Poirot French Phrases: Popular French in Agatha Christie's Poirot translated
Agatha Christie’s most famous detective Hercule Poirot often speaks in French and regularly makes utterances in his mother tongue. This is generally when:
- Poirot is making an exclamation after a shock – something he has realised or just learnt – ‘mille tornners!’
- Is showing sympathy towards someone – ‘pouvre petit’
- Speaking casually to a friend – ‘mon amie!’
Often, we are able to translate the common Poirot French phrases with some basic French we remember from school or gain an understanding from the wider context of the narrative to follow along and keep up with the plot but it can be frustrating if you don’t know the meaning or want to translate these to have to look them up.
For this reason, I have created the following ‘crib sheet’ for those wanting to understand every single word Dame Agatha Christie took the trouble to write. We shouldn’t just skip sections written in italics so I hope the below list of the most commonly used French phrases as helpful. I am aware that increasingly, children learn Spanish rather than French in schools these days and so thought this would prove useful to those younger audiences who are picking up their first Poirot novel and whom we don’t want to be deterred from enjoying the wonderful world of Agatha Christie just because of a bit of French.
Now, I am by no means a language expert, indeed I rely on my GCSE French to get by with most of the Poirot novels so please don’t take all these as perfect, grammatically correct translations – I have literally just plugged these into Google translate and done my best to keep the context close to the narrative so I’m sure there will be detailed errors, but I hope you can get enough accuracy from the translations below for it to be useful – at least it saves you the trouble of having to look them all up individually too!
If you want more specific translations for the individual novels, I am also compiling a complete series to list out all the translations for each Poirot novel, chapter by chapter – you can find those here or by clicking on the specific novels below.
Enjoy!
Your Pocketbook Guides to Translations in Agatha Christie's Poirot Novels
All the translations from French to English from the Novel the Mystery of the Blue Train
French to English translations from Dead Man's Folly - chapter by chapter.
Chapter by chapter translations from Death on the Nile - French and German phrases translated.
French translations for the Poirot Novel Peril at end house, chapter by chapter.
Common French Phrases from Agatha Christie's Poirot Novels Translated
Below are a few of the most commonly used French words and phrases used throughout the novels as well as some details of their origins and first uses. Consider this your Poirot French cheat-sheet:
Poirot French Phrases
Ah, non! – No way!
Ah, vraiment! – Really! or ‘Indeed!
Attendez – Wait
Au reviour – Goodbye
Bien – Ok or good/ fine
bien entendu – Of course
bon Dieu! – Good God!
Bonne nuit – Goodnight
Calmez vous – calm yourself
c’est entendu – It’s heard
C’est vrai – That is true
Cherchez la femme – Look for the woman. This is a commonly used phrase and often means that a woman is at the root of the problem. It is thought that this phrase was first coined by the author Alexander Dumas in his novel ‘The Mpohicans of Paris’.
Cette pauvre – Poor thing, this poor…
Comment? – how?
Crime passionelle – A crime of passion
Ecoutez – Listen
Eh bien… – Well…
empressement – eagerness
Enchante – Nice to meet you, how do you do
Enfant – children/ child
Entre nous – Just between us
Évidemment – Evidently
Jeune fille – Young lady
La toilette – usually Poirot is referring to ‘refreshing’ his moustaches or tending to his appearance
Ma foi! – Well!
Mille tonnerres – a term for annoyance such as ‘blast!’ or ‘’confound it!’. Tonnerres is thunder so literally this means ‘a thousand thunders!’
Mais oui! – But yes!
Marveille – Wonderful
Mesdames et Messieurs – Ladies and Gentlemen
Mon Dieu! – My God!
Mon estomac – my stomach! A common phrase utteres by Poirot whenever faced with the idea of a sea voyage or flight.
Mon vieux – my old friend
N’est-ce pas – Is it not so, that’s not right
Nom d’un nom d’un nom! – Generally, this is ‘Oh my goodness!’ something is unbelievable.
Strictly translated this actually means ‘name of a name of a name!’ – ‘Nom de nom’ is originally taken from ‘Nom de Dieu’ as a slightly more polite amendment. ‘Nom de Dieu’ means ‘In the name of God’. Poirot repeats the phrase a second time to be ‘name of a name of a name!’. A modern equivalent is where many say ‘Oh my god!’ others prefer to say ‘Oh my goodness!’. If adding a third part you could say’ Oh my goodness gracious!’
Parbleu – Good lord – an old fashioned French saying
Pardon – Excuse me, sorry
Parfaitement – Perfcetly
Pauvre petite – Poor little one
Peut-etre – Perhaps
Précisément – Precisely
Quelle idée! – what an idea!
Sacre – sacred – often used as in ‘oh lord’
Sacre tonnerre – Sacred thunder! An exclamation such as ‘By Jove!’ Jove (Jupitor) was the Roman god of the sky and thunder which could be where this derives from.
Sapristi – By Jove!
Tendresse – tenderness
Tiens! – Here!
Tisane – Herbal tea
Tout d’un coup – All of a sudden
La toilette – usually Poirot is referring to ‘refreshing’ his moustaches or tending to his appearance
Tres bien – Well done
Voila! – There!
Vraiment – True!
Zut! – Damn!