idiomatic French translation for 'redneck'

[peacewish]

So, I know nothing of French at all, but I want one character to use it when whispering to another "The redneck is staring at me again." So far, Google Translate has given me

Comments

[flo_nelja]

It would me "Le rustre me regarde encore." It does have a rural connotation, as well as an ueducated connotation, and it's quite rare/formal.

Non besoin etre peur. -> Pas besoin d'avoir peur
Google translate is the worst.

For the translation, maybe I'd use "plouc" (same meaning as rustre, but informal)

[peacewish]

I'm so happy to have so many helpful and considerate responses. Thank you for your input!

[violetta_jones]

I agree that "plouc" would work. "Péquenaud" or "cul-terreux" would be good alternatives as well (these originally imply that said bumpkin is from the far, far countryside, but that's not always the case nowadays). I personally think "péquenaud" is the closest to redneck in meaning and use.

As for the two sentences :

- "Le rustre me regarde encore" would be the translation to "the redneck looks at me again". The best translation to your exact sentence would be "le [rustre/plouc/whatever you choose here] est encore en train de me fixer". "Fixer" is a better translation for "staring".

- "No need to be afraid" would be a literal "pas besoin d'avoir peur". I wager that this specific redneck is French, so you might want to add a little color to their speech. "Pas besoin d'avoir [la trouille/les jetons/la pétoche]" literally means "no need to be scared", but use slangy alternatives ("la trouille", "les jetons" or "la pétoche") to "avoir peur", which a redneck would use in their (most likely) unrefined everyday speech.

[peacewish]

I decided to go with pequenaud, since you recommended it and I kinda liked the way it sounded. Thanks for your extremely thorough and thoughtful response! It made all the difference for my scene, and I think my French-speaking redneck came off sounding pretty darn funny.

[alextiefling]

Google Translate is awful. In the first case, it's given you the wrong tense (past historic instead of present) and a very non-idiomatic translation for 'again'.

In the second case, it's literally translated each word separately, except that for some reason it's got 'fear' instead of 'afraid', which is correct idiomatically if the damn verb is right which in this case it isn't.

Perhaps the French-speakers here can advise whether 'n'avez pas peur' ('don't be afraid') would be better than 'no need...'.

[violetta_jones]

(Frenchie here) It's actually "n'ayez pas peur", and though it does work, it's kind of formal. I can't imagine a redneck using that level of formality (hence the idiomatic alternative I suggested). And yeah, Google translation is terrible.

Actually, now that I think about it, the simplest sentence that's also idiomatic would be "faut pas avoir peur". "Faut pas" is literally "musn't", but has a meaning closer to "don't need" here. Again, "avoir peur" could be replaced with any of the alternatives I gave in my previous post for an even more idiomatic feel.

[alextiefling]

I was wondering about 'ayez' - I get terribly confused about contexts and languages where the subjunctive is more formal/old-fashioned, and where it's more informal/idiomatic.

[peacewish]

Ha ha, it's probably too much to expect conjugation and nuance, even if I was happy to use GT as a starting point. Can't replace humans, not yet anyway! Thanks for your and everyone's considerate responses.

[anonymous]

Maybe 'bouseux'? But 'plouc' is probably best.

'Le plouc me lâche pas des yeux' could also work I think (literally 'the redneck hasn't taken his eyes off me').

'Pas la peine d'avoir peur'? Or 'faut pas avoir peur' maybe?