# couch potato



## T.H.E. Deaf

NOTE DE LA MODÉRATION : Ce fil comprend plusieurs fils précédents traitant du même thème. 
MODERATOR NOTE: This thread includes several previous thread dealing with the same topic.
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Hello everybody
I'm looking for a valuable equivalent in French of the English expression 'couch potato'. Can anyone help me ? Thanks §


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## Podd

hi,

I found the term " téléphage" or "téléphile" someone who consumes an excess of T.V.

Or a term more commonly used in Québec and equivalent to be a couch potato would be{ “végéter” devant la télévision" } which means to be a vegetate in front of the TV


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## fetchezlavache

[…]

a couch potato is someone who, _when home,_ lays on the couch watching tv eating popcorn and drinking beer ! i spend some days couch potatoing myself, and i think we've all done it !! 

there is no stock expression _that i know of_ for the translation of 'couch potato'.


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## Gil

Podd said:
			
		

> hi,
> 
> I found the term " téléphage" or "téléphile" someone who consumes an excess of T.V.
> 
> Or a term more commonly used in Québec and equivalent to be a couch potato would be{ ?végéter? devant la télévision" } which means to be a vegetate in front of the TV



Aussi suggéré sur une deuxième fiche de l'OLQ:  télézard.
J'aime beaucoup l'idée d'un idiot qui se fait bronzer devant son téléviseur, mais l'usage ne semble (malheureusement) pas s'être répandu.


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## fetchezlavache

c'est quoi OLQ svp ?


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## Gil

fetchezlavache said:
			
		

> c'est quoi OLQ svp ?


    
Excusez l'erreur.  
Ma référence était une fiche du "grand dictionnaire terminologique" de l'Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF).
Sorry about that.


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## fetchezlavache

Gil said:
			
		

> Excusez l'erreur.
> Ma référence était une fiche du "grand dictionnaire terminologique" de l'Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF).
> Sorry about that.



je n'y ai pas trouvé 'télézard'... j'ai peut-être mal cherché !

*david* thanks for the correction.


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## QBU

bonsoir,
I don't know if there is such a picturesque expression in French. The only thing I come up with is: "un accro de la télé (de la téloche)"
hope it helped
Catherine


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## french4beth

harper collins robert suggested "mollasson" - qqn qui passe son temps devent le télé


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## zam

lucie ferland said:
			
		

> Anybody knows the translation of Couch Potato in French?
> 
> Thanks


 
un accro de la télé


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## nopal

lucie ferland said:
			
		

> Anybody knows the translation of Couch Potato in French?
> 
> Thanks


Lucie , worst colloquial is / Larve


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## Ships

I have heard "spectateur en pantoufles"...?


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## Nicomon

I found this little blurb, on Radio-Canada.ca

Le terme américain _couch-potato_ désigne une personne qui passe le plus clair de son temps devant son téléviseur. En français, on appelle *TÉLÉPHAGE* une personne qui consomme d'une manière excessive les émissions télévisées.

I often heard (litterally) "patate de sofa"  I wouldn't advise the common use of this "montrealism" though.


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## Jul

On utilise aussi le verbe "s'abrutir devant la tele". Ce la doit pouvoir se traduire par "to be a coach potato" ou "to coach potato"


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## Nicomon

Jul said:
			
		

> On utilise aussi le verbe "s'abrutir devant la tele". Ce la doit pouvoir se traduire par "to be a coach potato" ou "to coach potato"


 
Et en transformant le verbe en nom, on obtiendra: un "abruti de la télé"  
Y'aurait peut-être aussi... "maniaque de télé" ou "télémaniaque"


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## fredness

Jul, est-ce qu'on peut dire "des abrutis devant leurs télés" pour se référer aux "couch potatoes" ?


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## pieanne

Ou simplement "des abrutis de télé"?


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## Nicomon

pieanne said:
			
		

> Ou simplement "des abrutis de télé"?


 
  c'est nettement mieux sans l'article la!  (voir post #11)


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## somefire

Hi 

Couch potatoes means someone (specifically : a child) who spends his time in front of the TV snacking crips (potato) and ... being fatter. 

This expression is relating to obesity and to underly that TV and medias participate to the food crisis and parents are also reponsible of the new trend of "unhealthy habits".


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## wildan1

somefire said:


> Hi
> 
> Couch potatoes means someone (specifically : a child) who spends his time in front of the TV snacking crips (potato) and ... being fatter.
> 
> This expression is relating to obesity and to underly that TV and medias participate to the food crisis and parents are also reponsible of the new trend of "unhealthy habits".


 
This isn't the limit of _couch potato_, somefire. It can be your husband, your friend, your father (or your mother!). 

Usually they already are fat from drinking beer/coke and eating snacks. But definitely not only about children or linked in any specific way to child obesity.

