FRENCH TRANSLATION: 6 IMPORTANT TIPS WHEN TRANSLATING ENGLISH TO FRENCH

Posted by Maria Friitz on November 17th, 2022

With native speakers on five continents, French is the sixth most commonly spoken language in the world. As a result, a French translation can significantly increase your company's sales and earnings. The initial step is to choose the ideal French translators that provide expert French translation services. But there's more to think about!

Here are the top recommendations from our qualified French translators to enhance the caliber, consistency, and precision of your French translation. When you require a translation, use these to your advantage.

1. Make Use of the Correct French Register

The register and formality of your material must be taken into account for an authentic translation into French. There are six registers in French, each of which conveys tones in a completely distinct way and is utilized for various audiences in different contexts. The most suitable French translation services may assist with finding the right register for the intended audience for professional translations.

2. Introduce Familiarity

It is easier to obtain a sense of the language, styles, and phrasal patterns that distinguish the work you are focusing on the more familiar you are with an author's work, a particular genre, or a certain body of writing. Depending on the content you intend to translate, read through many works by an author, various encyclopedia entries, various pieces for particular magazines, or various explanations of technological breakthroughs.

3. Utilize the editing, translation, and proofreading process.

The translation procedure is crucial since it will identify grammatical and spelling mistakes. This procedure entails three processes for your document: translation, editing, and proofing by three qualified French translators. It guarantees the most precise, genuine, and excellent French translation possible.

4. Use Idioms Carefully When Translating

Idioms frequently cannot be translated literally and must be understood in their larger context. Should you look for an analogous phrase in French? Or should you just state what the idiom means? To ensure that no meaning is lost in your translation into French, French translators should carefully take this into account.

5. Think about the content layout and text expansion

Another suggestion for translating English into French is to take the length of your content into account. It is not unusual for the translated text to be 20% longer than the original English version. Translators must think about how to be more succinct in French without losing sense if the word count must be equal.

6. Avoid Using Machine Translation for French

Machine translation should not be confused with CAT tools. They necessitate manual acceptance and rejection of translation ideas by French translators. A translator will review, revise, or reject the translations they produce from a memory bank. On the other hand, machine translations should be avoided since they are unreliable, imprecise, and unprofessional.

Summing Up

Always keep in mind that, for exceptional French website translation, you want your French material to be clear, interesting, and instructive.

Encourage your translator to add a brief explanation for any difficult-to-translate terminology when they first appear in the text. This is especially important for technical translations.

You may even think about limiting the usage of acronyms and incorporating a dictionary of words.