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swallow

Quantz

Senior Member
French
I have a general problem with the use of that verb in this text.
Author is very often describing characters who are moved by something,
react with emotion, and invariably they just "swallow".

Sometimes I translate this by : "la gorge nouée", "sa gorge se serra", "avec une boule dans la gorge", etc.
But sometimes I simply cannot do that, and I'm afraid "il avala" or "il déglutit" is not very explicit of an emotional mood, but could just be construed as someone… swallowing… 👁 Confused :confused:


Example :
"He swallowed, holding up one hand."
ravaler sa peine/sa douleur/sa colère
ravaler sa salive (s'il est gêné), se rengorger (s'il est fier)
rester en travers de la gorge
monter à la gorge
picotements à la gorge
Ravaler is the right idea. He's referring to what in English we call "choking back" an emotion, tears, etc. The pantomime of this you'll see in old movies is someone literally swallowing with a pained expression. Once again, you're going to have to do the work he's too lazy to do for himself and decide what he means to say and translate that.
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