canany one translate French?

Just looked at Google translation,SORRY.
are you fluent? translates as
êtes-vous couramment.
I'm gonna put it down as the person in charge of sub titles
could not understand what was spoken as well at the time,
way back in 1963.
My fascination with the scene was it the first thing I tried to understand when starting to learn French for the first time.
Any way thanks to every one,its been enjoyable and I glad it has created a lot of interest.
A bientôt

Having lived in rural France for 18 years I can babble on with them for ages. You have to, no one speaks english there.
But I've no idea about the answer to the OP.
I would need to see it written down.
As in the UK there are so many accents, dialects, slang phrases particular to each area.

Does this help?
Une carte d'identité 1942
After name, comes nationalité, then profession.
If you look at the identity cards of escapees and members of the resistance, several have représentant as their job because like commerçant they would be travelling around.
I think the German would meticulously be asking questions going down the document. I can't remember but in the middle of the film isn't there a bit where the guy forging the papers tell them what they will need to say about themselves?

Infoman, I'm curious to know why the meaning is so important to you. ?

Whatever the meaning is, they were caught out by the suspicious Gestapo man asking a question in English, not by their lack of French.

Probably! The problem is that he doesn't really understand French. From memory, there's a bit in the film where the escapees learn some basic French.

I found the clip on YouTube and it sounded like "commerçants" the first time I heard it. I listened a few more times and that's definitely what it sounded like. It does make sense in context.

"comme versant" is shown on the in-vision sub-titles.
Maybe THATS where the error arises
We have to ignore the acting and actors and the words they are speaking
These are two escaping POW's
How would the German know they were business men?
Agreed,it could have been stamped on their documents
My thoughts are the german is asking "are you conversant"
in attempt to test RA French language skills
RA then says of course
If the german had said "are you teacher?"
would RA have said of course

Yes, it is unclear Marydoll.

If you slow down the video, you can work out what he is saying or perhaps not! I have a degree in French and I still wasn't sure.

Talking of 2ndWW films, I really enjoy watching The Longest Day. If anyone is ever near Sainte-Mère-Eglise, the museum is well worth visiting. It is packed with documents and artefacts from occupied Normandy.

As a professional translator I was trained to never GUESS Grandmafrench because it could potentially start WW3!
Definitely the German is asking him to confirm his job as a salesman.

Translating anything when having to guess at what’s being said is a bit of a mission! ?.

Add in the fact that one actor is British and pretending to be French and attempting to respond sensibly to a German actor speaking in French........makes it even harder..
I really don’t think RA would be asked if he was conversant in French when he’s already said yes to the question asking him if he’s French. I too think it’s more likely they’d be posing as (travelling) sales people/commerçants .....hence the question being asked, and which he confirms.

The point is that the Richard Attenborough character can only speak a few words of French. If you find the video and watch his face, he doesn't see to understand the German. He then comes out with one of the few sentences he knows "Parlez-vous français?", to which the German replies "Un peu", which is ironic because he can obviously speak very good French - not just a little.

Who wrote the script? Maybe he thought "comme versant" had the same double connotations of "flowing as easily as water" and "speaking it like a native" in French as "fluent" has in English?

Thanks for all your replies.
Can I just say, that the German might have been saying
"your conversant"?
to which R.A. says "of course"
in the tone you would expect a Frence person to be conversant in French

T/you westendgirl.

Yes, it makes most sense.

Just played it and it’s Pretty definitely commerçant !

Nannarose

Lucca - just out of my head! Spent a bit of time in France as a teenager

Sorry I meant where did the clip come from

Ah, didn't make The Great Escape connection, in that context, any of the above!

Lucca - just out of my head! Spent a bit of time in France as a teenager

I found it in You Tube ; The Great Escape Good Luck.

Hope that works , Ellianne

Where are you listening to it please westendgirl? I would be interested to look beyond the written suggestions.

Are you sure he's not saying convaincant?I've listened to it several times, if it is it means convincing / plausible.
Just a thought.

I think many used the word "commerçant" on their documents because that gave them the excuse for travelling .... when really they were escaping.
That is your answer infoman. 100% sure.
I remember studying the format of all the papers when I was a translator for the international police.

growstuff

I think the Gestapo bloke is asking "Commerçants?" (businessmen/salespeople?)

Oh... difficult to know which is the gestapo bloke !! This
Being google is reminding me if the horrors of google translate. When I used to say to students I’m afraid you’ve used google translate here they would be very indignant and say “how do you know ?”??