# Au feeling



## TRIBEN

This is a perfect frenglish expression we use in every day life.

Example:
Quand je fais le trajet de Brooklyn à Manhattan, je n'ai pas un itineraire précis, je le fais au feeling.

It means you do something following your feeling, without strong ground or solid data but you just do it this way because you feel like it.

I don't know how to put that in english...

Any ideas?

*Moderator note: *multiple threads merged to create this one


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## doinel

Peut-être haphazardly, un peu comme au petit bonheur la chance???


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## bh7

"to do sth. by ear, by the seat of one's pants" are two possible English equivalents

others may be:  haphazardly; at random; to walk nowhere in particular
as one desires; as one sees fit; ad libitum


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## TRIBEN

"Randomly" could work?

Like:
"I commute from Brooklyn to Manhattan randomly, it all depends of how things happened".

It sounds good, I don't know if it is good though.


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## archijacq

on the spur of the moment


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## Nicklondon

I go with the flow?


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## Jmus

I would say, 'I don't have a set itinerary, I just go with the flow.' or 'I just go whichever way suits my mood.'


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## Itisi

I go as it pleases me
I follow my whim


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## Mauricet

bh7 said:


> "to do sth. by ear, by the seat of one's pants" are two possible English equivalents
> 
> others may be:  haphazardly; at random; to walk nowhere in particular
> as one desires; as one sees fit; ad libitum


"Au feeling" n'est pas du tout "au hasard", mais plutôt en suivant son intuition et les impulsions du moment. Dans le cas d'un trajet en voiture à travers les encombrements, par exemple, ça peut inclure le flair du conducteur expert qui devine où la circulation sera la plus fluide ce jour-là.


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## broglet

' ... I do it by instinct'_ ou_ ' ... I just know how to find my way'


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## Chimenseena

" intuitively "


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## Itisi

TRIBEN said:


> ...you just do it this way _because you feel like it_.



The meaning here is a bit ambiguous... Perhaps not exactly what TRIBEN meant?

Going by Mauricet: 'I follow my nose'


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## Santana2002

Quand je fais le trajet de Brooklyn à Manhattan, je n'ai pas un itineraire précis, je le fais au feeling.

Suggestion:  _When I travel from Brooklyn to Manhattan, I don't have a fixed route, I take whichever route I feel like at the time._


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## Topsie

I just play it by ear!
(as mentioned by bh7)


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## sound shift

"I don't follow a fixed route. I just go where the mood takes me."


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## Keith Bradford

broglet said:


> ' ... I do it by *instinct*'_ ..._



.

In fact, I think this is the best way to translate "le feeling" in general.


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## franc 91

or - I just follow my nose


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## ilfautque

to "wing it" might also be appropriate.  One does not do something with a set plan, so they "wing it".  This assumes that the person "winging it" knows enough about the subject to get by, but not enough to be precise.

"Intuitively", "by instinct" and "to play something by ear" suggests that you know what you are doing or where you are going but that you can't reproduce an exact detailed description.

"On a whim" suggests that you have multiple options but choose which one "au hasard".


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## zazouTrn

*Note des modérateurs*: nous avons ajouté cette question à une discussion précédente.

Bonjour, 

Je n'arrive pas à trouver la traduction "au feeling", j'ai vu l'expression by feel, mais je ne trouve pas de texte originaux avec ce terme.
Ma phrase exacte est : Du coup je n'ai rien préparé, ça a vraiment été au feeling ! 
Le contexte est un Dj qui parle d'un dj set ...


Merci d'avance !


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## Franco-filly

The WR dictionary gives: *feeling* [*filiŋ*] nm (_familier_)(=_intuition_) feel, instinct
*au feeling *by feel, by instinct

Perhaps "off-the-cuff", "ad lib" or "spontaneous" would fit.


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## akaAJ

Either "off the cuff" or "ad-lib" is perfect.


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## OLN

Par "ç'a été au feeling", veux-tu dire que le DJ a "senti" son auditoire et s'est adapté instinctivement à ses désirs ? 

Puisqu'il n'avait rien préparé, peut-être  _I had to* improvise* and to play by instinct_.


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## akaAJ

I assume "au feeling" is the same as "au pif".  Another possibility is "I had to wing it".  All three versions imply that he relied on his experience to improvise a program.


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## OLN

akaAJ said:


> I assume "au feeling" is the same as "au pif".  Another possibility is "I had to wing it".  All three versions imply that he relied on his experience to improvise a program.


Ou _au flair_, pour continuer à parler français (d'ailleurs, quel est cet anglicisme 'un dj set" ?). Mais attention, "au pif" signifie aussi "au hasard" dans le langage courant.

Il suffisait de chercher dans l'historique pour voir qu'*au pif, au pifomètre *et* au feeling* ont a déjà fait l'objet de discussions dans ce forum.


