Economics

La demande intérieure is one of the very few places where la demande and « demand » mean the same thing, and that is worth knowing before the word turns up anywhere else. Inside the economics pages the pair holds: l’offre et la demande is supply and demand, and la demande des ménages is household demand. Step outside them and une demande is a request, and a mild one. Une demande d’emploi is a job application and not a job going; the advertisement is une offre d’emploi, so the two words stand on the opposite sides of the counter from where English puts them. Faire une demande is to apply, sur demande is on request, une demande de renseignements is an enquiry, and le demandeur in a courtroom is the claimant. There is nothing forceful in any of that. « A demand » in English always is forceful: it is what a striker makes and what a kidnapper sends. So il a fait une demande reports a form filled in, and reading it as a demand turns a clerk into an adversary.