# qu'est-ce que c'est merdique!



## jp34

salut, je cherche une façon de dire ça en anglais, quand par exemple on regarde un film nul. Qu'est-ce qui irait mieux d'après vous?
damn is that shit!
god is that shit!
is that shitty(?)!

si vous avez d'autres suggestions...


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## Fingon

"What shit!" would sound closest to the French, I believe.


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## jp34

salut, 
oui c'est pas mal mais ça ma l'air trop direct, il manque le recul


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## Xavier11222

Je crois que le recul perçu dans la phrase française n'est pas vraiment du recul... 

Still, other options include
_What a piece of shit!
Man, that was some serious crap right there. 
This movie was _Hostel_. 
I can't believe how shitty that was._


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## Fingon

Perhaps "What is this shit?!"?


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## jp34

mais est-il possible de dire ce que j'ai proposé? je me souviens de quelqu'un qui disait 'Am I tired!' alors j'ai appliqué le même schéma..


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## akaAJ

"What shit" is good, and so are most of the others.  "What is this shit?" is for another context, perhaps "tu entends me rouler? Tu me prends pour un con?"


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## wildan1

C'est trop fort en anglais de dire _shit_ dans ce contexte àma

_What a mess this film is!_
_This movie is a real mess_
_This movie is a total disaster_


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## saftschubse

Is it ever crappy! 
Is that ever crappy!
Seems to convey the French message the best, n'est-ce-pas?


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## no_cre0

These constructions with "is it/is that/isn't it" are very clumsy sounding in English, at least in American English. I also dont think that "shitty" is too strong of a word to be translated at "merdique". Thats literally what it means. As for the translation of "qu'est-ce que c'est merdique !" I think i would have to go with "It/That was so shitty!"


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## Xavier11222

jp34 said:


> mais est-il possible de dire ce que j'ai proposé? je me souviens de quelqu'un qui disait 'Am I tired!' alors j'ai appliqué le même schéma..


Oui, ça fonctionne bien. 

I really like Saft's "Is it ever crappy!" as an equivalent. 

And Wildan, you haven't seen _Hostel_. (There are no words too strong.)


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## wildan1

Doesn't_ merdique_ really describe things that are _mixed-up, crazy, screwed up, a mess_ (bad organization)?

It seems we have been talking more about terms that describe bad quality (which is what _shitty_ means to me)...

_Ce film est merdique - this movie is a mess/a wreck_ (the director and screenwriters didn't know how to put it together well). Maybe it adds up to bad quality, but the process is at fault, not the potential.


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## Xavier11222

Good point. The TLF tells us 


> *Merdique*, adj. Insignifiant, mauvais, ignoble, laid. _Parce que nous on tapait, mais elle, elle cousait ses petites affaires. Et fallait en plus faire le mannequin, essayer ses sapes merdiques, tourner, pas bouger pendant qu'elle épinglait, et admirer en plus_ (E. Hanska, _Les Raouls_, 1976, p.26, ds Cellard-Rey 1980).


Which doesn't help that much, since the example is indeed illustrating the idea that "merdique" describes things poorly put together (could still be a question of bad organization as you point out). 
Still, history of the word would lean toward the general idea of bad quality in a broadly disparaging comment, if we consider "merdique" to be a strict equivalent of "de merde":


> 1547 [date d'éd.] _de merde_ se dit grossièrement pour qualifier ce qu'on déprécie (Marg. d'Ang., _Marguer. de la marguer._, fo 116 ds Gdf. _Compl._)


 I'd say that for this phrase usage remained the same to this day. So it's not strictly about the process.


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## akaAJ

I can't picture anyone saying "That was so shitty [or crappy]" (Although "That was a shitty [moral judgment] thing to do" is idiomatic).  "What shit!" is straightforward as a direct assessment of either quality or truthfulness.  If "shit" is too strong, "What crap!" can be substituted.  I don't think anyone uses "merdique" without realizing its referant.


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## sound shift

"What a load of crap!" (BE)


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## saftschubse

Il me semble que c'est le :
"qu'est-ce-que c'est..." that jp34 is trying to put his finger on moreso than the "merdique."
See his post #6.
En anglais, on dirait:
"is it ever..."


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## akaAJ

saftschubse: interesting point that got lost in the shuffle.  You're right.  jp32's analogy to "Am _I_ tired" would work with commas: "Man, am I tired" => "God, is that shit/crap".


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## Outsider

I like a made-up word that I heard in _Late Night with Conan O'Brien_: _it's craptastic!_ 

P.S. For the full sentence: 

_Isn't it/that craptastic? 
How craptastic is it/that?_
etc.


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## akaAJ

God keep us from Conan O'Brien, then.

(You can take it that's a "No".)


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## uniqueamour

jp34 said:


> salut, je cherche une façon de dire ça en anglais, quand par exemple on regarde un film nul. Qu'est-ce qui irait mieux d'après vous?
> damn is that shit!
> god is that shit!
> is that shitty(?)!
> 
> si vous avez d'autres suggestions...


 
Would you like to be polite like a well-bred Englishman?  Say "How ho-hum this film is!"  But if you would like to talk like a macho gay wrestler, say "How shitty this film is!"  Ergo, the expression "Qu'est que c'est merdique !" is best translated by an unabridged, badmouthing lexicon as HOW SHITTY IT IS!


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## Kotava

What about : what a rubbish film !  ??


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## uniqueamour

What a rubbish film!  = Comme c'est nul, ce film ! / Qu'est que c'est nul, ce film !


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## ljosalfar

If you've just been to see it, you wouldn't (in BE anyway) be saying 'is this', but 'was that' - so something like "Boy, was that a crap film!"
You'd only say 'is this' if you were still in the middle of watching it.


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## Squiggle

uniqueamour said:


> Would you like to be polite like a well-bred Englishman? Say "How ho-hum this film is!" But if you would like to talk like a macho gay wrestler, say "How shitty this film is!" Ergo, the expression "Qu'est que c'est merdique !" is best translated by an unabridged, badmouthing lexicon as HOW SHITTY IT IS!


 
Evidently I am not, nor do I know any well-bred English men or women because I have never heard anyone say "How ho-hum this film is".

My vote says "shit" is too strong compared to the French use of the word merde and in particular merdique which, as has been pointed out, means a mess more than anything else. Crap is a better fit.


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## lefrancophile

Xavier11222 said:


> Je crois que le recul perçu dans la phrase française n'est pas vraiment du recul...
> 
> Still, other options include
> _What a piece of shit!
> Man, that was some serious crap right there.
> This movie was _Hostel_.
> I can't believe how shitty that was._



These are all excellent for "qu'est-ce que c'est merdique", but I believe _"Man, that was some serious crap right there."_ comes closest to that same exhalation and resignation of judgement.


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## mrpab

a common redneck expression is "What kind of shit is that?" - ca marche pour moi!

then again "How ho-hum this film is" would be fine too, but 'how ho-hum' is so hard to pronounce!


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## xiancee

I like the "craptastic" even if I don't know Conan O' Brian;

For me "that's pure undiluted crap !" will do!


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## paulfg42

That is (total) garbage 

What a load of shit/crap


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## Tupp

This is a really old thread, but I'm going to add my thoughts anyway:

Wasn't that a shit/crap movie?
Well, that was shit!


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## nachobonilla6

Maybe ´´ that movie sucks´´


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## joelooc

Would "it's as crappy as it gets" work?


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## sound shift

joelooc said:


> Would "it's as crappy as it gets" work?


Yes.


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