You also can say this about anyone who's in a lazy, passive mood sitting around the house. _I'm feeling like a real couch potato today._ Alternative expression: _to veg out_ (as in be like a vegetable)


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## somefire

wildan1 said:


> This isn't the limit of _couch potato_, somefire. It can be your husband, your friend, your father (or your mother!).
> 
> Usually they already are fat from drinking beer/coke and eating snacks. But definitely not only about children or linked in any specific way to child obesity.
> 
> You also can say this about anyone who's in a lazy, passive mood sitting around the house. _I'm feeling like a real couch potato today._ Alternative expression: _to veg out_ (as in be like a vegetable)



Yes it's totally true. It was just to explain how, nowadays, it is used by the media to incriminate the parents and food industry.

But you are right to precise... okay so I am going to see my roomate and tell him : I find a nickname for you : couch potato (beer, snacks...) or I will do like him ... thanks


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## geostan

[…]
Téléphage is also the term I've always used. It is a delightful expression, combining the abbreviated form of television and the stem form of the Greek verb "to eat."

Cheers!


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## lexiconnaissance

I agree with wildan1 who said that,


> "You also can say this about anyone who's in a lazy, passive mood sitting around the house. _I'm feeling like a real couch potato today._ Alternative expression: _to veg out_ (as in be like a vegetable)"


 
I don't think that the expression has to do with television watching necessarily. One could just be physically inactive sitting on the sofa all the time reading, lounging, playing video games, talking on the phone, etc.  I think the main idea is that someone is sedentary.


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## televore

The most commonly used one is "téléphage" (which would mean litteraly "television absorber") for the people who a looking a lot the television.

The word "téléphile" is for people who like television.

My favorite word (quoted only once in actual french television) is "télévore"( which would mean "television devourer"). 

For me, "téléphage" implies a passivity in front of the television, starting the TV and sitting there without action, wether "télévore" implies a will and an action to select the programs he wants to see and stick to this list, with a critic mind.

I have a french web site for the television addicts where I decrypt, analyse french TV programs called "televore.com" ( or "telephage.com" ), so I studied the subject. 

Hope this helps 
[…]


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## eternalsunshine33

I've never heard of a "télézard"...isn't it a Quebec word??
however, "téléphage" is quite good, except that you loose the idea of a lazyness (the couch potato is not exactely known for being a very active person)...well it's true that when you spend your time watching tv, you're not very active ;-)
I would trust my dictionary and say "mollasson"


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## Cloudcastlelake

Excellent tip from télévore!

By the way, pantouflard is often best rendered as "homebody."


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## broglet

Bonjour T.H.E. Deaf, et bienvenue dans le forum. Je suggère 'larve de canapé'


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## eternalsunshine33

broglet said:


> Bonjour T.H.E. Deaf, et bienvenue dans le forum. Je suggère 'larve de canapé'


 
j'aime beaucoup l'image, seulement je ne pense pas que ce soit une expression consacrée en France 
ceci-dit, pourquoi ne pas créer une nouvelle expression??


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## PepinMalin

[…]
l'expression […] désigne en effet des gens qui passent la majeure partie de leur temps vautrées dans le canapé, à regarder la télé et boire de la bière (Homer Simpson en est un parfait exemple).
Je ne pense pas qu'il y ait un équivalent exact en français, mais on parle de "_grosses larves_" dans le vocabulaire étudiant : quand j'étais à l'internat, on utilisait cette expression pour désigner ceux d'entre nous qui aimaient aller s'affaler sur le lit des autres pour "glandouiller" au lieu de travailler. Quelqu'un a-t-il d'autres suggestions ?


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## marget

My dictionary gives mollasson.  I once saw the translation "patates de salon", but I think it was used just as an equivalent that native speakers of English would understand.


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## Phiip

Merci à tous (thanks everybody !)
Oui, j'aime beaucoup "larves de canapé" et "patates de sofa" avec une touche de "téléphage", 
quoique de nos jours, avec les jeux vidéos, ce n'est peut-être plus tout à fait vrai.
Je vais utiliser "*larves de canapé*".

(désolé pour le nouveau sujet, mais la recherche que j'avais faite par le dictionnaire ne donnant pas de résultat pour les forums, ben je pensais pas que ce thème avait déjà été documenté).


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## DOM78

In my grandson's vocabulary, this is "une patate de canapé"


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## xtrasystole

[…]
_'Larve de canapé'_ sounds like a nice translation for _'couch potato'_, since we have as yet no recognized equivalent in French. But I'm not sure it would be understood by most French speakers yet. 

To me, _'couch potato'_ brings up the expression _'une grosse feignasse pantouflarde'_.


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## KaRiNe_Fr

[…]
I used to say the verb for _larve_: _larver_.
« Il est encore en train de larver devant la télé ! »


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## Nicomon

For those who like Quebecisms... here's some vocabulary. 

Podd (post #4) suggested _végéter devant la télé, _which imo is very close to _veg out. _

In Montreal, you can also hear _s'évacher devant la télé._ 


> [Québec][Familier]_S’évacher : s’étendre paresseusement. Ils se sont évachés devant la télévision._


 I have reserves about _larve de canapé,_ as I think it sounds more pejorative than _couch potato_. I prefer the literal _patate de sofa/capapé_ or _mollasson/feignasse, _which in our vernacular would be : _un flanc mou_.  


