# Cause toujours



## Susan Grodsky

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

Dans une filme. "Cause toujours" etait le sous-titre. Le commentaire, en anglais, etait "Yeah, yeah" en ton fache.

Merci en avance.


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## pieanne

Oui, c'est quite possible!


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## paulvial

hello 
i guess they translated by yeah yeah , with the unstated connotation of : you can always talk /continue talking ! 

p.s  i like you mixed style,  Pieanne !


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## FranParis

*Cause toujours, tu m'intéresses!

*J'aimerais bien avoir votre avis sur la traduction de cette expression en anglais...


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## rosalind

FranParis said:


> J'aimerais bien avoir votre avis sur la traduction de cette expression en anglais...



Keep [on] talking, I'm interested in what you're saying!  (Or maybe: you interest me/ I'm interested in you... for a somewhat more personal, perhaps even flirtatious, nuance.  )


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## FranParis

Rosalind, don't take it in the literal sense, this expression means: you can always talk, I don't care.

I'm looking for an idiomatic way of saying it...


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## liulia

"Tell me more! I'm interested." or "Keep on talking! I'm listening."


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## FranParis

Has it the same ironic meaning as the French version?


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## rosalind

FranParis said:


> Rosalind, don't take it in the literal sense, this expression means: you can always talk, I don't care.
> 
> I'm looking for an idiomatic way of saying it...



Oh!  You mean, it's used ironically/sarcastically?

Well, let's see.  In English, you could try, "Keep on talking..." But this works better if you can deliver it in person, in a bored voice and with a roll of your eyes.

Or, "You know, this is absolutely fascinating, but..."

If you want to be really bitchy, you could try something like, "You know, this is absolutely fascinating, but I'm afraid I have to go watch some paint dry."

Yep.  That'd be pretty bitchy.  Is this the sort of thing you're looking for?


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## Cath.S.

You could also just say:
_"Whatever..."_  
couldn't you?


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## archijacq

FranParis said:


> Rosalind, don't take it in the literal sense, this expression means: you can always talk, I don't care.
> 
> I'm looking for an idiomatic way of saying it...



c'est bien ça:
"tu peux toujours parler, je ne t'écoute pas"
"tu peux toujours parler, je ne ferai pas ce que tu me dis".

(ironique): how interesting...


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## rosalind

egueule said:


> You could also just say:
> _"Whatever..."_
> couldn't you?



Well, yes.  But it's a little adolescent.   Also, it implies that you find what the person has just been saying to be stupid; whereas my earlier suggestion carries more of a suggestion that they've been droning on and on for ages.  (And also that they are stupid.)

In which situation is the French phrase normally used?


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## rosalind

archijacq said:


> c'est bien ça:
> (ironique): how interesting...



Oh, yes.  "How _utterly fascinating_" is also good.


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## Cath.S.

rosalind said:


> Well, yes. But it's a little adolescent.  Also, it implies that you find what the person has just been saying to be stupid; whereas my earlier suggestion carries more of a suggestion that they've been droning on and on for ages. (And also that they are stupid.)
> 
> In which situation is the French phrase normally used?


It's just used to express open and sarcastic contempt towards what someone is saying, it doesn't imply they have been bending your ear for ages. 
"_Cause toujours tu m'intéresses_" can sometimes imply "I don't care about what you have to say, I've already made up my mind", which is why it would be useful to see it in context, in fact.


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## Charlie Parker

The translation offered in my dictionary, Collins Robert, is "oh, come off it!" But that expression in English could be used in many different ways. Without further context I find it difficult to say. Perhaps someone has been droning on for some time on some subject and you are getting a bit tired both of him and the subject. So you say, "Oh, come off it!" I hope I'm helping and not adding to the confusion. I would love to see a dialogue that includes the French expression, then I could offer some English equivalents.


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## FranParis

Charlie Parker said:


> Perhaps someone has been droning on for some time on some subject and you are getting a bit tired both of him and the subject.


 
That's clearly the situation...


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## Aristide

"Cause toujours, tu m'intéresses" is the funny title of a film with Annie Girardot and Jean-Pierre Marielle. I don't think it was used before the film was made.
If you say "continue, tu m'intéresses", it can be said honestly or ironically.
If you say "Cause toujours, tu m'intéresses", it sounds more like a joke –like citing dialogue from a film.


