Translation for ice cream

E B.B1Kwiziq community member

Translation for ice cream

The Quebecois term "la crème glacée" was rejected as a translation for "ice cream," which seems unfair. It should at least be allowed as one of the alternate suggestions.

Asked 1 year ago
CélineKwiziq team memberCorrect answer

Bonjour E,

Thank you for your feedback! I will pass it on to our French language team for further discussion.

Kwiziq is based on Standard French ("Metropolitan French"), not Quebec French. Therefore, the answers will not include Quebec French options.

I hope this answers your query.

Bonne journée !

CélineKwiziq team memberCorrect answer

Bonjour E and Maarten,

Thank you for your research work, Maarten! After researching and discussing this with the French language, we've decided that, in this context, "crème glacée" is a correct alternative, although it is quite formal in France. 

Remember:

- both "glace" and "crème glacée" are possible in the context of a food critic, talking about gastronomy etc.

- in everyday speech, "glace" is the best option - people might give you a bit of a funny look, if you ask for "une crème glacée" at a little ice-cream van by a beach for example ;-)

I hope this is helpful.

Bonne journée !

Maarten K.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Céline, interestingly Larousse does list crème glacée as a synonym for 'glace', but from the French cooking sites I use a lot (especially L'Académie du Gout), it seems to be used more in the general sense to refer to ice cream as an ingredient/component in desserts, rather than specifically to 'an ice cream'.

https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/glace/37030

Maarten K.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Thanks Céline - I actually went looking because my initial response was that I had never heard anyone use anything other ‘une glace’ for ‘an ice cream’, and was very surprised when Larousse listed it as synonym, without context.

I think it would be a mistake for anyone wanting to know metropolitan French to get the idea that asking for ‘une crème glacée’ was equivalent in usage to ‘une glace’ in France. 

Far too important a topic to get the vocabulary wrong ! 

E B.B1Kwiziq community member

Maarten and Céline, thank you both for looking into it. At the very least, it's been a great etymology and vocab lesson for me! 

Maarten, funny enough, I had the opposite experience living in Québec and learning Québec French. I have had many a "crème glacée," and didn't realize that it was dialectal until this exercice, when I went to look up why the answer didn't match.

Translation for ice cream

The Quebecois term "la crème glacée" was rejected as a translation for "ice cream," which seems unfair. It should at least be allowed as one of the alternate suggestions.

Sign in to submit your answer

Don't have an account yet? Join today

Ask a question

Find your French level for FREE

Test your French to the CEFR standard

Find your French level
Clever stuff happening!