What is a calque?

A calque (also called a loan translation) is a word or phrase borrowed from one language into another by translating each component part literally. The result is a new expression made entirely of native words that carries the same meaning as the original foreign term.

What is calquing?

Calquing is the process of creating a calque. Rather than borrowing a foreign word directly (as English did with “pizza” or “café”), a language translates the foreign word piece by piece using its own existing vocabulary.

The word calque itself comes from the French calquer, meaning “to trace” or “to copy” — which is exactly what the process does: it traces the structure of a foreign expression and copies it into the new language.

How it works

The English word skyscraper was calqued into French as gratte-ciel — gratte (scrape) + ciel (sky). The French didn’t borrow the English word; they translated its two parts and built a new word from native French vocabulary.

Calque examples in English and other languages

Calques are far more common in everyday language than most people realise. Many words and phrases we use without a second thought began as direct translations of foreign expressions.

What is the difference between a calque and a loanword?

The key difference is whether the foreign word itself crosses into the new language, or just its meaning.

Loanword
The foreign word is adopted directly, often with minor spelling or pronunciation changes. The original word is visible in the new language.

Examples: pizza, café, kindergarten, ballet
Calque
The foreign word is translated part by part using native vocabulary. The original word disappears — only its meaning and structure survive.

Examples: skyscraper, flea market, beer garden

Both are forms of borrowing — one borrows the word, the other borrows only the idea.

Why do languages use calques instead of borrowing words directly?

The choice to calque rather than borrow often comes down to culture and language policy. Some languages actively resist foreign vocabulary in favour of native expression.

• Icelandic has a long tradition of coining native words rather than borrowing. The word for “computer” in Icelandic is tölva — a blend of native Icelandic roots, not an adaptation of “computer”
• Finnish similarly tends to build new words from existing Finnish roots rather than adopt foreign terms
• French has the Académie française, which actively recommends French alternatives to English loanwords — moteur de recherche instead of “search engine”, courriel instead of “email”
• Welsh and Irish have undergone major revitalisation efforts that include creating calques for modern concepts to keep the languages living and current

In contrast, languages like Japanese tend to borrow foreign words more freely, adapting them phonetically rather than translating them — which is why Japanese has a whole writing system (katakana) dedicated to foreign loanwords.

A calque is a language’s way of saying: “We understand your idea — but we’ll say it in our own words.”

Calques in professional translation

For professional translators, calquing is a deliberate technique — one tool among several for handling terms that don’t exist in the target language.

It’s particularly useful when:

• A concept is new to the target culture and no equivalent exists yet
• The client wants to maintain a sense of the original structure in the translation
• The target language has a preference or policy for native vocabulary over borrowing
• Legal or technical precision requires translating the components of a term rather than adapting it

However, calques can also go wrong. A direct component-by-component translation can produce something that sounds unnatural or is misunderstood in the target language. This is where localisation and cultural knowledge become critical — knowing not just what a word means, but how it will land.

This is also where calquing differs from transcreation: transcreation abandons the original form entirely to achieve the right emotional effect, while calquing preserves the structure even as it changes the words.

Calques in the digital age

The internet has accelerated calquing significantly. English dominates online vocabulary, and many languages face a constant stream of new tech terms with no native equivalent.

Some languages calque these terms, others borrow them directly, and some do both depending on context:

• Search engine → French: moteur de recherche (calque) | Spanish: motor de búsqueda (calque) | German: Suchmaschine (calque)
• Mobile phone → French: téléphone portable (calque) | Spanish: teléfono móvil (calque)
• Download → French: télécharger (adapted calque) | German: herunterladen (calque: “hereunder-load”)

The pattern is clear: languages with stronger cultural institutions tend to calque, while others borrow. For translators working on software, apps, or websites, knowing which approach a language community expects is an important part of localisation work.

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Explore the full glossary

Localisation
Adapting content for a specific culture or market.


Calque
A word borrowed by translating it part by part.


Transcreation
Recreating content for emotional impact across cultures.


AVT
Audiovisual translation — subtitling, dubbing, and more.