# to polish a turd



## prêt-à-penser

En anglais il y a une expression "to polish a turd" qui veut dire, de faire embellir qqc qui  ne le mérite pas (e.g. polir un crotte). Existe-il une locution français qui l'équivaut?

merci


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## Kelly B

Ce qui m'est venu à l'esprit en anglais c'est "put lipstick on a pig," et je pense que ton expression est bien pareille, Agnès.


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## zaby

*donner de la confiture aux cochons *


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## Benjy

mmmm. i don't know. for me donner de la confiture aux cochons/give perles to swine etc all mean give something to someone which is unsuitable for them, (jam will make pigs ill.. they dont appreciate pearls either). polishing a turd is more to with the fact that there are some things you just can't improve. if you try to polish a turd you just end up with crap everywhere, and a turd which is just as unshiny as when you started.

i.e. ben will never make a useful employee. you can't polish a turd.

BUT

it's a waste of time talking to ben about the finer points of french litterature, that'd be casting your pearls before swine.


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## edwingill

jeter des perles aux pourceaux


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## Jim69

In French, I think that we would say : "C'est comme pisser dans un violon." literally :"It's like if you are pissing in a violin".

It means that anything you do, the result will be the same.


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## edwingill

i think we are barking up the wrong tree with these porcine expressions. i take *to cast one's pearls before swine *to mean to offer valuable things to people who do not appreciate them. i think pret-a penser suggests that to polish a turd means to put a *positive spin* on something.


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## Agnès E.

Merci, Benjy. Je n'avais donc pas bien compris le sens de l'expression. 

Jim69 donne un bon équivalent, qui appartient au registre très familier, voire grossier.


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## Jim69

I also propose "on ne fait pas d'un âne un cheval de course" (you can't make a racehorse out of a donkey). It means, whatever you do, things remain the same, you can't change someone.


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## Jim69

Agnès E. said:
			
		

> Merci, Benjy. Je n'avais donc pas bien compris le sens de l'expression.
> 
> Jim69 donne un bon équivalent, qui appartient au registre très familier, voire grossier.


 
Je pense que "on ne fait pas d'un âne un cheval de course" est encore plus proche, en étant moins grossier. J'avais choisi la formule grossière pour "coller" au "turd" dans l'expression d'origine.


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## badgrammar

And I was thinking of expressions that have more to do with the idea of "Cache-misère", as in "Ils ont refait la peinture pour cacher la misère", or maybe "dorer la pillule"...

The English expression is really about making something seem better than it is, and I know there's a good French idiom for that, but I haven't seen it here yet.  I suspect that when someone comes up with it we'll all go "Ah, mais bien sür..."


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## ninoupticha

on ne fait pas d'un âne un cheval de course me semble l'expression la plus appropriée


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## edwingill

definition of polish a turd here:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=polish+a+turd


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## Jim69

"Polish the turd all you want- that movie still sucks."
"_*Tu as beau le tourner dans tous les sens*_ - ce film reste une daube"


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## emma42

Also:*

You can take the woman/man out of [insert placename of your choice], but you can't take the [insert placename] out of the woman/man.*

There are numerous variations on this theme; an example:

*You can take the girl out of the gutter, but you can't take the gutter out of the girl.*

[A warm "Hello me duck" to my fellow Nottinghamian, Graham].


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## Half-breed13

I would say "on ne peut polir une crotte" fits perfectly, keeps the same (comical) meaning and keeps that smile going too! It seems it's one of those expressions that is supposed to be very visual...i bet it works lilterally in most languages.

Can I just say that although you can't polish a turd...you can roll it in glitter...


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## Big Roly

I've heard the _dicto_n "Une merde bien lavée est toujours propre."


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## Micia93

It would be the right opposite, then, meaning here that you improve this turd by washing it.


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## Big Roly

I'm sure it was meant sarcastically.


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## noir_ecaille

On ne change pas le plomb en or. Tout simplement


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## Kelly B

Ça fait bien plus classe, et on cherche souvent à garder le même registre, mais en fait l'idée en est tout à fait pareille.


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## ain'ttranslationfun?

Hi, I'd say the expression is like "It's like putting lipstick on a pig.", or (this is my own invention!) "...like pouring lipstick on a skunk.": No matter how you try to disguise something, its true nature will reveal itself." It has nothing to do with improvement, only with futile attempts at spin doctoring. The meaning seems closer to "_La caque sent toujours le hareng._", which may in another context mean 'one cannot disguise one's origins/true nature'.


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## petit1

un âne ne fera jamais un cheval de course


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## Micia93

_It has nothing to do with improvement_

In a sense, yes. Or let's say it has do with *non*-improvement : you can't improve (make it beautiful) something ugly. All the examples given above prove that


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## noir_ecaille

petit1 said:


> un âne ne fera jamais un cheval de course


Moins fort que "on ne change pas le plomb en or". On peut faire courir un âne mais guère reluir le plomb.


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## petit1

une crotte passée au cirage n'en reste pas moins une crotte


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## noir_ecaille

Bhin en Français, on ne parle pas de polir une crotte. Tout comme on ne met pas du lait dans son sucre.

Question de traduction.

Surtout en prenant en compte cela :


Micia93 said:


> _It has nothing to do with improvement_



Puis on n'est pas là pour réécrire le Français mais pour trouver la traduction d'une expression courante.


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## petit1

de la merde en barre


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## CarlosRapido

Il y a bien d'autres expressions françaises pour exprimer cette idée;

• on ne fait pas d'une buse un épervier,
• on ne tire pas de farine d'un sac de son
• on ne peut changer l'eau en vin ... la seule limite étant l'imagination de l'auteur


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