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This question was closed without grading. Reason: Answer found elsewhere
French to English translations [Non-PRO] Bus/Financial - Business/Commerce (general) / Definition of a "sub-contractor" in a contract
French term or phrase:un service professionnel
Definition of what a sub-contractor is in a legal agreement:
"Toute personne avec qui le fournisseur ou un autre sous-traitant conclut un sous-contrat en lien avec le contrat, visant notamment l’exécution de services ou de travaux, la fourniture ou la fabrication de matériaux ou de matériel, ou tout autre service, incluant un service professionnel."
A B2B service? Maybe engineering, accounting or whatever?
Anyway, I think we've overthought this one enough already, so I'm leaving it there.
I disagree with the reclassification of the question as non-pro, by the way and for the record: I believe that there's plenty of room for misinterpretation of the term "professional service", as I believe I have demonstrated. But enough.
I think the term is about as fuzzy as the term "Anglo-Saxon" in French (and you could write a book and more on that term), that's what I think in fact.
The cowboys theory is interesting, but if you look back in the sentence, a contract must be involved, and if you're a cowboy, you don't want a paper trail, or even what a paper trail is now in the internet age...a digital trail I think.
Conor's questions seem to cause some debate 'cos they look easy and there is already a more general debate in this group about translating literally or reading more into what the writer means.
But for me on this question, whether the writer means "not cowboys", "registered business" or "profession libérale", the only thing to do to cover all bases is to say "professional service", in this particular case.
Maybe my objection is just a Hiberno-English thing...but I can't find anything better.
The distinction between "intellectual" jobs and "manual" jobs is just so outdated and possibly a little elitist for me, it's like still distinguishing between high and low culture.
I can't see why "professionnal service" would create any misunderstanding, but in doubt, you might use the circumlocution : "...including services rendered by a member of a professional corporation".
Ultimately I think you're all right (thanks for ganging up on me!), but for me it's not an ideal solution and is a term that doesn't have a great deal of clarity.
From a legal point of view, I assume that once the drafter has put in "notamment" (including but not limited to) and "tout autre service", the client is covered.
I was actually suggesting, by saying engineering or accounting, that the services in question would be carried out by a member of the "professions".
But five further points: 1) The translation is actually FR (CA) to EN (UK); 2) The term "the professions" seems archaic to me; 3) The definition of the term "professions libérales" seems too vague to be of any practical use; 4) I have never previously seen a reference to "professional services" of this nature. I would read professional services as "services provided with professionalism", not services carried out by a member of the professions. 5) @ Phil: no offence taken. But I've never been aware of the term being used this way in Ireland (and I've had huge exposure to UK English too). The Wiki article does admit to the weakness of the term though: "Many industry groupings have been used for academic research when looking at professional services firms, making a clear definition hard to attain. Some work has been directed at better defining professional service firms (PSF)."
I hesitate to post this because you're a native speaker of English, so you should be familiar with this term already, and if not, you should have researched it. But here you are: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_services
I agree with @Writeaway. It looks as though they are just making it clear that the "services" aren't limited to physical ones such as supplying products.
I suggest you don't 'interpret', don't embellish, don't try to be creative. Deal with the French words you have, which are more than clear enough.
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Answers
1 day 4 hrs confidence:
A business-related service
Explanation: Any type of service provided by a company to another company can be referred to as a business-related service, as opposed to services provided by non-professionals.
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