Basic Trope: A romantic couple doesn't speak the same language, but are together anyway.
- Straight: Bob speaks only English; Alice speaks only French. Despite the language barrier, the two are dating.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob and Alice have been married for ten years and have a child. They still don't speak the same language.
- Bob only speaks English, while K'vana only speaks Klingon. They are passionately in love.
- Downplayed: Bob speaks only English; Alice is deaf and uses sign language, unable to read lips. However, the two can communicate via written notes.
- Justified:
- They met when Bob was on a work trip to Paris.
- Alice was an exchange student when they met.
- They met at an international airport.
- Inverted: ???
- Subverted: The language barrier proves too difficult to manage, and the two break up after a couple months.
- Double Subverted: However, the two quickly find they can't live without each other. Through The Power of Love (and maybe a Translator Buddy or two), they make it work.
- Parodied: Bob and Alice are the perfect couple precisely because they can't understand each other.
- Zig-Zagged: Bob and Alice have a Relationship Revolving Door, until they finally either settle down together and learn to make work around the language barrier, break up permanently, or one of them takes some lessons in the other's language.
- Averted: Bob and Alice both speak English, though Alice is from France.
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded:Claire: Wait, so do you speak French at home?
Bob: No, I speak English.
Claire: Oh, so Alice has taken lessons?
Bob: No, she speaks French.
Claire: And you don't understand it?
Bob: Nope, not a word.
Claire: And she can't understand you.
Bob: So far as I can tell, no.
Claire: ...How does that work?
Bob: Perfectly. - Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: "I can't ask her out! Literally! I have no idea what she's saying!"
- Discussed: "What do you mean you want to marry her? You can't even talk to her!"
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed: Poor Communication Kills, and Bob and Alice's relationship suffers for it.
- Reconstructed: Despite their problems, they really do love each other, and work out a new system (be it hand gestures, Facial Dialogue, language lessons, or bilingual friends) that allows them to be together.
- Played for Laughs: Alice is a Deadpan Snarker with a penchant for Hiding Behind the Language Barrier. Bob has absolutely no idea, but thanks to Fun with Subtitles, the audience does.
- Played for Drama: Alice is an immigrant. The fact that she and her husband don't even speak the same language makes it much harder to persuade the immigration offices that it's not a Citizenship Marriage, and she's in serious danger of being deported.
Back to Language of Love
