Posted at 1:00 p.m.
The start of an election campaign is accompanied by a whole new set of mistakes for journalists to avoid.
We do not use, for example, the name county to designate the electoral districts. Or a term like hidden agenda when it is rather a question of hidden intentions of a party or its secret strategy. L’political agendahe would rather be the program of the party, its line of actionher priority list or even his electoral platform.
anglicism backgroundwho serves to designate, among other things, “the totality of a person’s experience and training”, is easily replaced by one of the following terms, depending on the context: background, luggage, skills, service records, professional experiences, trainingetc.
The term roadmap also does not serve to designate the progress where the journey of somebody. Rather, it is used when referring to a “list of steps to follow to carry out an action”. The party details, in its roadmap, the measures it intends to take to resolve the housing crisis.
What about the verb apply ? In a notice dated January 3, 2013, the French Academy wrote that this was misuse. This notice, which deals with names ending in did as lawyer, candidate, consulate, laureate Where pontificate, is not uninteresting. “We do not advocate, we do not win, we will be careful not to apply”, decrees the Academy.
However, in reality, the verb apply has come a long way since that notice. It appears in the Robert and Larousse dictionaries, in particular, and you can use it if you want. Candidate in the next elections.
In the newspaper, we use the plural for the noun election when it comes to general elections and the singular when it comes to a single by-election (or by-election). And the usage is to put presidential election in the singular because we elect only one president. In general elections, the polling date is the same for all constituencies.
Elizabeth or Elizabeth?
The Press writes the queen’s name with a s while in English his name is written with a z. It seems strange to me that in French, we do not follow the British spelling for the official name of the Queen.
Answer
Both spellings are attested in French, but it is the French spelling Elizabeth that we find in the Robert and in the Larousse and on the website of the Office québécois de la langue française.
The Press is not the only media that writes Elizabeth II and no Elizabeth II. This spelling can also be found on the Radio-Canada website and in The duty, among others. We keep the spelling elizabeth for the name of the daughter of George VI when referring to her before her accession to the throne.
It is not unusual to francize the names of British sovereigns, although this is not systematic. We also write Elizabeth ID and Edward VIIIbut George VI (and no George). Other names are also Frenchified, such as that of the Emperor of Austria, for example, by writing Franz Joseph Ier (and no Franz Joseph).