This essay is based on the author's experience of translating three major economic/philosophical texts from French into English: Alain Finkielkraut's La Défaite de la pensée (The Undoing of Thought), Benjamin Constant's Principes de politique (Principles of Politics) and the work of Frédéric Bastiat. It explores the difficulties of translating economic language from French into English both in the eighteenth and the twentieth century and compares the different challenges it brings.