[Wikipedia-l] Vote on voting method for final round

[Ray Saintonge]

Anthere wrote:

>In american english (and in Maverick voice), I think
>"silly" is rather friendly. A bit like "gros béta". It
>is not very offending, rather a gentle reproach.
>Perhaps slightly friendly moquery.
>
>Not in french. Saying to someone he is "idiot" (the
>translation of silly) is *not* friendly. And not
>encouraging at all.
>
The problem here is that the French "idiot" is not a good translation of 
"silly".  This is perhaps an instance where the "idiot" of the two 
languages are mostly not false friends.  Your choice of "béta" (but 
certainly not "bête") is more appropriate for "silly".  "Silly" often 
tends to be used about children, and suggests something childish about 
the person or action.  It is indeed a gentle reproach, but if used to 
excess tends to have a cumulative effect.  

Circumstances can, of course, change things.  When my son was 3 or 4 
years old we kidded him about something by saying that he was a "petit 
niaiseux".  To emphasize that he was getting bigger he replied "J'suis 
pas un petit niaiseux, j'suis un grand niaiseux" :-D

>I remember Mav also told me I was silly once. I then
>thought of a computer game I played a long time ago,
>where the hero party met a colony of very friendly
>spiders.  The cute little spiders were using the
>adjective "silly" (this was the english version). But
>they did not mean to offense. So, I said nothing to
>Mav.
>
Pikmin?!

>But perhaps would it be wise to be cautious while
>using this word ? 
>
Always advisable when going across languages.

Ec