Mots Maudits #12: Enjeux

The British are famously fond of games. We invented football, rugby, cricket, golf and tennis (of the lawn and table varieties), as well as the precursors of basketball (netball) and baseball (rounders), and countless other activities as diverse as snooker, darts, bungee jumping and curling.

Rugby's origin story, apocryphal though it may be, is instructive in that it shows the type of creativity and playfulness that allows innovation. Maybe such inspiration is behind the invention of many games and sports.

Legend has it that the Earl of Sandwich came up with the idea for his eponymous snack because he was so loath to interrupt his game that he asked his chef to bring him a piece of meat between two slices of bread, enabling him to eat at the card table. Necessity is the mother of invention…

The importance of games in British culture is reflected in the number of idioms they have spawned. Gambling in particular seems over-represented in this respect: “on the cards”, “to hedge your bets”, “to hold all the aces”, “to up the ante”, “to play your cards right”, “to put your cards on the table”, “to roll the dice”, and “to raise the stakes” have all entered the vernacular thanks to the ubiquity of card games and betting in Britain.

In this final expression, the notion of the “stakes” has an exact equivalent in French: “enjeux” (literally, “in play”), which refers to the amount of money you are prepared to risk on a hand or game.

Just as we talk of something being “at stake” in English, “enjeux” can also be used figuratively to refer to what you stand to lose in a sporting competition or business venture — a player might risk his reputation, legacy or health, for example — but “enjeux” is also very commonly used in business French, and it can present something of an issue for translators.

In the context of business or politics, “enjeux” is often best translated as “challenge(s)”, such as with this example: “les enjeux et perspectives pour les entreprises”. A clue that will help you with word choice is whether the author is talking about something that the company risks losing or an obstacle it faces (compliance with more stringent environmental regulations in the above example).

In some contexts — if the author is not specifically referencing a challenge to overcome, but explaining the nature the problem — a word like “issue”, “importance” or "objective" may seem like a more appropriate translation. However, given the frequency at which “enjeux” crops up, it may worth considering dropping it altogether and rephrasing. Canadian translator Grant Hamilton provides an interesting example of the lateral thinking sometimes needed to address this thorny problem here.