how do you translate ready, aim, fire into french?

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Permalink Reply by Erwan on September 19, 2011 at 9:37am

I think it's : Présentez armes, en joue, feu.

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on September 19, 2011 at 8:48pm

Erwan -- could it be "apprêtez armes ..."?

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Permalink Reply by Erwan on September 19, 2011 at 11:13pm

I've never heard it. When I googled this expression, it always occured in 1700/1800-texts.

After thinking about my previous proposition, I probably made a mistake : "Présentez armes" is said in parades or things like that.

But I think you can have  "paré, en joue, feu" and "armez, en joue, feu" (I guess this last one is the best)

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on September 20, 2011 at 5:33pm

Ah, good point about 17/18C, seems my classical French training may be accidentally showing through ;-)

 

I don't do that many military translations as it's a bit outside my specialisation, but when I do I usually collaborate with a member of French-speaking military, so next time I'll try and remember to ask about this.

 

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Permalink Reply by al sprinkle on September 21, 2011 at 4:03pm

I appreciate the help.  I am part of a civil war reenacting group that is being asked to represent a french speaking unit in an upcoming event so the phrase that would have been used in 1862 would be even better, but it would be interesting to see how it has changed in 100 years.

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