# vulgaire trois pièces



## olympiades

Bonjour tout le monde,

J'essaie de traduire "vulgaire" dans ce sens-là en anglais: un homme hautain, qui a été habitué à vivre dans une maison très grande et très luxueuse, se retrouve obligé de loger un moment dans un trois pièces.  Il dit alors: 

- "Je ne compte pas m'éterniser dans ce vulgaire trois pièces." 

J'ai essayé "in that mere three-room apartment", mais des amis américains m'ont dit que ça ne sonnait pas bien.  Ils m'ont proposé "in that tiny three-room apartment", mais ce n'est l'idée que je veux exprimer.  Il ne trouve pas cette appartement juste trop petit, il le trouve ridicule, pas à son "niveau". Sinon, peut-être: "...in that ridiculous three-room apartment" ?

Merci d'avance pour votre aide.


----------



## Kajeetah

"Common", peut-être?


----------



## Suehil

'Common' would work, but I would prefer 'third-rate'  (just a bit worse than 'second-rate' )


----------



## Itisi

a common two-bedroom flat/apartment


----------



## olympiades

Suehil said:


> 'Common' would work, but I would prefer 'third-rate'  (just a bit worse than 'second-rate' )



Thanks for the suggestion.  Is it also used in AE English? I'm writing this to American readers :S


----------



## Lucky19

In this mere two-bedrooms flat...?


----------



## Itisi

Je ne crois pas que 'third-rate' convienne tout-à-fait ici, parce qu'olympiades nous dit que la personne est habituée à habiter dans une  maison grande et luxueuse, et qu'un trois-pièces peut être luxueux, mais ce n'est jamais qu'un trois-pièces, si vous voyez ce que je veux dire...


----------



## SwissPete

A run-of-the-mill two-bedroom flat (?)
A vanilla-flavor two-bedroom flat (?)


----------



## Language Hound

I like SwissPete's _run-of-the-mill_.
Since the target audience is American,
I would use_ apartment_, not _flat_.


----------



## Itisi

'Run-of-the-mill' is 'banal', 'ordinaire' - not quite the same...A haughty man as described by *olympiades* would say 'common' or 'mere'.


----------



## Language Hound

Itisi said:


> A haughty man as described by *olympiades* would say 'common' or 'mere'.


A haughty Brit, yes.
As Olympiades noted above, 





> J'ai essayé "in that mere three-room apartment", mais des amis américains m'ont dit que ça ne sonnait pas bien.


  And though we do often use _common _to translate _vulgaire_, I'm afraid that its use here to describe an apartment would be understood
by many Americans as not something lacking in taste or refinement but something _shared_ with others.


----------



## Lucky19

garden-variety ?

unless it's too soft...?


----------



## Itisi

.....cheap


----------



## broglet

a pompous man would almost certainly say something along the lines of "I have no intention  of ending my days in such a plebeian little dwelling" (and he probably wouldn't comment on the number of bedrooms, as anything fewer than five would be all the same to him)


----------



## Lucky19

Language Hound said:


> A haughty Brit, yes.
> As Olympiades noted above,   And though we do often use _common _to translate _vulgaire_, I'm afraid that its use here to describe an apartment would be understood
> by many Americans as not something lacking in taste or refinement but something _shared_ with others.



Pour lever l’ambiguïté, pourquoi pas "commonplace" ?

Autres possibilités : bland ? banal ?

Why not vulgar, like in French ?


----------



## Uncle Bob

When is this suppsed to take place?

For a century or three ago perhaps "lowly" (BE though).

PS Another possibility "contemptible", which Roget's Thesaurus gives amongst others for "vulgar (inferior)".


----------



## Lly4n4

broglet said:


> a pompous man would almost certainly say something along the lines of "I have no intention  of ending my days in such a plebeian little dwelling" (and he probably wouldn't comment on the number of bedrooms, as anything fewer than five would be all the same to him)



Ah, j'allais suggérer moi aussi "plébéien" ! 
"in that mere plebeian appartment"?


----------



## LART01

Hi

Perhaps _shabby _could be used? In the sense of inferior as he believes he is so superior...


----------



## Language Hound

Uncle Bob raises an excellent point:  When is this supposed to take place?
Is the man speaking AE in 2013? 1900?


