règlement de comptes

    • Pour moi, il n'y a pas d'idée de prétexte dans "règlement de comptes". C'est un sens figuré de "régler des comptes" pour parler de vengeance.

    Par contre, je me demande si les propositions d'avant était bien prises au sens figuré qu'il y a dans "règlement de comptes" et pas au sens propre de régler des comptes, d'argent.

    Merci !
     
    Hello everyone,
    The context is a family gathering and everyone seems really happy together until someone lets out a criticism about a person around the table and then everyone cuts in and starts making cutting remarks about one or the other and in French we would say "ça a tourné au règlement de comptes". Would it be possible to say: "it turned into a settling of old scores" in this context? Thanks!
     
    delphgreg said:
    Hello everyone,
    The context is a family gathering and everyone seems really happy together until someone lets out a criticism about a person around the table and then everyone cuts in and starts making cutting remarks about one or the other Would it be possible to say: "it turned into a settling of old scores" in this context? Thanks!
    Click to expand...
    Yes, you could say that, although another expression comes to mind:

    Then people started to say what they really thought about each other.
     
    Score-settling is not used in English as commonly as reglement de comptes, which has become in the French media the established way of expressing what we usually describe as a "squabble", and when referring to gangsters a "vendetta", using the Italian word associated with the mafia. "Gang violence" and "gangland violence" are also used in a broader sense to mean any kind of feuding between organized crime groups. In the case of the family members suddenly airing their old differences you could say that "they suddenly started dragging out their old axes to grind". The expression "he has an axe to grind" means he wants to get satisfaction for some injustice done. In my opinion French journalists and TV newscasters over-use the expression "reglement de comptes", usually to liven up a piece of othrwise dull news. It brings up colourful (main colour being red) images of Al Capone mowing down his rivals with a tommy gun! It might be called the opposite of a euphemism.
     
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