Posted yesterday at 6:00 p.m.
In French, the word luck is sometimes contaminated by English. The English word luck will sometimes result in luck, but also by chance Where opportunity, through risk, also, and other words. It depends on the sentence. leave nothing to chance ; take no risks ; miss an opportunity.
We cannot simply say that luck is used for positive things and risk, for the negative things. It’s just the name luck is sometimes synonymous with lucky chance Where unfortunate, of probability. He has a one in two chance of succeeding, to fail. “The word is no longer used in this sense except in the neat expression”, specifies the Dictionary of the difficulties and pitfalls of the French language (Larousse).
When we write that there is a chance, a strong chance, that something will happen, it only means that it is probable. Word luck is then used in the plural. “Indiscriminate recall programs are likely to prolong the pandemic, rather than end it,” warned the World Health Organization.
However, to translate English to take a chance, we will write take the risk, rather than “taking a chance”. But the expression try your luck can mean taking the risk of doing something dangerous.
We can also talk about risk of contamination. The risks of being seriously ill are higher in the unvaccinated.
The verb risk can it be used for something positive? For example, can we say it might be sunny tomorrow Where this show is going to be very popular ? It depends on the sources consulted. But in writing, it is still better not to do so. It will probably be sunny tomorrow. This show will undoubtedly be very popular.
In addition, we can write in the singular or in the plural the phrase at risk. Pregnancy at risk Where at risk, population at risk, risky driving. Risk sports, at risk. high risk job.
Flatten or flatten the curve?
Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have heard that we must flatten the curve. Shouldn’t we use the verb flatten ?
Responnse
The verb flatten seems preferable when it comes to “taking measures to slow the increase in the number of cases of a disease in order to avoid overloading the health system at the most intense moment of an epidemic”. The national director of public health used it and it is the one found, with the definition just given, in the “Glossary on the COVID-19 pandemic” of the Translation Bureau of the Government of Canada. This is also the recommendation made by Guy Bertrand, Radio-Canada’s first language advisor. The curve should be flattened, not leveled. So it’s the verb flatten appropriate, rather thanflatten.
Moreover, if one wonders how to pronounce the name Omicron : the Robert and the Larousse both give the pronunciation crone at the end, as in Crown, and no cron, as in Macron.