smash" in the Hulk sense. "Casse ta guele" does translate as "smash your face in," but that's idiomatic more than a direct translation of the common sense of the verb.

"Fracasse" is kind of a highfalutin' word for the Hulk to be using.

I think, dull as it sounds, "Hulk Smash!" is your best bet.

By: bitteroldman

bitteroldman — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 19:11:21 -0800

I like "Hulk Ecraser!"
How about "Hulk Maganer"?

By: ikkyu2

ikkyu2 — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:15:41 -0800

Why wouldn't it be "Hulcque?"

By: djacobs

djacobs — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:17:34 -0800

The translator at Stingy Kids has some comments as well.