"Please don't pull any punches" (or something) in French?
September 18, 2013 3:24 PM   Subscribe

Let's say you wanted to ask something like "Do I look fat in this?" Doing so would cause many or most people to take your feelings into account when answering, and so if the answer really were "Yes, you look fat in that", you might not get an honest answer. So, if you really did want an honest answer, in English you might also say something like "Please don't worry about hurting my feelings", or "Please don't pull any punches", or "Please be brutally honest". How would one say the same sort of thing in French? Not necessarily direct literal translations of those phrases, but preferably a standard (and perhaps idiomatic) phrase getting the same point across.
posted by Flunkie to Writing & Language (7 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
Perhaps "appeler un chat un chat".
posted by Tanizaki at 3:33 PM on September 18, 2013 [2 favorites]


"Ne te gênes pas : dis ce que tu penses vraiment."
posted by aroberge at 3:57 PM on September 18, 2013


"Ne mâche pas tes mots."
posted by redfishbluefish at 4:48 PM on September 18, 2013 [2 favorites]


"Je veux la vérité vraie."
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:34 PM on September 18, 2013


"lache-toi"
posted by TheTingTangTong at 7:08 PM on September 18, 2013


"Ne pas y aller de main morte."
posted by Mister Bijou at 12:00 AM on September 19, 2013


Dis-moi franchement
posted by Marauding Ennui at 7:31 AM on September 19, 2013 [1 favorite]


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