50 Comments
Oh! Is that what this means? I thought we'd just struck lucky and got a nice rich king through the door as our customer. . .
Nope, that would be "le client est un roi". That is a saying that goes directly in the line of "the customer is always right". Couldn't find why we drop the "le" that would normally go there on the net. Sorry!
I think it's because king is being used as an adjective, which is possible but very rare in English, like "the king rat."
It can also be used more directly as in "I am king". It's obviously not something you hear much outside of historical dramas or fantasy, unless you happen to associate with a lot of royalty.
If you've seen much Blackadder (a British sort-of historical sitcom) you might have also heard it used in the feminine form: "Who's Queen?"
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"roi" is an occupation/profession, so with "être" the indefinite article is dropped. This is covered in the "Occupation" module.
If that were true, "the client is a king" would have been an accepted translation, but it isn't.
Thanks! I popped on here to ask the exact same thing. "The client is king" and the "The client is the king" would seem to mean two very different things to me in English.
If I were not short of lingots on the environmental concern issue, I would give you ten lingots for that. LOL.
In France, the customer is not always right as shown by the number of old leadings yelling at store clerks (from time to time).
It took me a while to realise that this is what they meant. I thought at first the the client was literally the King of some country! "The customer should be treated like a king"!
Why? Most service professions that deal with customers in brief, face to face transactions have customers, not clients. The people who eat in my restaurant are not clients. It's not wrong, but I don't see any reason it would be considered more apt.
Am I the only one who thinks the sound is horrible? Couldn't hear "client" at all...
I suspect the problem was my ear but I had to turn the sound off to learn the written French for a while. I hope if I visit France that they will be tolerant. I have so many many friends with heavy accents in "my" language and many other languages. one fellow we knew was insulted rightly at a job interview: "Mr. Posada, you have a very heavy accent." He characteristically stole the show by saying, "Yes, i have a very heavy accent in six languages." I always enjoy languages but realize repeating tires a person. For one of my friends, after a day of work repeating herself and suffering job/ pay issues her intelligence is above, does not seem to seek out English speakers but just talks to people on skyp in her own language despite not sharing the same issues and culture now since they all live in different countries. Wars take so many generations to recover from.
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I thought 'roi' sounded like hooah (accent on the ah part), not an r sound at all, even the usual French r.
I think it's because "roi" is used as a sort of adjective in this case. It's not "The client is a king" but "the client is king", as in "the customer is always right"
This explains juandenil's & Bootsma's posts above - thank you. And Duo's own translation is not as good - I hope someone has "reported" it & asked for this translation to be accepted.
In French (and several other languages), you don't put an article between être and a profession. I suppose king is considered a profession :) http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/a/professions.htm
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But with other professions, translating it back into English, we usually add an indefinite article.
Le client est juge. >> The client is a judge.
Mon ami est chauffeur.>> My friend is a chauffeur.
Right? Hmm..
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It's an idiom, a cliche really that's often used as an advertising slogan.
"The customer is king!"
Contextually, I'm guessing it means "The customer is always right". Am I right?
Cette expression n'est pas vrai. Parfois, plusieurs fois, le client est mauvais! Je sais cela parce que je travaille dans un café.
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I have to say, I think this is funny. In England Yes, the customer is King is a well known phrase. However, I never thought I'd ever see this expressed in French. My experience of encountering French staff in shops,cafe's, post offices and bars, would suggest that the customer/client is the nuisance. Still, this isn't the real world, it's only so that we learn the language. :)
I thought titles and professions just didn't include an article in french. The lesson before that said "his friend is a driver" didn't have the "un" before chauffeur. :/
I've never heard it in Australia. 'The customer is always right' is correct here - if only grammatically :D
I thought that the word "King" can be used like a profession or a degree: "he is the king", "he IS the king of Danmark", and also "he is A king" (the way you say"he is A doctor" "he is A teacher").
I'd like to know if "the costumer is King" is just a saying (so, out of rules) or It is an exception (so, gramaticaly stablished). Thanks
You could say:
- The client / customer is A king.
However, since this is one of those times where the English matches the French exactly (using the noun as an adjective), the translation is perfect without an article. In English, this is done with official job titles: President, Head of the corporation, Secretary General, Chief, etc, whereas in French it is done with any job title, among other roles.
