# interlocuteur



## carolineR

In French, when describing a conversation between two people, one we know the name of, and one whose name we don't know, we constantly use the term _interlocuteur_ to refer to the second person.
e.g. Patrick demanda à son interlocuteur s'il savait à quelle heure leur ami allait venir.
I never encounter _interlocutor_ in English. What do you commonly use ?
Do I have to resort to "the person he was talking to" or is there another, frequently used, alternative ?


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## RuK

Wow, I don't see many replies. "Fellow conversationalist" gets it across, but is impossibly formal. I might translate as "Patrick asked him" or "the man with the yellow moustache" or whatever -- that would probably be the best I could do. Interesting that English seems to lack a word that is so common in French.


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## linguist786

replier?
respondant?
person 2?

hmm.. this is tricky!


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## Language Junkie

The word does exist in english (slight variation in spelling: interlocu_tor_), but it's so rarely used that most speakers don't even know it exists.

English speakers just work around it -


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## carolineR

Thanks  I thought so, just wanted to check


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## ZhongGuoWaWa

Hi, i read your post very quickly, not sure my answer will suit this particular situation. I use "contact person" to say interlocuteur in situations like "votre interlocuteur sera principalement moi telle personne."

Sinon dans une conversation j'aurais dit "the person you're talking to", parce que c'est plus idiomatique...c'est un peu bête mais je pense vraiment qu'un native speaker aurait plus dit ça


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## MDK-Translator

Try "the other party."  I think it's the best we can do, since interlocutor is very rarely used.

Michael.....


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## Lany

Une dernière pour ce soir :

À propois d'une conversation au téléphone

Donnez à votre *interlocuteur* le numéro de contrôle de 6 chiffres.

J'ai trouvé sur le GDT, Party. Est-ce vraiment utilisé, je ne crois pas avoir entendu ça, quel terme serait le plus juste? Party, speaker? Autre?

Aussi, devrait-on dire Give the other party/speaker your ... or Give the party/speaker your...


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## Tresley

Hello Lany,

"Interlocuteur" is a very difficult word to translate into English. It always depends on the context.

From the short phrase that you have provided I am guessing that this is regarding customer services. If this is so, then it might be 'telephone advisor' or 'agent'.

I often translate 'interlocuteur' as 'contact' - it usually covers everything!

'Please provide your contact with the 6 digit control number'

I hope this helps for the time being, but a little more context and explanation would help here.


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## Lany

Tresley you are my god, please marry me?

Other than that it is about calling a support service to give them a number so they can give you an access code.

I chose agent and also kept the Provide which sounds better than a plain old give.


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## Tresley

Hello Lany,

I like your style, but I am already happily married with two children.

I am just happy that I was able to help you.

P.S. 'Agent' sounds good!


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## 1amateurdechopin

I agree that "agent" seems to work in your context, but the word "party" might also be used if the context was different. The word "party" is rather formal, but it could be used in a judiciary situation, for example, in a court of law where one party (ie. group/person) who was suing another "party"!


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## Cath.S.

Amateur de Chopin, 
_interlocuteur _means "the person you are speaking to", it can be used either about a telephone or an in-person conversation, we also say _correspondant_, but solely for phone calls.
_Party_ can be used like _correspondant_, but in a law context we wouldn't use _interlocuteur_ nor _correspondant_ in French.


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## 1amateurdechopin

D'acc egueule! I was just thinking that since nobody answered the question regarding the use of "party" I wanted to say that it can mean the person who speaks in certain contexts. Of course, in this situation, it's not a very good translation fit


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## wijmlet

Or "the other (one, man, etc.)"  ?


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## livvie

Hello,

I have been hunting around to find a good word for 'interlocutuer' but am not having much luck.

I am working on a document which is used as a model by a 'coaching' company.  The table is filled in by the 'interviewer'.

My problem is with : L’*interlocuteur*, profil professionnel, personnalité :

I don't think Interlocutor is commonly used in BE English but I can't find another alternative.

