Veuf de

17:39 Sep 12, 2019 

I am sorry to have upset you Yvonne, this was clearly not my intention.

17:19 Sep 12, 2019 

"The correct answer was "Widower of" not simply "Widower". Well, a bit rich. The original heading should have been veuf de+ (female) name. The point was that you were saying "male" and "widow" in your question so my main aim was to point out that error (and also the error in your main heading). I did say "widower of" (including in BOLD at 12.59) several times as well. The point is that your question was not clear at all but was totally confused/ing as phrased. And you kept insisting that this man had a surviving wife and sent us all down this rabbit hole. So, I assume she was his DEAD wife after all that?

13:59 Sep 12, 2019 

I am sorry Yvonne, I didn't mean to upset anyone. The correct answer was "Widower of" not simply "Widower". However, the whole thing hinged on my being confused as to why they would put that for someone whom I thought was not dead, i.e. the wife of the deceased. I was under the assumption that he was survived by his wife, in which case it seemed logical to write "Veuve" but this was not the case. Clarity came after having the discussion with many contributions from different contributors eventually culminating with B D Finch's suggestion to just simply call. As I felt that all contributions were helpful, I feel it would somehow be unfair to grade anyone answer. I hope I am not waffiling again.

13:44 Sep 12, 2019 

I'm curious to know why you're not grading this when my answer was right from the beginning and IS what veuf (de) means? As Eliza said veuf = widower (not husband or spouse for that matter.)

13:22 Sep 12, 2019 

Thanks for posting the update.

13:20 Sep 12, 2019 

Thank you all for your input to the discussion. I did what @B D Finch suggested and called the issuing authority. It turns out that the deceased was a widower, his wife having passed away a few years earlier hence he was "Veuf de - Widower of". I was overthinking it all I guess. Thank you once again for your time and contribution. I love this community.

13:01 Sep 12, 2019 

Are you sure the surviving spouse is female and the deceased spouse was male?

Gay marriage has been legal in France since 2013. And of course, there are a lot of names that can be either gender (Frédérique, Claude and Dominique are probably the most common examples, but there are more: google prénoms épicènes).

And then there are names whose gender can be confusing to native English speakers -- I mention this because I see you are a native English and Kiswahili speaker educated in England. Examples of potentially confusing names: if it ends with Marie it may be male (Jean-Marie, Etienne-Marie, Gaël-Marie and André-Marie are male, though Andrée-Marie is female), but if it starts with Marie it's normally female (Marie-Claire, Marie-Claude, Marie-Jeanne...).

PS: Ignore Polyglot. "Husband of" is literally never the correct translation of "Veuf de." Veuf/veuve mean widower/widow, not husband/wife. The turn of phrase "veuf/veuve de [X]" means "widower/widow of [name or description of the deceased spouse]." https://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/veuf

12:51 Sep 12, 2019 

A phone call to the issuing authority might elucidate why they used the masculine form "veuf" and whether it is simply a mistake.

12:22 Sep 12, 2019 

So can we tease this out exactly
You say that "There is a table with two columns:
the one on the left with name, surname, date of birth, "veuf de", etc. So what's the etc>? And whose name? The deceased man?
"and on the right has the details filled in. In this case, the name of the surviving widow is filled in"
So, definitely a man's name in left column and woman's on right? And veuf de is in left column? What is immediately before and after veuf de? It's possible it's a grammatical error though it seems unlikely for an official form. So, something neutral like "name of surviving spouse" (which can be either sex) might work best and get away from widow/husband/wife.

12:14 Sep 12, 2019 

@Yvonne, this is exactly why I was hesitating and why I came here to ask. It doesn't make sense.

12:08 Sep 12, 2019 

except that "veuf" is French for widower (male) and "veuve" is a widow so there is still confusion or an error somewhere?

12:06 Sep 12, 2019 

I apologise for confusing everyone. @Yvonne Gallagher, the deceased is a male. He is survived by his wife, i.e. widow, and she is referred to as "veuf de". I hope this clears up the confusion. Many thanks!

11:59 Sep 12, 2019 

widower of

You keep saying "widow" which is a female and I assume she is the one who is dead? So simply "widower of" followed by her name (dead woman) is all that's needed.

11:42 Sep 12, 2019 

It is a French death certificate. It is not a standard form but a a certificate that is specifically issued for the deceased even the the language and format is standard. The "Veuf de" is followed by the widow's name who is still alive. Now I am wondering whether I should translate the term as just "Widow" or "Whose widow is" or as Polyglot says "Husband of".

11:31 Sep 12, 2019 

Is this a pre-printed form? The inconsistency between 'veuf' (= widwoer, a man) and the apparently male 'husband' needs understanding; is it possible the deceased person was in fact female, with some confusion because of te name? Is it explicitly stated they were male? What country is this from? Same-sex marriage is now possible in quite a few countries.
If this is a pre-printed word, it could simply be that the person who filled out the form failed to adjust it.
Equally, is it explicitly stated / clear from their name if the surviving person is indeed male?

Isn't it in fact saying that Mr. X was a widower, his wife Mrs X having already died some time earlier?