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## RuK

If you're translating dialogue, you need a sense of who's talking and in what context. It might be "you're boring me again" or "whatever" (which I think is the best suggestion, myself), or "Stop rabbiting on about that".


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## breizh

Some possible examples in everyday life :

"J'ai envoyé plusieurs lettres au service après vente, mais "cause toujours, tu m'intéresses!" on ne m'a jamais répondu." (you send letters to an after sales service but have no answer)

" (the mum or dad) Maintenant ça suffit, arrête de végéter devant la télé et vas faire tes devoirs. C'est toujours pareil avec toi..."
  (the teen, not too loud actually) C'est ça,oui ! Cause toujours (tu m'intéresses)!"

A doctor talking to someone about a patient that is stubborn and didn't listen to his recommendations : "Je lui ai dit de revenir me voir la semaine suivante pour vérifier la cicatrisation mais"cause toujours, tu m'intéresses"!, il est revenu trois semaines plus tard avec une sacrée infection !"


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## jetman

Blah blah blah....


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## mgarizona

Irony is generally a matter of delivery in English. I keep thinking of Jon Stewart interrupting a particularly meaningless or ridiculous video clip with an exaggerated (and decidedly fey) "Go o-o-on!"

Something as hyperbolic as "Do go on, this is utterly captivating!" --- to riff on rosalind's suggestion--- is hard to imagine saying with a straight face, but even this is not ironic _per se_.


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## lagoonwater

In Atlanta, I often heard African-American girls show their hand to the person they were talking to and say: "talk to the hand, 'cause the head won't hear it"


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## liulia

lagoonwater said:


> In Atlanta, I often heard African-American girls show their hand to the person they were talking to and say: "talk to the hand, 'cause the head won't hear it"



This really seems to capture the right tone!


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## rosalind

RuK said:


> If you're translating dialogue, you need a sense of who's talking and in what context. It might be "you're boring me again" or "whatever" (which I think is the best suggestion, myself), or "Stop rabbiting on about that".



"Stop rabbiting on"?  Now there is a lovely, very British turn of phrase!  (I've never heard this used in the U.S.)


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## rosalind

liulia said:


> lagoonwater said:
> 
> 
> 
> In Atlanta, I often heard African-American girls show their hand to the person they were talking to and say: "talk to the hand, 'cause the head won't hear it"
> 
> 
> 
> This really seems to capture the right tone!
Click to expand...


Yes, but be careful with it.  It's another of those phrases that originated in black slang, then sort of migrated into mainstream American use and was briefly hip a year or so back; but it's still culturally marked.  A person might be very startled to hear a white person who speaks with a French accent say: "Talk to the hand 'cause the head ain't listening!"

Also, it's primarily used by women, so if a man uses it it can have a rather fey connotation -- like referring to someone as "honey," "sister" or "girlfriend."


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## Cath.S.

lagoonwater said:


> In Atlanta, I often heard African-American girls show their hand to the person they were talking to and say: "talk to the hand, 'cause the head won't hear it"


Which reminds me of a French variant of this, more vulgar, though:
_ Parle à mon cul, ma tête est malade_ (lit. "talk to my arse, my head is sick").
But people who say it  don't show anything, they just say it. Afaik.


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## FranParis

Très bien, egueule, j'en parlerai à mon cheval!


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## Kelly B

You might mean this literally if you wrote it, but I cannot imagine anyone saying it without sarcasm:

I'm hanging on your every word.


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## wildan1

How about _"yeah, right"--_obviously delivered with the appropriate intonation

My dear discreet mother very politely used to tell people (always with a straight face), _"Thank you, I'll keep that in mind."_ Those who knew her knew that if she told you that, it was dead on arrival!


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## liulia

I've heard my daughter say, with great sarcasm, "Thank you for sharing that!" But that means something else, I think.

At the moment, my favourite translation is "Whatever..."


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## watergirl

A variant on wildan1's suggestion:  "yeah, yeah, yeah" (delivered in the appropriately dismissive tone).


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## KaRiNe_Fr

Aristide said:


> "Cause toujours, tu m'intéresses" is the funny title of a film with Annie Girardot and Jean-Pierre Marielle. I don't think it was used before the film was made. [...]


TLFi (IB1) quotes a play from Courteline, 1895...


