Anybody speak French?

[kengr]

I'm trying to have a bit of (simple) French dialog in a story. The character is in a high school French class. Which is about as far as my knowledge of French goes. :-)

Due to the story a couple of words you wouldn't normally encounter in such a situation are going to come up. I've found the appropriate words in an online English-French dictionary. The problem is the *gender* of the words.

So, do I refer to a male-to-female transexual as "transsexuel" or "transsexuelle"??

Likewise, for a boy wearing girl's clothes, is it "travesti" or "travestie"?

Comments

[draxenn.livejournal.com]

it can really go both ways, which is why french can be very confusing.
I'd say it would be author's perogative.

Grammatically speaking, since the transexual is a male, it would be 'le transexuel' because he is indeed a masculine figure, even though he is percieved as female.
same applies to travesti, since it's a male dressing as a female and not the other way around.

Now, you *may* want to go the other way, as it will give the character's description that bit more of a female quality.

if you need any more help, let me know. I am (or at least was) fully bilingual...it's been years since i've written, or even spoken french, but it does come back...but i can honestly admit that no transvestite/gender stuff ever came up in school :)

[kengr]

Well, grammatical "gender" is really weird to start with. And is worse in French. :-)

I'll keep you in mind as a resource. Along with the other's who've replied.

If you are feeling brave, you can read part 1 of the story on Brooke's website. :-)

[ebonhost.livejournal.com]

I have to concur. It depends on the gender. "Travestie" would be a woman dressing in men's clothing. :) For transexual I would go with the gender of birth- ie. male-to-female would thus be "transsexuel".

[kengr]

Weird. And someone else gives a counter-example below.

Oh well, I can have the *teacher* not sure. :-)

[aurictech.livejournal.com]

Well, this page uses both "transsexuel" and "transsexuelle". Unfortunately, my knowledge of French is limited to "Laissez les bon temps rouler," so I can't figure out how the terms differ.

It does seem as if the generic term is "transsexuel."

~searching further~

Ah, this might help. This site uses "transsexuelle" to describe Christine Jorgensen. Further down, a case history begins as follows: "NB, transsexuelle Homme/Femme...".

[kengr]

Merci beacoup, Monsieur.