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## akaAJ

The disc jockey's work day is divided into "sets", where he works for X hours, then time off, then another set, until his engagement is completed.  "un tour" ??


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## Nicomon

_faire au feeling_ en français plutôt qu'en franglais pourrait donner : agir _selon l'intuition du moment / suivre son intuition. 
_Ou comme OLN a mentionné : _y aller au flair. 

I had to wing it / I ad libed / I did it off-the-cuff = j'ai dû improviser / j'ai improvisé_... conviennent bien à mon avis pour traduire une phrase comme : 
_Je n'avais rien préparé, alors j'ai dû mproviser. (I had no set plan so I had to wing it), 

_Mais ce ne sont pas des équivalent de _« faire au feeling » _qui se traduit en général par _play by instinct. _

Je crois que _dj set = session de dj. 

_


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## akaAJ

I get your point, OLN and Nicomon.  but to anglophones, the suggested terms carry the sense of _informed_ instinct (not really an oxymoron); "playing it by ear", e.g., includes modifying the activity on the fly, using experience to guess how best to adjust one's actions according to the reactions of the audience/target.  In fact, Mauricet's entry on the link refers to an experienced driver sensing (intuiting, if you will, but by filtering his choice through his experience) the least encumbered route.  Eating is an instinct; choosing a course of action, even if chosen without prior planning, is not.


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## Nicomon

My point was that if I meant to say_ « J'ai dû improviser / J'ai improvisé » - _which to me is what _I had to wing it / I ad-libed / Played by ear _mean _- _I wouldn't say « _je l'ai fait au feeling / selon l'intuition du moment _». 

Mauricet used pretty much the same wording as I did, e.g. : 





> _en suivant son intuition et les impulsions du moment _


 He also mentioned _flair_, that OLN suggested instead of _au pif. _What would be an English equivalent for those, other than "_instinct_" - which Keith Bradford approved of? 

Actually, what I think we're looking for is an English equivalent to : _improviser au feeling / improviser en suivant son intuition. _


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## akaAJ

My Larousse ties "flair" primarily to olfaction (flairer), but gives a second definition as the English "flair"; "a flair for X" is "a talent for X", sometimes (as with some uses of "talent") with an overtone of "innate" rather than "acquired".  I feel I'm missing the nuance that the francophones are insisting on.


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## Itisi

I followed my feeling


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## Kelly B

Itisi said:


> I followed my feeling


That was the direction I was thinking in, too - I_ followed my instincts/gut/heart,_ where heart would sound silly in this particular context, but might work in others.


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## Nicomon

@akaj: We used the French word_ flair _in that sense - emphasis mine : 





> Faculté de pressentir, perspicacité, clairvoyance, *intuition.* Flair de policier. Y aller au flair.


  Et j'aurais dû penser à _followed my... _après avoir suggéré _*suivre *son intuition_  comme synonyme de _faire au feeling_.


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## akaAJ

I thought "gut" had been introduced into the discussion, but I can't  find the entry.  It is true that "I followed my gut feeling(s)/gut  instinct(s)/plain "gut" is current in American English, most frequently  applied to sudden _unexpected_ situations, as a metaphor for "not  having time for detailed analysis, I relied on my accumulated  experience and insights to suggest an appropriate action on the fly".   We are not given the occasion on which the person acted "au feeling".   "Du coup" doesn't imply surprise, but rather a an intervening event that  precluded preparation (e.g., an unexpected task that ate up the  allotted time) for a task which the speaker anticipated and presumably  had experience in.  I admit that a side issue (disk jockey set)  distracted me into thinking that some well-known task was involved (I  had a lecture to give on a subject in my field, but wound up not having  time to prepare it).  For such a situation "ad-lib" is appropriate and  "instinctively" is way over the top.  Still, if one recognizes that "gut  feeling" and "au feeling" are somewhat extravagant metaphors for the  (definitely non-instinctive, in the true meaning of the term) thought  processes that I described here and in entries above.  I accept that  "followed my instincts" and "au feeling" are equivalent expressions  I  happen to find abusive.


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## Nicomon

In a nutshell and as copied from two different dictionaries  : 





> *Wikipédia :
> au feeling* /o fi.liŋ/_invariable_
> 
> _(Familier)_ _(Anglicisme)_ À l’intuition, au ressenti personnel.
> *Antidote :*
> au feeling
> *Selon l’intuition du moment* Il crée au feeling, sans plan établi.


  If you agree that   _ad-lib/wing it = improviser _how would you translate a sentence such as this one ?





> Je n'en avais jamais fait, j'ai donc _*improvisé au feeling.*_


 There, I think that  _I played it by ear _would work fine.   But this is just the opinion of a non native.


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## akaAJ

Sounds good to me.  I guess my last diatribe was owing to the feeling that the French had hijacked the word "feeling" and twisted its meaning.


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