# Off we go to trick-or-treat



## cleboeuf

Bonjour! Je suis en train de traduire un livre pour enfants pour mon petit-fils. C’est au sujet de l’Halloween, et les phrases sont très simples/enfantines. Dans l’histoire, tous les petits sont prêts à partir pour faire « trick-or-treating », et on dit « off we go to trick-or-treat ! » Comment est-ce que je peux traduire cette phrase ? Merci d’avance !


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## Chipolata

Bonjour,

Au Québec on dit "passer l'halloween".

J'espère que ça vous aidera avec votre livre!


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## RuK

On peut dire "Une farce ou des bonbons", mais j'ai aussi souvent vu "trick or treat", avec les guillemets mais en anglais.


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## geve

Pour "trick or treat", "un bonbon ou un sort" avait été suggéré dans ce fil : trick-or-treaters. Mais je ne vois pas bien comment l'intégrer dans ce contexte...

Euh... _Allons sonner à toutes les portes_ ?  _Allons_ _vite_ _racketer les voisins_ ?


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## cleboeuf

Merci bien tout le monde!


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## Fred_C

N'oublions pas que l'Halloween n'est vraiment pas une fête traditionnelle en France. Il y a dix ans, cela n'existait tout simplement pas, et maintenant, c'est plutôt en train de passer de mode.
C'est pourquoi il est difficile de trouver une traduction "officielle" de ce genre de phrase.


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## crèmeglacée

_À mon école élémentaire, on disait "truc-ou-traite". On l'a appris comme une traduction directe pour "trick-or-treat". _


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## Chipolata

Au Québec c'est une tradition très répandue que tous les enfants attendent et fêtent. On passe l'halloween, donc. C'est le terme officiel que l'on utilise.


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## bfabien

En France, Halloween est essentiellement une fête commerciale ; le "trick or treat" est donc à peu prês inconnu ici, même si des enfants font de temps en temps la tournée des maisons pour recevoir des bonbons ...
Je dirais donc "allons faire la tournée d'Halloween"


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## Sirène

Mes petits voisins m'ont déjà menacée de cet ultimatum : 
_Des bonbons, ou un sort !_

Comme je suis lâche et faible, j'ai donné des bonbons.


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## sandera

geve said:


> Pour "trick or treat", "un bonbon ou un sort" avait été suggéré dans ce fil : trick-or-treaters. Mais je ne vois pas bien comment l'intégrer dans ce contexte...
> 
> Euh... _Allons sonner à toutes les portes_ ?  _Allons_ _vite_ _racketer les voisins_ ?


Bonsoir geve la traduction pour "un bonbon ou un sort" = "a sweet or a fate" ...meaning if no sweet then  suffer the terrible consequences !!
S.


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## RuK

Sandera, Geve's French - she knows what 'un bonbon ou un sort' means. And a sort is not a fate, it's a spell.


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## sandera

RuK said:


> Sandera, Geve's French - she knows what 'un bonbon ou un sort' means. And a sort is not a fate, it's a spell.


Merci RuK ,
A spell is more appropriate than a fate.....I should pay more attention to who is replying to the questions .....I certainly would not come on the French forum and take on the French !!!! that would be crazy .

Désolé ! ! Geve et RuK
S.


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## Suebethi

geve said:


> Pour "trick or treat", "un bonbon ou un sort" avait été suggéré dans ce fil : trick-or-treaters. Mais je ne vois pas bien comment l'intégrer dans ce contexte...
> 
> Euh... _Allons sonner à toutes les portes_ ?  _Allons_ _vite_ _racketer les voisins_ ?


 
Coming from the US, I would say that the "trick" in 'trick or treat!'  relates to a "tour de magie". 
Any other natives agree?
I personally think that the best thing to do is leave the Eng expression in quotations as Halloween's an Anglo-American thing.


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## geve

Suebethi said:


> Coming from the US, I would say that the "trick" in 'trick or treat!' relates to a "tour de magie".
> Any other natives agree?
> I personally think that the best thing to do is leave the Eng expression in quotations as Halloween's an Anglo-American thing.


