What does 'Tais-toi' mean?
Hello
What does the phrase "Tais-Toi" actually mean?
It means- "Shut Up"
shareNot really, "Tais-toi" is more polite then "Shut Up".
"Keep silent" is more appropriate ;)
no, "Tais-toi" is not more polite, it means exactly the same as "Shut up".
(I was a student in France for several months so I know it from practice :) )
Sorry but I think I know what I said, Im from Québec and french is my first language ;) The translation of "Shut Up" is "Ta Gueule". Also, the transalation of "Tais-toi" is "keep silent". ;)
sharethe literal translation is keep silent, but i think it probably is more commonly used as the english equivalent to 'shut up', the film is hardly about someone politely telling another to 'keep silent' as it would be understood in english.
share"Tais-toi" has a very imperious tone, also quite impatient. A sharp command. You know what I mean... As any other expression, it cannot translate perfectly into another language. Hence the keeping of the French title. (Although it's also called "Quentin & Ruby" in some countries).
"Shut up" is the best translation.
I am french
It means "shut up"
"Ta gueule" translates "shut the fcuk up"
"keep silent" = "est-ce que tu pourrais te taire" = "silence"
I'd say Shut Up too. It fits the overall idea of the movie.
But Ta Gueule is not as impolite as Shut the *beep* up
And Keep Silent is more like : Garde le silence.
Not really.
"Ta gueule" would be good for "shut up", "shut the *beep* up" for "ferme ta putain de gueule".
Not really.
"Ferme la" would be good for "shut up", "shut the *beep* up" for "ferme ta putain de gueule" or simply "Ta gueule".
Again "Tais-toi" is proper speaking, it's an order, but in a position of power it would not be out place, unlike the other sentences mentioned above.
I'm swede and in sweden this movie was called "Håll käften" which means Shut up!
The DVD of this movie I bought here in Greece. On the cover the translation problem has been avoided by changing the title completely to "Ee Spesialistes", not really a pure Greek word. In Greek " 'skasmos! " would probably be the nearest equivalent being slightly less rude then " 'skasai e si!", while ruder than "isichia! (silence!)" but judging by the Francophone comments in this blog the French term " Tais-Toi!" is really untranslateable, I venture that it would be slightly less polite than "Taisez-vous!", used by my French teacher in class when we were rowdy eleven-year olds back in the paleolithic age of the 1950s.
share"Taisez-vous" is just the plural form of "Tais-toi"...
shareYeah, but it's more polite to call someone by the plural form. In English you say "you" for both plural and singular, but in many other languages that's not the case. In such cases the plural (vous in French) is considered more formal and polite and the singular (toi/tu in French) is considered less polite and more informal. For example, you never call a stranger "tu", that would almost be an insultment.
shareIn that case "vous" is not plural, but a respectful "tu" :)
shareWell I'm from UK and I don't speak French but even I understand that to translate "Tais Tois" you need to understand how the second person singular works and what the relationship is between the two when it was used.
Said to a child it probably translates best as "be quiet". Said to an adult aquaintance where the singular form of the 2nd person is used it probably means more like "keep quiet" depending on the tone. Said to an adult stranger it means "shut up" with an implication that the person addresses needs to be spoken to as a child.
I haven't seen the film yet so I can't help further.
JG
massaerndiaye is the right one. I was born and raised in France (although I don't live there anymore) and I was gonna say just what he said.
Tais toi is not polite. Of course "ta gueule" is worse than "tais toi" but that doesn't make "tais toi" polite. So "ta gueule" is really "shut the f uck up". :-)
Another way of saying it is "la ferme" which is the same as "tais toi". Perhaps a bit more rude, but just a bit.
Well I'm from UK and I don't speak French but even I understand that to translate "Tais Tois" you need to understand how the second person singular works and what the relationship is between the two when it was used.
Said to a child it probably translates best as "be quiet". Said to an adult aquaintance where the singular form of the 2nd person is used it probably means more like "keep quiet" depending on the tone. Said to an adult stranger it means "shut up" with an implication that the person addresses needs to be spoken to as a child.
I haven't seen the film yet so I can't help further.
What you say is of course valid, jgw321, but it is too academic.... Of course all the words and expressions you used in english to translate the various meaning of the single french expression "tais toi" are also each variable in meaning and agressiveness depending on tone of voice. So you really can't put it like that... "Tais toi" means "shut up" said in the same tone as "tais toi" was originally said.
Ok, ok les mecs!...You are all speaking non sense. I am French and not the kind from Canada...The real thing...A French from France...By the way only the French from France are French...For the rest of the French speaking people from North America and particuliary in Canada, they are for us the French for a lack of better word: French Canadians or as we can sometimes call them "CANAKX!" or "CANACS" depending of the mood of the day.
So, Tais-toi! means Quiet!...Shuch!...Silence!...."Shut-up" is "Ta Gueule!"...
Ok les filles?...Any questions???
So have a good one!...et arreter d'ergoter, ca m'donne de l'urticaire!
Paul
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Always nice to read that kind of things. As if French in Belgium or Switzerland was worse than French in France (especially in Paris where one word out of two is in verlan or argot).
But he's right for the translation. "Tais-toi!" is basically not aggressive. But it can become due to the tone or the circumstances.
"Ta gueule!" is more aggressive by nature. I would say the English "Shut up!" has an aggressivity somewhere between them, more the "Ferme-la!" (litteral translation of "Shut up!") or "Tu vas la fermer?" ("Will you shut it up?") in French.
Bref, I think you all got the idea about the meaning a long time ago... I don't even know why I'm writing this, it doesn't interest anyone anymore...
"Tais-toi!" basically means shut up. But "tais-toi" is not vulgar at all and is the kind of thing a teacher could say to its students.
Other similar but more vulgar expressions include : "La ferme!" and "Ta gueule!"
In Quebec we have our own version called "Ta yeule!", but this expression is made of really poor language. In Quebec we also say "tais-toi" or "Ta gueule" but we never say "La ferme!".
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We don't call ourselves french-canadians, at least not anymore, beside to speak about the french-speakers outside Québec and New Brunswick (Acadians). The name only exists because the American loyalists came to settle in Canada after the american war of independance. They kept their english language and we kept our french language . So you had two types of canadians. Before the country was created before 1867, they still called us Canadians. But when the country was officialy created, they became Canadians too, so they called us French-Canadians and we called them "English". Now we are calling ourselves "Québecois" or "Quebeckers" in english (at least for those in Québec)and them "Canadians" . It's quite stupid to be called "French-Canadians", are the Walloons are calling themselves "French-Belgians" and "Flanders" "Dutch-Belgians" ?
Let's say, the word "canadians" is losing it's popularity.
Canadian French is a different dialect to the French spoken in France so although Tais-toi might mean "keep silent" in the Quebec dialect, Tais Toi means shut up in French.
shareQuoi ma gueule?!
Johnny Hallyday avec Jean Reno:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2uzZesi5Xw