Other examples from the model.

La situation de départ, le contexte :
La décision en question :


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## Iznogoud

Do you think "interlocuteur" refers to the person being interviewed? In this case, you could use "interviewee".


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## livvie

Yes Iznogoud I think it does. I did think of 'interviewee' but for some reason wasn't happy about it, it is growing on me now though!

Thanks

EDIT : I think I remember now! I don't know that the person is being interviewed as such, they could just be a having a discussion in a meeting.


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## philosophia

"Interlocutor" is the word used in linguistics and philosophy of language to translate "_interlocuteur_". As you justly pointed out it's not a common word, unlike "_interlocuteur_" in French, but as you're translating a document for a coaching company, maybe they wouldn't object to some jargon. What do you think?


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## b1947420

> I don't know that the person is being interviewed as such, they could just be a having a discussion in a meeting.


 
partenaire, associé, complice, camarade ?


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## livvie

Thanks philosophia and b1947420,

I don't really know who is 'having the conversation', which is the problem. I'm going to ask for additional context.

Thanks


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## livvie

I spoke to the concerned parties regrading 'Interlocutuer' and apparently it could be anyone from an employee, to the big boss, a sub-contractor etc.

This document is also intended for non-anglophone countries so I don't think I would be able to user any jargon words, have to keep it simple.

What do you think of : 'individual' or 'participant' or 'attendant' ?


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## pvarda

contact might work


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## philosophia

What do you think of "other speaker" or even more neutral "other person", "other participant"?
I've seen "other speaker" or "second speaker" used instead of "intelrocutor", still in philosophy of language.


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## livvie

Thank you for your suggestions.

I was thinking that maybe (after all this) Interlocutor may work. This document is to be used in Spain, Portugal and Italy and as they are Latin-based languages they will probably understand Interlocutor!

What do you think?


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## philosophia

I've checked WRdictionary and guess how you say "_interlocuteur_" in Spanish ans Portuguese?  "_Interlocutor_" , "_interlocutore_" in Italian.
So they might - with some imagination of course  -  understand the English "interlocutor".


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## livvie

Thanks philosophie,

Yes I think they should!  

Well that's put off having to find a translation for 'interlocuteur' for the anglophones, phew!!


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## Sienna-Paris

Is there a more informal translation of "interlocuteur" than "interlocutor", which isn't a word often used in English?

In context the sentence talks about "contacts et interlocuteurs sur Facebook" and so I would need to say "contacts and..."??

Thanks


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## Aistriúchán

discussion partner


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## Sienna-Paris

Hi, thanks for your suggestion - it doesn't sound very natural as an English phrase though...that's the problem with interlocuteur...no everyday word or phrase that works in English. Maybe "correspondant" ?


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## Aistriúchán

why don't you simply say "talker, speaker" ?


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## LivingTree

I'm not a Facebook fan, but surely someone who is would know the equivalent!

Unfortunately, "discussion partner" and "talker/speaker" simply don't address the specific question here, i.e. things Facebook, and don't fit into the sentence in any way.

"Interlocutor" itself is quite formal in English, and no one would use it to talk about Facebook.

You might want to juggle it: your contacts and people you talk to on Facebook. Is there actually a difference, do you think, or could you just say "people you talk to on Facebook"?


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## wistou

"contacts and chatting partners"...may-be ?


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## zwim

correspondant ?


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## LivingTree

I don't think we really want to make something up; we want to know what people actually say.

"Chatting partners" and "chat partners" appear to be widely used, but often in non-English-speaking country contexts, and I've never actually seen anyone say it.

"people you chat with on facebook"
"people you talk to on facebook"
not very many results ...
"facebook chat partners"
... even fewer ...
"facebook chatters"
quite a few results

"your Facebook contacts and chatters"?

"Facebook contacts" for sure. I do think I would say, myself, "your Facebook contacts and people you talk to / chat with on Facebook".

check some of these maybe:

"chat with on facebook"
"talk to on facebook"


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