How to say "cheating" in this context?...

I was looking to say "Her professor saw her cheating" and I said "Son prof l'a vu arnaquant". Would that be correct? Thank you!

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on October 19, 2012 at 6:32am

The verb would be "tricher" ("arnaquer" does exist, but it means something closer to "rip off", "swindle").

For cases such as "to see somebody doing something", the second verb is generally an infinitive. However, in this case, it's common to use the construction en train de ("in the middle of...-ing") which you may have come across. So:

Son prof l'a surprise en train de tricher.

This emphasises the fact that they were "caught in the act" on that specific occasion.

On the other hand, if you were just saying that they had been "witnessed generally" on a few occasions, you could say more simply e.g.:

Son prof l'a vue tricher (à plusieurs reprises).

Her teacher has seen her cheating (on several occasions).

I've added -e to "surprise" and "vue" since you mention specifically it being a "her" that was caught cheating.