> flanc mou : [Québec][Familier]personne qui est sans énergie, sans volonté, paresseuse, fainéante. Un grand flanc mou qui ne réussit pas à l’école.


 
And if I feel like a couch potato, then I might say: _je me sens vache. _Now those are all very far from OQLF suggested translation of _téléphage__._


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## Bastoune

Moi, je dirais dans mon milieu canadien-français, "*un flanc-mou qui passe toute sa journée planté devant la télévision"*.

Pas vraiment "compacte" comme expression là, mais ça exprime la signification de "couch potato."


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## Nanon

Dans la famille "pas vraiment compacte" et "verbe à la place d'un nom", je dirais non seulement "végéter" (comme Nicomon), mais aussi "faire le légume devant la télé".
Et ô miracle, j'ai vu qu'il y avait même un fil sur cette expression !


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## Nicomon

Bastoune said:


> Moi, je dirais dans mon milieu canadien-français, "*un flanc-mou qui passe toute sa journée planté devant la télévision"*.


 Ben non, il est pas _planté (debout) devant la télévision, _ce_ flanc mou._ Je dirais plutôt qu'il est _évaché devant la tévé_.


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## quinoa

Et "comme un tas devant la télé"


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## kervarker

Bonjour,

L'expression "se vautrer devant la télé" (citée par Phiip) correspond bien, et elle est assez courante (faites "vautrer télé" sur un moteur de recherche)

J'aime aussi beaucoup "se faire un plan légume devant la télé"


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## Nanon

Avachi devant la télé... (eh non, on n'a pas de verbe _évacher _en France)


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## Ginosaurus

Wouhou! My turn, my turn...
I would suggest to expand on the phrase "faire sa loque", so : 
"quelqu'un qui fait sa loque devant la télé" or "quelqu'un qui passe son temps à glander devant la télé".
Or even "un accro de la zapette" (ie 'a remote addict').

Hope this helps!


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## Nicomon

Nanon said:


> Avachi devant la télé... (eh non, on n'a pas de verbe _évacher _en France)


  Antidote suggère en effet _s'avachir _ou _s'affaler_ comme synonymes de ce québécisme.


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## Jennhx

Just to add my two cents, "couch potato" definitely has a strong connotation of "does not get any exercise," as someone else mentioned here.  "Telephage" does not seem to have that connotation, or does it?


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## t3hfaz

According to Harrap's French slang dictionary a "couch potato" is "un(e) flemmard(e)"


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## not_using_my_real_name

t3hfaz said:


> According to Harrap's French slang dictionary a "couch potato" is "un(e) flemmard(e)"



I'm sure " flemmard" = lazy person / lazybones / sluggard /  lazy devil

I'd say by definition all couch potatoes must love to watch TV.

The Harrap's cannot be right : "lazy person"  is much broader than  "couch potato". All couch potatoes are lazy. But some lazy people aren't couch potatoes: the lazy devils who don't watch any TV!


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## saw

Bonjour !

A colleague suggested "les sedentaires," but this makes me think of people who live in one place; in other words, the opposite of nomads. I'm not sure it means what I am wanting to express, but I can't think of anything else.

Many thanks!
saw


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## jetset

Yes, the french expression is similar : _une patate de canapé_ (une personne vautrée dans le canapé).


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## steviesouris

Au Québec: "patate de sofa" -- personne qui passe son temps à "vedger" en regardant la télé sur son sofa.


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## Lothian

The word "*pacha*" could be understood as someone who stays all day sitting on a couch or lying on a bed, without doing anything.

Unfortunately it doesn't precisely refer to someone who spends his time watching TV or playing videogames.

We now tend to use the word "*nolife*" in french, refering to someone who rarely leaves his home, lives alone and is most of the time a kind of computer geek.
We use it as a noun (ex :"cet homme est un nolife").


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## steviesouris

Nolife is a new one to me... so does that mean that all us folks who respond to WordReference forums are nolifers?


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## Lothian

Actually no, as soon as we shut down our computer sometimes and try to have a real social life, which I suppose is the case for most of us...

And "nolife" is used in the French from France (maybe not canadian french) as a noun.
"Je suis un nolife, vous êtes des nolifes".

Nolifers doesn't exists, but to be precise this word is rather new and familiar, used only by the young people.


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## philosophia

Lothian said:


> Nolifers doesn't exists [how many mistakes would they make if they did? ;-)], but to be precise this word is rather new and familiar, used only by the young people.


At least by people under 35 . I've learned one more new word tonight !
But _I_ knew « _patate de canapé_ » which I suspect is in fact an anglicism.


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## Aistriúchán

flemmard scotché devant la TV
molasson avachi


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## ClaireA

Comme Nanon le suggérait, l'image du légume est une bonne équivalence : "faire le légume devant la télé"
Voir aussi ce fil : faire le légume.


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