Professional French Translation – A Fundamental Aspect for Your Business
Although it is expensive to establish a business in France, this nation’s banks provide business loans with exceptionally low-interest rates, making this country become one of the top areas to invest in. And professional French translation services would be an effective tool to support your business growth.
This article will highlight the benefits you will gain when partnering with an experienced translation agency for French localization.
How Professional French Translation Services Reinforce Your Business
France stands seventh on the list of the greatest economies in the world, but it has 5 peculiar problems that might affect your business localization. However, professional French translation services can handle them effortlessly, help you approach your customers, and closely follow the French market’s rules.
Problem 1: Several Varieties of French
Five continents have native speakers of the French language. Such disparate nations as France, Canada, Haiti, and Madagascar are united by it.
African French, Canadian French, and standard French all have distinctions in vocabulary, pronunciation, and even syntax, despite the fact that French speakers from different regions can typically comprehend one another.
In light of this, you might need to adjust your material to take your target audience into account. A professional French translation can guarantee that your information will be understood by making sure your translation is appropriate for the target location. And the fact that your audience will feel understood can be much more significant.
Problem 2: Professional French Translation must Comply With Laws and Policies
Businesses must abide by regulations and rules intended to safeguard the French language in France (and also in Quebec).
Here are two popular local language preservation rules that must be taken into consideration when translating information into French in various French-speaking nations.
Law of Toubon
The Toubon Law in France was passed in 1994, with the aim to discourage the use of English in commercials. All of the following situations necessitate the usage of French, among others:
- Official documents from the government.
- Advertising in general (these can be English, but businesses must provide a French translation).
- Every workplace (this includes software and software instruction manuals).
- Commercial agreements.
- Each and every public school.
In addition, although other languages may be used as well, product packaging and labeling must be in French. Companies are free to take the action that best suits their company as the law does not mandate that they translate registered brand names.
Quebec and the French Language Charter
French is the only official language of Quebec, according to The Charter of the French Language. Although other languages may be present, all product labels, instructions, manuals, warranty certificates, restaurant menus, and wine lists must be in French.
Commercial directories, folders, brochures, and catalogs must all be in French. Posters and signs must be written in French. Other languages are permitted here as well.
Charter of the French Language – Adopted by Quebec’s National Assembly
In addition to knowing the above laws, professional French translation providers are the ones who need to comply with these laws and avoid errors that might affect the process of localizing your business in France.
Problem 3: French Has Tricky Idioms
Fantastic idioms in French exist, but translating them might be challenging.
Idioms are frequently difficult to translate accurately. Word-for-word translation is ineffective unless the destination language also uses the same term. To discover an equivalent, translators must possess sufficient language and cultural expertise.
Here are some examples of French idioms and their equivalents in English:
| French idioms | Literal translation | English equivalent |
| Boire comme un trou | To drink like a hole | To drink like a fish |
| Appeler un chat un chat | To call a cat, a cat | To call a spade a spade |
| Coûter les yeux de la tête | To cost the eyes in your head | To cost an arm and a leg |
| Avoir le cafard | To have the cockroach | To feel down/to feel blue |
Besides idioms, another interesting point is that many words in English and French share a deceptively similar appearance despite having very distinct meanings. Find out more about it in this post.
Problem 4: Text Expansion in French Translation
Language length varies widely among speakers; some have long words while others have short ones. You should anticipate that the content length will increase from the original English text by 15% to 20% in the case of an English-to-French translation.
The style or appearance of your papers may be impacted by the text expansion during the French translation. You should let your professional French translation partners know whether the length of the French-translated text must be constrained and instruct them to retain the original meaning while using shorter words or sentence structure.
Moreover, you may utilize Desktop Publishing Services to make sure your design and content will appear excellent in the finished translation.
Problem 5: Machine Translation Can’t Understand French Business Culture
People frequently use machine translation to solve language puzzles. However, if you are launching your business in France and want language support, only a human specialist can offer you the assistance you require.
Google Translate can be quick and free of cost, but there are some obvious problems when the robots can not comprehend fully the French cultural factors. An Internet translation could make a mistake in the paperwork that could cost you money because they are unfamiliar with French business culture.
The best way to prevent such issues is to solely rely on professional French translation providers who are familiar with the local culture and can offer you the high-quality language support. There’s no need to use machines and risk receiving inaccurate translations that can hurt you and your business if you can hire native specialists at reasonable costs.
How to Find a Professional French Translation Provider?
Selecting a good translation partner for your French project might take more time and effort than you think. Therefore, GTE Localize will list out 6 steps in the process of finding a professional French translation agency for you to follow.
Step 1: Research potential candidates and make a shortlist
When finding a professional French translation partner, there are three things that you need to consider:
- Their language pairs: How many languages can they translate from French? Do they have native French linguists?
- Their services: Do they offer all the services you need? (translation, localization, DTP, interpretation, etc.)
- Their experiences: How many French projects have they dealt with? What are the distinctive points of their portfolio?
You can have all this information on their website, or you can reach out to them directly.
Step 2: Make a comparison
When having 5-7 options, you can start to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses based on:
- Affordable rates;
- Multiple aspects of reviews;
- The quality of customer services;
- Their certifications, membership, etc.
Step 3: Ask for the NDA
The non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is necessary for every translation project and every test with the professional French translation agency to make sure that your company’s information is safe.
Step 4: Get a translation test
Typically, the translation partners will accept less than 300 words in a free test. You may ask them to write down any comments they make while taking the test so that your reviewer can better understand the reasoning behind their word selections, the sources they consulted, and the overall results of their test translation. You may be sure not to ignore the truly excellent companions in this way.
Step 5: Start your French translation project
Only now, when you’ve completed the recruitment step, can the real translation work start. Your business and the translation partner should interact often to catch up on the progress or resolve any problems that may occur in order to ensure a seamless process.
Step 6: Create a backup strategy
Your chosen translation partner could occasionally miss deadlines or produce work that is of insufficiently high quality. A backup plan is crucial to guarantee that the translation will be finished on time for your company’s business strategy. Another potential professional French translation agency on your shortlist could be able to take on the assignment right away.
GTE Localize: Professional French Translation Partner For Your Business
You can see that translating French entails much more than just replacing French words with another term from another language or vice versa. An experienced group of French translators is necessary if you want to create French material that is simple to understand, interesting to read, and visually appealing.
Professional French translation services from GTE Localize are quick and accurate thanks to our dedicated team of native linguists, PMs, marketing translation experts, and designers.
With reasonable pricing plans and a lifetime warranty for every project, we promise to offer every client high-quality and affordable French translation services.
Get in touch with us right now to book a 1:1 consultation and a free test.
