kwren

I place French exchange students in homes for 3 weeks in July and as part of the student application, the parents' occupations are listed...in French. Normally my French is sufficient to translate these entries, but today I received a student whose father is listed as 'rectifieur (ouvrier)'. I know 'rectifier' means to correct, but can't put it together with a job unless it's a corrections officer (as in a prison)? I tried to look it up online but couldn't find an answer so was hoping someone here might know.

NewbE

I believe that is a repairman, or a handyman.

Christina

I'm not certain exactly, but it's a technical job in a factory that makes things from metal or plastic, I believe, I think sort of like a machinist.

Christina

oh, you don't hve a full understanding of what the word rectify means, that's only one definition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rectifier

NewbE

Well, when we lived in Germany my German landlady and I tended to speak in French because my German was, and remains, rudimentary at best, and when a repair was need, I'm pretty sure that's the term she used.

Pvoyageuse

Here are several job descriptions for rectifieurs : https://candidat.pole-emploi.fr/cand...______________

NewbE

Hmm, looks like Christina is right. Either I'm misremembering, or my landlady was summoning machinists instead of repairmen, lol!

kerouac

A <i>rectifieur</i> is a machine tool operator who refines parts made until they are perfect and pass all quality control tests.

Padraig

In my version of English, that would be a finisher.

tomboy

What does one call a machine tool operator who makes imperfect parts?

Unemployed, for one.

"opérateur de la machine-outil" would seem to be what the above thinks it means.

I suspect that the correct definition of "rectifeur" has not yet been posted here.

Cathinjoetown

Handyman is homme à toutes mains.

Had never seen or heard the word rectifeur or -fier, interesting.

Whathello

Kerouac gives a correct definition.
Maybe P too, but I didn't bother to follow the link.

homme à toutes main doesn't exist, you would translate it into homme à tout faire, which is NOT a rectifieur.

However rectifieur is probably a nice word, with little real meaning. I would use rectificateur, personally.

Cathinjoetown

Sorry, whathello, I have a business card from the homme à toutes mains in my village.

Before I posted here, I checked it in the dictionary because I always get toutes and tous mixed up.

If you don't believe me, look it up.

Cathinjoetown

Okay, the à should not be there. So, hommes toutes mains

There's a variation, homme à tout faire

kerouac

I suspect that what you call a 'variation' is the term used 99% of the time. But it's not really important because the term used by your handyman conveys a meaning one step up from 'homme à tout faire' because it conveys dexterity. This would indicate that he is hoping for better jobs than hauling trash to the dump.

Cathinjoetown

Thanks, K. My French is only passable but I like to continue learning.

kwren

And thanks for all the comments! I don't feel so bad for not being to figure it out on my own!

kerouac

Well, one of the problems is giving fancy names to basic jobs to enhance the self esteem of the employees.

For example, we no longer have cleaning people in France but "<i>techniciens de surface</i>" instead.

Underhill

Very true; for some time we've had sanitary engineers instead of garbage collectors.

kerouac

Oh, we don't have those in Paris. We have urban cleanliness agents. (agent de propreté urbaine)