Really? I thought that kids were threatening the naughty unwise neighbours who would dare not have candies ready for these little monsters... little monsters who would then play tricks on them. Did I get it wrong?

Mind you, I don't think "sort" fits very well either. I can't think of a catchy phrase that would keep the intent of the English one, and given that the practice is not yet very widespread in France I would keep "trick or treat" indeed. But what if French kids suddenly realize how juicy this custom is, and begin to do it more and more? We would need to accept a French sentence then. I'm not sure that "truc ou traite" would make it here; and LV said in the other thread that he had heard "un bonbon ou un sort" before, so... maybe it'll make it...


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## massie1

L’Office de la langue française, dans le Grand dictionnaire suggère la traduction suivante
 
 
trick or treat bonbons ou bâton loc.
 
 
Définition :
A Halloween pastime in which children go from door to door asking for goodies supposedly with the idea of playing tricks on people who do not comply.
 
Je vous avoue bien franchement, que je n’ai jamais entendu cette expression.  J’ai entendu souvent, et même utilisé l’expression_ truc ou traite.  _Un peu littéral, mais plus facile à dire…


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## RuK

geve said:


> Really? I thought that kids were threatening the naughty unwise neighbours who would dare not have candies ready for these little monsters... little monsters who would then play tricks on them. Did I get it wrong?


- No; this is the correct interpretation. 


geve said:


> But what if French kids suddenly realize how juicy this custom is, and begin to do it more and more? We would need to accept a French sentence then.


 
- For the past four or five years, I've had a huge box of bonbons handy for Halloween nights. We get a minimum of half a dozen visits in my neighborhood, and the commerçants are absolutely dévalisé, since many kids put on masks and run around all afternoon too. 

So it's happening already. And although one group did say "Une farce ou des bonbons!" last year, most of them say something along the lines of "Des bonbons pour le Alloween" (as if collecting for charity!).

I don't think the new push for Halloween in France is purely a marketing coup by Toys R Us and Carrefour. It's clear that French kids don't feel involved with the facts of the Toussaint 'festivity' - going to clean up great-Granny's grave on November 1 is no big thrill - but they have a long school break for Toussaint and Halloween really fills a gap.


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## zam

Here are some regional variations, as a bit of a joke…

In Normandy: 'un calvados ou je t' rosse ?'
In the Ardèche: 'des rognons ou des gnons ?’
In the Bresse: 'un poulet d' Bresse ou je t' fesse ?'
In Toulouse: 'un peu de Cassoulet ou nez cassé ?'
In Brittany:  ‘un hareng-saur ou je te jette un sort ?' 
In Cambrai: 'Friandises ou bêtise ?'
In Agen: 'des pruneaux ou un pruneau ?'
In Lyon: 'bonbon ou bâton ?'

Etc. etc.


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## sandera

zam said:


> Here are some regional variations, as a bit of a joke…
> 
> In Normandy: 'un calvados ou je t' rosse ?'
> In the Ardèche: 'des rognons ou des gnons ?’
> In the Bresse: 'un poulet d' Bresse ou je t' fesse ?'
> In Toulouse: 'un peu de Cassoulet ou nez cassé ?'
> In Brittany: ‘un hareng-saur ou je te jette un sort ?'
> In Cambrai: 'Friandises ou bêtise ?'
> In Agen: 'des pruneaux ou un pruneau ?'
> In Lyon: 'bonbon ou bâton ?'
> 
> Etc. etc.


Bonjour ,
Ce qui est dit dans la région de Creuse..? svp
S.


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## geve

sandera said:


> Bonjour ,
> Ce qui est dit dans la région de Creuse..? svp
> S.


Hi sandera, 
Zam is joking around with the _spécialités régionales_. I don't know what _spécialités _there are in Creuse but if you find one you can make your own rhyme!