> _Cause toujours, tu m'intéresses_ (COURTELINE, _La Conversion d'Alceste, _La Cinquantaine, 1895, p. 217)


 

Just a precision: this expression is never used another way than ironically. The tone of voice is even not mandatory. Nobody hearing it could think it is not sarcastic, never.


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## Aristide

" (COURTELINE, La Conversion d'Alceste, La Cinquantaine, 1895, p. 217) "

Ah zut!
(au fait, c'est une façon très familière de s'exprimer pour un Grec ancien comme Alceste.)


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## Gamba

Hi, could you help me translate the following 'cause toujours' in English please? thanks.


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## david314

FranParis said:


> Rosalind, don't take it in the literal sense, this expression means: you can always talk, I don't care.
> 
> I'm looking for an idiomatic way of saying it...


 _*I see your lips moving*, but I don't hear a word of what you're saying. _

My friend Bill says:_ You're all *buzzers & whistles*. _

-The above suggestions are clearly _not_ as faithful as those offered by mgarizona & wildan1.


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## Sigismond

Désolé pour ma faute d'orthographe?que personne n'a relevée (!) ; c'est :

"CAUSES TOUJOURS..."


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## paulvial

Sigismond said:


> Désolé pour ma faute d'orthographe?que personne n'a relevée (!) ; c'est :
> 
> "CAUSES TOUJOURS..."



quelle faute ?   
impératif d'un verbe du premier groupe , ne prends pas de "s" 

"cause toujours !"  me semble correct


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## liulia

En effet! D'accord avec Paulvial.

Looking back - has it really been two years??? - I have to say that I really like Wildan's mother's gentle tone, "thank you, I'll keep that in mind", but I think that "Yeah, yeah, yeah" is probably the most accurate translation.


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## david314

liulia said:


> En effet! D'accord avec Paulvial.
> 
> Looking back - has it really been two years??? - I have to say that I really like Wildan's mother's gentle tone, "thank you, I'll keep that in mind", but I think that "Yeah, yeah, yeah" is probably the most accurate translation.


  Also:  _I'll take that under advisement.   ...(or not)_. , 

Also:  _*Keep talking* (budy/lady/pal)! _ 

-I believe that the above expression _can have two meanings_.

"I'm trying not to listen to you because I don't believe anything that you say." 

"I don't want to listen to you because you annoy me."


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## liulia

I would go for: "My mind is made up, and nothing you say is going to make the slightest bit of difference. But thank you anyway, I will keep it in mind."


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## Cath.S.

_Cause toujours, tu m'intéresses_ is very colloquial and its tone is not polite in the slightest.


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## Bobby Lamarck

jetman said:


> Blah blah blah....



I think it's the best translation !

Sometimes, short words are just right to say the good thing.


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## DemiBee

I originally heard it in: Dans une dictature, c'est "ferme ta gueule", tandis que dans une démocracie, c'est "cause toujours".

In this context, it would be "you're wasting your breath".


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## wildan1

_Yadda, yadda, yadda_

(AE expression also made famous by a show--in this case the 1990s TV show _Seinfeld_)


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## Sigismond

J'ai adopté : "Talk all you want!"


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## mgarizona

Well at least "Talk all you want" actually IS an ironic statement, which is to say one employed ironically. "Blah blah blah," "yadda yadda yadda," etc, are not. (And for the record, I always preferred the older 'yatata yatata,' but that's another story.)

Another simple phrase which, employed ironically, will stop anybody cold is: "You don't say! Fascinating!"


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## Sigismond

"Cause toujours" is also ironical. Therefore "Talk all you want!" seems to me the best translation, with the advantage that it is not too vulgar, like yata yata.


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## wildan1

Sigismond said:


> "Cause toujours" is also ironical. Therefore "Talk all you want!" seems to me the best translation, with the advantage that it is not too vulgar, like yata yata.


 
There is nothing vulgar in _yadda, yadda, yadda_. But it is more informal and dialectical (from New York Jewish) than _"talk all you want"_


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## Sigismond

If it is New-Yorker, it is not English!


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## mgarizona

No, if New Yorker is hyphenated, it's not English. As the Wild but wise one noted, it's yiddish, presumably, but still English. There was a song called "Yatata Yatata" is a Rogers and Hammerstein musical of the 40s called _Allegro_. Which is of course Italian, but still English. We don't have any purist _Académie _trying to pretend our language is a closed unit.


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## Sigismond

"Talk all you want!" is still the best translation because it is the most litteral.


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