Wednesday, March 08, 2006
A bout de souffle/Breathless
At meetings at the EU's Food and Veterinary Office, there is frequent reference to feed and food law. Frequent as in several times a minute. And why not? It's a phrase that fairly trips off the tongue in English. But pity the French interpreters next door who have to chew through this mouthful every time:
la législation sur les aliments pour animaux et les denrées alimentairesThat's 22 syllables. I know French is spoken at a higher rate of syllables per minute than English but the ratio is hardly 22:4.