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## roland098

Suebethi said:


> Coming from the US, I would say that the "trick" in 'trick or treat!' relates to a "tour de magie".
> Any other natives agree?
> I personally think that the best thing to do is leave the Eng expression in quotations as Halloween's an Anglo-American thing.


 
I probably agree about leaving it in English, but I don;t agree about the trick relating to a magic trick. I was just thinking it was kind of charming that, even though this is new to France, they have given it a new twist - witches and devils etc are typical of halloween, hence threaten to cast a magic spell. To me I have always understood the trick in Trick or Treat to just be a practical joke of some kind: used to be things like taking a gate off its hinges, throwing flour at the house, stuff like that.


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## roland098

RuK said:


> And although one group did say "Une farce ou des bonbons!" last year, most of them say something along the lines of "Des bonbons pour le Alloween" (as if collecting for charity!).
> 
> I don't think the new push for Halloween in France is purely a marketing coup by Toys R Us and Carrefour. It's clear that French kids don't feel involved with the facts of the Toussaint 'festivity' - going to clean up great-Granny's grave on November 1 is no big thrill - but they have a long school break for Toussaint and Halloween really fills a gap.


 
I think it's good that at least they only expect sweets. I'm pretty sure I heard some expect money in England now!

I was wondering about what is more traditional in France - so Toussaint can be summed up by visiting relastives graves, can it?

Of course Hallowe'en is the eve (day before) of All Saints Day (Le Toussaint): All Hallows' Eve (where hallow is an old word for holy).

In England it's very much a kids' thing, as it is in the US, but I think we pay a bit less attention to it. There is a bit of trick or treating, and kids have parties where they dress up and there are traditional games like apple bobbing - trying to get an apple out of a tub of water without using your hands and food like toffee apples. And kids make lanterns out of pumpkins, or, as it was when I was a kind, turnips.

I was quite surprised on visiting France very recently to see Halloween sweets and cakes etc in the pâtisseries and wondered if it had just caught on recently becasue of American films etc.

In modern Paganism Halloween is an important festival and is known as Samhain. In Celtic times it was meant to be a time when the 'veils were thin' between the worlds of the living and dead - hence perhaps, paying respect to dead relatives, since Christianity quite often took over earlier festivals.


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## geve

roland098 said:


> I was wondering about what is more traditional in France - so Toussaint can be summed up by visiting relastives graves, can it?


That, and Halloween parties are increasingly popular too.

Just a clarification: your quote tags in the post above must be wrong, I didn't write what you quoted.


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## walkyrie

roland098 said:


> RuK said:
> 
> 
> 
> I think it's good that at least they only expect sweets. I'm pretty sure I heard some expect money in England now!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And if they ask with a gun in their hand, we will have found our translation : "la bourse ou la vie !"
Click to expand...


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## RuK

Toussaint has the same origin as Halloween, in the Pagan death-days when the dead visited earth, but the Catholic Church co-opted it as All Saints' Day and yes, in practise it is mostly visiting relatives' graves. 

My mother's English, and she'd never heard of Halloween till she watched Disney videos and read Charlie Brown strips in the 1960s. I wonder if Halloween, in its pumpkin/trick or treat manifestation, is really British at all - perhaps it mutated in this direction in the US, and then was re-exported back to Europe. 

It fills a chronological gap between the beach and Christmas, and coincides with mid-term holidays. It's very recent in France - my older children (17 and 14) never had the slightest awareness of it till four or five years ago. 

Chinese people have the Feast of the Hungry Ghost, when the souls of the dead stalk the earth and you leave oranges and all sorts of food in the cemetery to keep them happy. Kind of a Toussaint and Halloween in one.


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## roland098

geve said:


> That, and Halloween parties are increasingly popular too.
> 
> Just a clarification: your quote tags in the post above must be wrong, I didn't write what you quoted.


 
Sorted.

LOL for the bourse ou la vie (money or your life) comment.


