How do you say “I don’t like to be stared at” in French?
Google Translate says: Je n’aime pas être regardé
I’m curious what an actual french speaker thinks of that.
Je n’aime pas être regardée fixement.
(Edit: Feminine because it’s for Emily.)
The request is a little complicated because there is no verb for “to stare” in French. “Regarder” is “to look” or “to watch”, so you need to qualify it to express the concept of staring. “Regarder fixement/attentivement/intensément” are phrases that describe staring.
And, sure enough, “stare” has solid, Germanic roots:
Origin of STARE
Middle English, from Old English starian; akin to Old High German starēn to stare
Put your thumbs in your ears, wiggle your fingers, and stick out your tongue and go Phlbblbblttbblt!! Works in any language.
Thanks, all!
I think my boss would wonder what I was up to if I did that to someone in the lunchroom. Haha.
I would phrase it as a pointed question, something along the lines (and please excuse my rusty west African French) of “Vous me regardez comme ca porquoi?” (Why are you looking at me like that?) or “Vous aimez regarder les gens?” (You like looking at people?).
As a Native Speaker[sup]tm[/sup], I think this is closer to what the OP was asking for. The other translations, however grammatically correct they may, sound stilted and unnatural. It’s certainly not something a native speaker would say in such a situation.
That being said, it’s not true there is no verb for “stare” in French: it’s fixer. It has several other meanings so that you have to provide some context when you use it.
Some possible replies:
Arrêtez de me regarder comme ça. (Stop looking at me like that.)
Arrêtez de me fixer comme ça. (Stop staring at me like that.)
Qu’est-ce que vous avez à me regarder comme ça. (Why are you looking at me like that?)
Qu’est-ce que vous avez à me fixer comme ça. (Why are you staring at me like that?)
Vous pouvez pas regarder ailleurs? (Why don’t you look somewhere else?)
Of course this assumes you’re addressing someone who is staring at you right now.
Pourquoi, Emilie?
Et j’aime beaucoup l’idiom “Qu’est-ce que vous avez…?” Literallement, "What do you have…?"
“What do you have that you’re looking at me like that?”
Cherchez-vous à moi? (Are you looking at me?)
Bonus points if you can imitate Robert DeNiro when you say it.
“Are you searching at me?”
I think you mean: C’est à moi que tu parles?
Or more naturally: C’est à moi que tu parles, mec?
I’d much rather not directly talk to the mentally disturbed woman who stares at my coworkers and I in the lunchroom. I don’t even know her. Besides, I think she speaks English.
Okay, what’s the context then? Are you talking with friends? You could say something like:
Elle ne me lâche pas des yeux. Je déteste quand on me fixe comme ça.
(She won’t stop eying me. I hate it when people stare at me like that.)
“Ne pas lâcher des yeux,” literally, “to not let go with the eyes” is another expression that means stare intently.
Thanks, jovan.
The context is that I usually eat lunch with my coworkers and boss in the lunchroom, but if I stop doing so because I don’t like being stared at by the person I mentioned, I was wondering how I could explain that to my boss.
Not a native speaker, but I witnessed a few “stop staring at me” moments in the Paris Métro. Each time, the woman being stared at said to the man staring at her: “Vous avez un problème?”
Not to pry, but do you not share a language with your boss?
Frenchie here. A colloquial if a bit aggressive way to get people to stop staring in French is “Tu veux ma photo ?” (lit. Want a picture of me ?). Sort of like “Take a picture, it’ll last longer” in English.
But if politeness is de rigueur, then I would suggest “Pourriez-vous arrêter de me regarder tout le temps comme ça s’il vous plaît, ça me met mal à l’aise” (lit. Could you please stop looking at me like this all the time, it’s embarrassing/makes me ill at ease).
But if explaining things to your boss, you should tell them “Il y a une dame qui (or just “Mrs. X” if you know who Crazy Eyes is) n’arrête pas de me regarder fixement pendant les repas et ça me met mal à l’aise.”
I live in an area where the majority of people are French, and my workplace is entirely French, so it’s the only language I use when communicating with my boss. Having studied French all my life, I’m usually good at it, but my French is not perfect, which is why I started this thread to ask about the translation of the sentence.
My boss can generally speak and understand English, but my workplace is French, and I think my French is better than my boss’s English.