Devoir
| 19:42 Jul 10, 2014 |
| French language (monolingual) [PRO] Law/Patents - Law (general) / Use of future or conditional to translate a contract. Eng to Fr | |||||||
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| SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED | ||||
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| 5 +1 | est organisée dès lors que... entre en vigueur |
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| 4 +1 | Not as simple as that! |
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| Discussion entries: 3 | |
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Answers
13 mins confidence: 
peer agreement (net): +1
peer agreement (net): +1| devoir Not as simple as that! Explanation: It all depends what you are trying to translate in EN — for us to be able to help you, you MUST give us examples of the EN source text you are trying to translate! As a rough guide, based on my observation of translating FR > EN EN 'prescriptive' 'shall' > FR present tense ("The contractor shall take all reasonable precautions...") EN 'must' > FR present tense of 'devoir' (doit, doivetn, etc.) EN 'will' (= simple future) > FR simple future ("The Client will furnish a list of requirements" EN 'will be required to' > FR future tense of 'devoir' EN 'should', 'ought to' (leaves a slight margin for doubt or judgement) > FR conditional of 'devoir' These cannot be taken as hard-and-fast rules, but it is the general pattern I see emerging after many yeasr translating this sort of document. Generall, I would say avoid over-using devoir (if necessary, consider whether the EN could have been satisfactorily expressed using the 'prescriptive shall') and avoid the conditional unless there is a real degree of latitude or doubt being expressed in the EN. The simple present tense is very common in FR documents, but can sound very odd in EN. |
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18 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +1
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