Ruth Tanner (asker) Jun 6, 2017:

Thank you for the recommendations I can see that "économie" does have the advantage of those nuances, although I wonder whether the overall meaning is clearer to the native French speaker than the equivalent expression is in English?

In the debate over "one less" versus "one fewer", I side with those who class "fewer" as incorrect when followed by a singular noun. But I do, of course, use "fewer" when it's followed by a plural noun. :-)

Tony M Jun 6, 2017:

@ Asker I would tend to avoid the 'requiring...' — not least, because 'saving...' is a sexier term to use in marketing! Cf. 'energy saving!' instead of 'uses less power'.
Also, please note that to be grammatically correct, it should be 'requires one fewer' — which is far less slick and risks sounding clunky!

I think the only real issue is with 'connector' — I don't know for sure if that is the term actually used in this sort of context; though hopefully it is something you can fairly easily research to check.

Ruth Tanner (asker) Jun 6, 2017:

@ Tony A helpful explanation, thanks!

Do you think "requiring one less connector", as an alternative translation, is changing the original too much? It's just that "saving one connector" seems to need further elaboration — at least, for me it does. :-) But I suppose it's possible that the anticipated readership is familiar enough with safety harnesses to understand this more easily.