----------



## Itisi

I don't intend to stay forever in this two-bedroom apartment, it's infra-dig.

Otherwise, if 'mere' won't do - although I can't see what's wrong with '*a* mere [instead of 'this mere'] etc apartment', then 'Suehill's 'second-rate' (or even 'third-rate'?) I think would be best.


----------



## Lucky19

a nondescript appartment ?


----------



## Itisi

'Nondescript' veut dire que rien ne le distingue.


----------



## Lucky19

C'est ce que vulgaire signifie dans ce contexte. Un vulgaire appartement signifie que ce dernier n'a rien d'exceptionnel, qu'il est d'une banalité affligeante, qu'il est quelconque.

Source : Qui est quelconque, ne dépasse pas le niveau moyen : Un vulgaire fonctionnaire sans avenir.

Nondescript : *1. * undistinguished or dull; without interest or character:  a nondescript novel; nondescript clothes.


----------



## la tante de Mary

"I have no intention of living out my days in that nasty little apartment."

Unless you need the information of how many bedrooms it has later in the text, then I would not put in "two-bedroom". 
While in French you'd say something like, "Ils ont un trois pièces assez joli en centreville" in AE you'd say "They've got a pretty nice apartment downtown." without bothering to specify the number of bedrooms.


----------



## Itisi

*Lucky*, 'nondescript' correspond à 'banal', pas à 'vulgaire'.

*Tante,* we are told that the man was used to living in a very big house, so size matters here!


----------



## Lucky19

Dans ce contexte, vulgaire signifie banal. Et c'est la raison pour laquelle j'avais proposé "mere" dans un post précédent. D'ailleurs, ça cadre avec le fait que l'homme était habitué à plus grand en terme de superficie et qu'un simple/banal appartement ne lui suffit plus.

Ex: Ce dessinateur a réussi à faire un chef-d'oeuvre avec un vulgaire crayon à papier.
Comment a-t-il pu rouler à 200km/h avec une vulgaire 4L ?


----------



## Itisi

Oui, mais on nous dit que c'est un homme hautain qui parle...

Common-or-garden?


----------



## Lucky19

Itisi said:


> Oui, mais on nous dit que c'est un homme hautain qui parle...
> 
> Common-or-garden?



Je comprends ce que tu veux dire.

Après, je ne sais pas, la personne qui prononce cette phrase peut jouer sur le double sens de vulgaire en y mettant le ton approprié.
Quant à forcer l'opposition unwashed/toffs dans la recherche d'un équivalent en anglais, c'est à mon avis faire de la sur-interprétation.


----------



## Kajeetah

J'aime bien "plebeian" proposé en #14
Ca colle avec le sens de "vulgaire" tel que je l'entends dans cette phrase.
Pour le vulgum pecus!


----------



## la tante de Mary

olympiades, I understand that the target audience is North American, but is the haughty man a speaker of BE or AE?
As Language Hound mentioned above, a haughty Brit might say mere or common, a haughty AE would be far less likely to do so. Plebiean might work if he's a haughty old-moneyed East Coast AE speaker, but not so much if he's a nouveau-riche Californian.

And to emphasise the unpalatable size of the apartment, say it's small, call it tiny, but don't spell out the number of bedrooms. This strikes me as odd in AE. 

"squalid little apartment"
might work for BE and AE which would get around the question of what the speaker's English is. Squalid is a tad strong, but serviceable.


----------



## broglet

Itisi said:


> I don't intend to stay forever in this two-bedroom apartment, it's infra-dig.
> 
> Otherwise, if 'mere' won't do - although I can't see what's wrong with '*a* mere [instead of 'this mere'] etc apartment', then 'Suehill's 'second-rate' (or even 'third-rate'?) I think would be best.


Or how about "I don't intend to end my days in these infra digs"


----------



## Oddmania

broglet said:


> Or how about "I don't intend to end my days in these infra digs"



Did you just make it up? It sounds like a great pun to me!


----------



## catay

Yet another suggestion, "paltry" meaning insignificant, without importance or worth, very small, etc.
"....in that paltry three room apartment"


----------



## broglet

Oddmania said:


> Did you just make it up? It sounds like a great pun to me!


oui - merci


----------

