Scénographie et enjeux diplomatiques entre Trump et Xi Jinping

What does “son homologue” mean in French?

In French news, un homologue is the person who has the same job as you, but somewhere else. When one president meets another president, the second one is “son homologue.” A French minister meets “son homologue allemand” (the German minister). You will hear this word very often on French radio and TV. There is no short English word for it — English just says “counterpart.”

The clip discusses world leaders and their body language. One line says a president was careful “avec la poignée de main dont il craignait qu’elle fut écrasante de la part de son homologue” — “with the handshake that he feared would be crushing from his counterpart.” Here “son homologue” is the other head of state. Watch out for the spelling: this looks like the English word “homologue,” but they are not used the same way. In English, “homologue” is mostly a science word (biology, chemistry). In French, un homologue is a normal news word for a person in the same role. The everyday English match is “counterpart.” You can use it for any matching role: “le PDG et son homologue américain” (the CEO and his American counterpart), “la ministre a appelé son homologue” (the minister called her counterpart). The feminine form is the same: une homologue. The word is standard across France, Belgium, and Québec.