English term
France
15 years in the localization industry
Native in: French 
Works in: English to French, Spanish to French
blank driving
I have the following sentence: "Or you're in a car with Uncle Joe and Uncle Joe goes, that must be a blank driving!"
Any idea what "blank driving" refers to?
Thanks!
| 5 +4 | [à compléter] qui conduit |
Cyril Tollari
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| 3 | conduire de façon automatique, en auto-pilote |
Anne-Sophie Matichard
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| 1 | Having a mind blank while driving |
Teddy Monteiro de Brito
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PRO (1): Cyril Tollari
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Proposed translations
France
Reliable & Experienced Engineer, EN>FR
Native in: French
Works in: English to French, French to English
[à compléter] qui conduit
https://www.linkedin.com/business/learning/blog/career-succe...
That must be a [blank] driving
C'est sûrement un [à compléter] qui conduit
| agree |
Alison MacG
9 hrs
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Merci
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| agree |
Sammy Dowidar
: D'accord. On peut mettre aussi C'est sûrement un [...] qui conduit
19 hrs
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Merci
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| agree |
AllegroTrans
: The only way to go. Absolutely pointless trying to guess what is "blank". I completely fail to see how Daryo can possibly object to this. Maybe he can come up with a cast iron answer in his infinite wisdom.
19 hrs
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Merci
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| disagree |
Daryo
: CL5 with so little to rely on? Can I borrow your crystal ball? // Point of method: NOT EVERYTHING is available on the publicly accessible Web - one sample found through search engines is NOT the only one possibly relevant.
23 hrs
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| agree |
writeaway
1 day 16 hrs
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Merci
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| agree |
Yvonne Gallagher
: Yes, it's "A blank"= expletive (presumably) i.e. a noun not adj. Can also be completed with symbols e.g. "...un [&#%!!] qui conduit"
2 days 16 hrs
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Merci
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France
French medical translator
Native in: French (Variants: Canadian, Belgian, Standard-France)
Works in: English to French, Portuguese to French, French to English
Having a mind blank while driving
United States
+5y general translation, education/manag
Native in: French
Works in: French, English to French
conduire de façon automatique, en auto-pilote
I'd say it means it's when your mind wanders and you drive without thinking about it, automatically, in "auto-pilote".
Have a nice day!
| neutral |
AllegroTrans
: This is a wild guess and IF it means this then "a blank driving" would be totally ungrammatical in the context
19 hrs
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| neutral |
Daryo
: a distinct possibility, very plausible, but with what's available so far, we can't be sure.
23 hrs
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Discussion
No doubt a derogatory term
I have the nagging feeling that "that must be a blank driving!" is a quotation of direct speech, i.e. that it's what's Uncle Joe is/would be saying to "you" in some situation described in the preceding text. IOW it's possible that the formatting of the text is sloppy to the point of being misleading.
Short of it: with what we have so far, only wild guessing is possible. That may be an interesting game, a kind of Rorschach test with words, but if the aim is a reliable suggestion for a translation, a total waste of time.
Some more context?
1. "Or you're in a car with Uncle Joe and Uncle Joe goes [says], 'That must be a blank driving!' "
2. "Or you're in a car with Uncle Joe and Uncle Joe goes [dies], that must be a blank driving!"
There might be other possibilities I haven't thought of.
The article in 'a blank driving' is a puzzle. Non-native writer?
Probably something personal and unknown. None of us "out here" know Uncle Joe or anything about your text.