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## roland098

Interesting. I don;t know enough about the history of Halloween in the Uk to say. However, I am aware that where I come from - Yorkshire - we had somethging called Mischief Night (which Wikipedia says is November 4) where kids went round the village playing minor practical jokes on households, without (necessarily) the trick or treat aspect. I think the calling at doors may have come over from the US - unless we exported it to them and then imported it back, as you say.

I admit to being a bit mistified with the Great Pumpkin in th ePeanuts cartoon! That is certainly not part of BRitish folklore, and I'm not sure if it's an American thing or just a Peanuts thing! Perhaps someone can enlighten me.

Didn't know about the Chinese thing. In traditional Buddhism, as you may or may not know, I understand an incarnation as a Hungry Ghost is one of the less pleasant options after death, but presumbaly not as bad as spending a period in one of their Hells.


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## roland098

In the Uk we also have Bonfire Night on NOvember 5, which is involves the whoel family more and tends to blend in with Halloween a bit. It marks the Gunpowder Plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament which was stopped just in time, and which ended with the execution of the plotters, who were Catholics angry at the banning of their religion. If you know what it was like for Catholics at that time then you can't help feeling a bit sorry for them, but people tend not to think about this too much and just enjoy the parties - with a big bonfire, fireworks, traditional foods etc.


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## Rory Melough

I'm guessing you'd say "un bonbon ou une balle" in Marseille!  

Qu'est-ce que c'est plus approprié comme signalétique dans un magasin? "Un bonbon ou un bâton" ou "trick or treat" ?


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## kcammi

À Nantes, où j'enseigne, les enfants disent:
*
Un bonbon ou la vie!*


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## Rory Melough

Lol, that's a bit violent! 

Btw, just in case anyone was wondering what to say in French from a signage / commercial point of view for "Trick or Treat", I've been told by our French office to say "bonbon ou un bâton"


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## orangepixie86

crèmeglacée said:


> _À mon école élémentaire, on disait "truc-ou-traite". On l'a appris comme une traduction directe pour "trick-or-treat". _


 
We also said "truc ou traite" in grade school.  (French language school in Windsor, Ontario)


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## soispasignunt

I just finished watching an American horror movie dubbed in French, and every single time the children rang the doorbell they said, "Des bonbons ou un sort." 

I find it interesting that my fellow American who responded previously suggested that "trick" in "trick or treat" suggested magic.  As this is a set phrase that Americans have grown up with, I guess it's up to interpretation.  It's just something we say, and I rarely gave it much thought.  

However, my interpretation is that "trick" implied the owner of the house either giving you candy or not (trick meaning that they play a trick on you by giving you something lame, like a pencil).  

However, my friend thought "trick" implied that if the owner of the house didn't give you candy, the children would play a trick on the owner, like egging their house.  Light vandalism is common on Halloween...  TPing someone's house (TP = toilet paper, turned into a verb here, meaning to cover with toilet paper) or smashing their jack-o-lantern.  


Trick-or-treating is a very big deal here for everyone below the age of 13 or so.   I remember it not being very cool after that age.   We typically resorted to parties during the teen years.  

Halloween is still a big deal for a lot of people up through their 20s, it seems.  Not for me, but you'll see the bars full of people in costumes on Halloween.   For those of you who aren't American and don't really understand the appeal, it's an excuse for women to dress really provocatively in public.  "Sexy nurse, sexy policewoman, sexy vampire - all with minimal amounts of clothing."  I think guys in their 20s do it so they can fit in and try to pick up said girls in bars that night...  

Yeah, we're weird... So what?


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## Surfin' Bird

Zam is certainly joking but his suggestion for the Cambrai region could actually work pretty well:

"Des friandises ou des bêtises" is very close to the original meaning and sounds quite good...


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## LuLu384

What would the "baton" reference in "bonbon ou baton".  I know it is a stick etc...but is there another significance?


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## Nicklondon

Love your posting, zam. 'Friandises ou bêtise ?' is my fave cos easy for all to "get".


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## LuLu384

I think I will stick with "Friandises ou bêtise" for that very reason.


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