Translation Convention/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A show's setting implies that a certain language is being spoken, but the characters speak a different one for the convenience of the audience.

  • Straight: Tropers is an American movie set in France, but all of the main characters speak English.
  • Exaggerated: Everyone speaks English, there are no other languages.
  • Justified: All of the characters are either English monolinguals or multi-linguals with English as one of their languages, which is used for convenience.
  • Inverted: Troping for Tropes is an American movie set in the United States, but everyone speaks French.
  • Subverted: Claudette (the first French character to appear in Tropers) speaks French and only French...
  • Double Subverted: ...but she was employing Obfuscating Stupidity, and speaks English perfectly well.
  • Parodied: In an American movie, the French government announces that English with a French accent will be the new official language in France.
    • An American movie set in France depicts a number of German tourists speaking Russian with a Swedish accent.
  • Deconstructed: English is the international language. All other languages are dead, and with them many cultures.
  • Reconstructed: English is the official language. The other language(s) are used like Latin is in Real Life.
  • Zig Zagged: The French characters' lines alternate between plain English, French-accented English, French with English subtitles, French without English subtitles, French with non-English subtitles, random other languages with varying types of subtitles, and random gibberish with varying types of subtitles, sometimes within the same conversation.
  • Averted: Tropers is an American movie set in France, and all of the main characters (or at least all the locals) speak French.
  • Enforced: The movie is released in America and needs to bring a large audience in order for the director to keep working. Therefore, everyone speaks English, despite being set in France.
    • The director couldn't find enough (or good enough) French-speaking actors.
  • Lampshaded: Alice complains about everyone speaking English in France.
  • Invoked: Alice is filming a documentary about life in France, and tells everyone to speak English to allow the English audience to understand.
  • Exploited: Alice is moving to France and doesn't bother learning the language, because she knows everyone will speak English.
  • Defied: "Stop speaking English! We are in France, we all know French, lets speak French, for heavens sake!"
  • Discussed: Alice, an American, arrives in France. When she doesn't understand anything, Bob explains that in Real Life, the French speak French.
  • Conversed: "Why do characters in French movies always speak English with a French accent?"
  • Played For Laughs: Alice decides to travel to France to improve her French. She is furious when everyone keeps speaking English.
  • Played For Drama: French is becoming a dead language, so people have turned to speaking English. Alice tries to make people realise the importance of their cultural heritage.
  • Plotted A Good Waste: To make communication between nations easier, France has made English a second official language. Everyone starts speaking English.

Back to Translation Convention