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What is a translation of the phrase "this is all about" in French?

For example:

This episode is all about finding a job.

meaning that this topic is (maybe not obviously) the actual topic of interest in this episode.

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  • Not a site to translate ; you can use Linguee : linguee.fr/francais-anglais/…
    – Personne
    May 1, 2015 at 9:08
  • Il manque l'état des recherches effectuées par le demandeur dans cette question.
    – P. O.
    May 7, 2015 at 19:42

4 Answers 4

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6

You can translate :

This episode is about finding a job.

by

Cet épisode est à propos d'une recherche d'emploi.

or, more generically :

Cet épisode est à propos de la recherche d'emploi.

Now, the "all" in "all about" can be added using "que" or "uniquement", like this :

Cet épisode est uniquement à propos d'une recherche d'emploi

or

Cet épisode n'est qu'à propos d'une recherche d'emploi.

I prefer the use of "uniquement", but both mean exactly the same.

EDIT : It seems that the expression is not about exclusivity like I first thought, so the suggestions above are not so good. I would give this better translation :

Dans cet épisode, il s'agit pour le personnage de trouver un emploi.

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  • 2
    No, this is not a correct translation. I think you interpreted the English expression literally, but it's an idiom. “X is all about Y” is not synonymous with “X is exclusively about Y”, it means that Y is the main topic or the main purpose of X. Iside's answer is a lot closer to the correct meaning.
    – Gilles 'SO nous est hostile'
    May 1, 2015 at 15:34
  • 4
    + 1 for your last edit, because I agree that “Il s’agit de [plus infinitive]” is a good way to capture “it’s all about”/ “it all boils down to”/"the important point is" in French without further modification; but is the “pour le personnage” really required because, for me, it actually changes the meaning or at least makes it somewhat ambiguous? Wouldn’t “Dans cet épisode, il s’agit de [comment] trouver/[or recherchér] un emploi” be enough?
    – Papa Poule
    May 1, 2015 at 17:20
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    Yes, yours is perfectly good too. For the introduction of "personnage", I was just guessing that in this exemple, we are talking about a person searching for a job. But if we are talking about the abstact concept of looking for a job, yours is definitly better.
    – Guillaume Fache
    May 1, 2015 at 17:28
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French doesn't have an adverb that translates “all about” perfectly in this context. Instead, we would phrase the sentence a bit differently, expressing the idea of “about” and the connotation of “actual topic of interest” separately.

Cet épisode raconte fondamentalement une recherche d'emploi.

Fondamentalement carries the connotation that the job search is the core purpose which may or may not be immediately apparent. If you don't want to hint that the purpose may not be apparent, you can say

Le sujet principal de cet épisode est une recherche d'emploi.

You can give an exclusive nuance (which the English doesn't necessarily have) by translating it as if it was “is only [about]”. In this case combining “only” with “about” in French sounds clumsy so we'd tend to simply use the verb “is”.

Cet épisode n'est qu'une recherche d'emploi.

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    Le sens est préservé, mais registre de ces propositions est peut-être un peu trop formel. J'aurais tendance a modifier le dernier en « En gros, il s'agit d'une recherche d'emploi ».
    – Stéphane Gimenez
    May 1, 2015 at 15:50
  • @StéphaneGimenez I'd use those sentences in everyday conversation. Maybe overusing “fondamentalement” is a scientist deformation?
    – Gilles 'SO nous est hostile'
    May 1, 2015 at 15:54
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Je propose:

Tout cet épisode est consacré à la recherche d'emploi

I don't see why you would use "une recherche [...]" wich is very specific IMHO.

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1
  • Le verbe et "la" recherche. +1 J'ai pensé à "se concentrer sur"; consacrer est bien meilleur, au point où pour moi "tout" devient superflu.
    – user3177
    May 1, 2015 at 22:03
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How about:

«Cet épisode ne porte essentiellement que sur une recherche d'emploi»

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  • I do not think it fits, because "essentiellement" would mean "mainly", the idea it is mostly about something, whereas "que" introduces the fact that it is only about something. So putting the two together do not make much sense.
    – Guillaume Fache
    May 1, 2015 at 12:53
  • In my view, «essentiellement» means «essentially». French synonyms would be : «exclusivement», «fondamentalement»
    – Iside
    May 1, 2015 at 13:17
  • I would agree with you with the "fondamentalement" translation, but not in this context. This meaning is mostly used in philosophy or litterature, but the everyday life meaning would be "principalement" (Larousse), and in no way "exclusivement".
    – Guillaume Fache
    May 1, 2015 at 13:27
  • Porter bien utile +1.
    – user3177
    May 1, 2015 at 22:05

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