This document provides guidance on translating documents from English to French. It recommends reading the document multiple times to understand context clues before looking up words. Using context, one can infer word meanings and connotations rather than relying on direct dictionary definitions. Considerations like tone, register, and whether names have equivalent translations are also important. When an individual word is unclear, one should consider its Latin or Greek roots, onomatopoeia, or context clues in the surrounding text. Proper nouns like names and places may or may not be directly translated. Guidance is given on translating measures, punctuation conventions in dialogue, and inversions in sentence structure.

1. Capes Méthodes : version :
Read it several times-leave the title till last Developing Business: p.13 as an example
Translate without a dictionary-better to look at the context to find the
sense/inferences than a quick shot and an instant/wrong solution
Monolingual dictionary-gives meaning to the word itself without crossing over to the
other side; you need at this stage particularly to know what the word suggests rather
than what it means and render the connotations in context.
Think of tone/level of language/registre etc US/GB?? Literary? Contemporary?
Familiar?
Keep orally p.14
What to do with a word you don’t understand:
Inference: latin/greek roots? Onomatopea?
Context: is there a case in the text of opposition? Parallelism? Explanation?
Description? Illustration? Generalisation?
• He would insist that she was all wrong icthyologically; she should have been a cod not
a bass.
• Each pit head had a wooden gin over the mouth which lowered the workers down to
the coal face in hazel-wood baskets which were also used to raise the coal.
• Returned lunar samples have shown a remarkably anhydrous surface. Where did all
the water go?
What to translate and not translate.
1. Names :
Obvious equivalents : Alan: Alain , John: Jean, Ulysse: Ulysses, George : Georges,
Penelope: Pénélope; Marseilles, Lyons, Reims.
Some names have no equivalent: Ross, Rupert, Ryan. But don’t translate Englishmen into
Frenchmen. Kings : James 1st: Jacques 1er and famous people only when there is a
recognised translation.
Usually patronyms are not translated: the Smiths : les Smith/la famille Smith
Mr. Know-it-all = M. Je-Sais-Tout : John Doe/Joe Bloggs = M. Lamda
Earl = Comte ; Lord & Lady have no equivalent
2. Places
Famous ones : The Thames = la Tamise; Edinburgh= Edimbourg; Switzerland= Suisse: the
House of Lords: La chambre des Lords the Eiffel Tower: le tour Eiffel, les Champs
Elysées has none!
Mais Buckingham Palace; la Tate Gallery
Parfois il faut expliquer: Oxbridge : les universités d’Oxford et de Cambridge
She was sent to Newgate : ell fut envoyée à la prison de Newgate
The Times/Telegraph/Guardian/Independent/Sun/Daily Mail/Mirror/Express
3. Measures :
He drank six or seven pints in the evening (pintes)
We walked six or seven miles a day (une dizaine de kilometres)

2. We have only a few yards of silk left (quelques mètres)
5’7” = 1m 73
the room was about 8’ high (environ 2m50)
they haven’t a penny to their name : ils sont sans le sou.
Punctuation: in dialogue the French use dashes. Tirets/can be …… , :, (…) see page 25
My 2 cousins, Helen and Joan, came with me. My 2 cousins, Helen, and Joan came with
me. See page 26
I’ll convince those who are afraid to go. I’ll convince those who are afraid, to go.
She was surprisingly excited by the news. She was, surprisingly, excited by the news.
The story he told us was a pack of lies. The story, he told us, was a pack of lies.
Inversion:
Scarcely ever did he come to see me: Il ne venait pratiquement jamais me voir
Had I been less unhappy, I would never have written such a letter: Si je n’avais pas été
aussi malheureux, je n’aurais jamais..
So silently did he come in that nobody noticed him: Il entra si silencieusement que
personne…
Had it not been for the child, I would have left my job
N’eût été l’enfant, j’aurais quitté mon travail.
She’s a good lass is Mary. C’est une brave fille que Mary.