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French Language Translation Services
An Accent on Accuracy
The highest quality translations, brisk turnaround schedules,
competitive rates and sharing of our knowledge are all requisites for ALT's
success. The complete and accurate translation of your company's communications
is vital to your success. That's why ALT is obsessed with providing the best
translators for YOUR project. High-quality translations are the product of a
highly talented and experienced translation team with expertise in your
industry. ALT puts all the pieces together to make it happen.
Why Choose Advanced Language Translation for English to French or French
to English Translation?
Advanced Language Translation’s Professional French translation
services utilize only native speakers to ensure quality and precision
translations for your target audience. With French in particular, a deep
understanding of French culture is needed for translation to be successful.
When doing business in a French-speaking country, professional human
translation is a must. Do not expect to close a business deal or impress your
clients with spotty software translation. Only through human translation,
edited and customized to your target audience, can your meaning be honestly
conveyed and your audience not be offended.
We are proud of our excellent reputation for reliable and high
quality French to English and English to French translation services. We have
assembled teams of translators from around the world, with an array of skills
and specialties and can custom fit the knowledge and strengths of our teams to
your specific projects and to your specific French-speaking market. To
demonstrate our commitment to quality and our dedication to our clients, we
offer free consultations and provide an industry leading 180-day warranty on
translation!
We provide quick and easy custom
quotes for your French translation and localization needs.
Need to get the "Gist" of French?
Although professional translation is highly recommended for any
business, legal or sincere correspondence in French, sometimes it's necessary
to use machine translation (or translation software) to get the gist of an
e-mail or web page. By no means is software translation an acceptable
substitute for professional translation- the technology is not there yet. But
it is great for getting the general idea of an article, e-mail, website, etc.
Advanced Language Translation offers excellent
French Translation Software for this purpose in our online store.
Interesting Facts about the French Language
With more than 100 million speakers, French is the tenth most
widely spoken language. French, with the exception of English, is the only
language spoken on all five continents. French is the official language in 41
countries other than France and is the official or administrative language in
many international organizations, such as the African Union, European Union,
International Olympic Committee, Interpol, United Nations and the World Trade
Organization.
For the most part, French dialects from different regions and
countries are mutually comprehensible, but significant divergences may exist.
For example, the number 70 is soixante-dix (literally, ‘sixty-ten’),
in France and septante in Belgium and Switzerland. Or, the French word
vide, which means 'empty’ can also have the meaning of ‘vacation’ to
French speakers in Algeria.
In the US, French places fourth as the language most spoken,
behind English, Spanish and Chinese. French moves up to second most
widely-spoken language in the states of Louisiana, Maine, Vermont and New
Hampshire.
History of the French Language
French language belongs to the Romance branch of the
Indo-European language family. The Romance family also includes Latin (the
parent of all languages in this group), Catalan, Italian, Occitan (Provençal),
Portuguese, Romanian, Rumansch, Sardinian, Spanish and a few other languages of
limited diffusion.
The wealth of the modern French language owes itself to the
many different groups that have lived in the region. Having been inhabited at
one time by a Celtic people, referred to as les Gaulois by the French,
the language can claim several hundred words of Celtic origin. With the Roman
conquest in the 2nd and 1st centuries B.C., Latin, or more precisely, Vulgar
Latin, became the predominant language. Later, in the 5th century, Germanic
tribes originating in the east would also exert their own influence on the
language.
Four hundred years after the invasions of these Germanic
tribes, the language had become quite distinct from Latin. Referred to as Old
French, this new language was first documented in the ‘Oaths of Strasbourg,’
which dates back to 842. France could now be divided into a northern region
where the langue d’oil was spoken and a southern region where the langue
d’oc was spoken. The names of these two languages came from the
differences in how each group said ‘yes.’ There was also a third group,
Franco-Provençal, but this language covered a much smaller geographical area.
Dialects of langue d’oil included Francien, Picard, Norman, Lorrain
and Walloon. Dialects of langue d’oc included Languedocien and
Auvergnat. Francien, however, would eventually dominate thanks to the growing
political and cultural importance of the region in which it was spoken–that is,
modern day Paris.
Written Language
French utilizes the Latin alphabet. Diacritics include the
acute accent (é), grave accent (à, è, ù), circumflex (â, ê, î, ô, û), diaeresis
(ë, ï, ü, ÿ) and cedilla (ç). There are also two ligatures, æ and œ, of which
the former is extremely rare.
In France, language is overseen by L’Académie Française, a
governmental body first established in 1635, and restored in 1803 after being
suspended during the French Revolution. While this body is the official
authority on the usage, vocabulary and grammar of the French language, its
power does not extend beyond the ability to make recommendations.
French punctuation is almost identical to English; however,
there are a few exceptions. For example, a change in speakers in a French
dialogue is indicated by a dash (-), while in English, each speaker's remark is
placed in a separate paragraph.
French Language Statistics
• For more than 100 million people, French is their
first language. Another 60 million people use French as their second language.
• French is present on five continents and spoken in 51 countries
around the world.
• Among others, dialects include: Acadian, Aostan, Cajun, Gaspé.
• There are at least nine different languages derived from French,
such as Antillean Creole, Haitian Creole, Michif, and Tay Boi.
Translation Issues with French
Advanced Language Translation has extensive experience with
commercial and technical translations from English to French and from French
into English. We have also amassed years of experience in typesetting French
content. Here are some of the common issues with English to French translation
that we have learned:
• As there are so many significant differences
between French spoken in various countries (and even in different regions of
the same country), it is extremely important to take these differences into
account when translating into French. Due to this fact, Advanced Language
Translation carefully selects the translation/localization team for your target
market, taking into account not only the team's subject matter expertise,
but also their dialect and locale knowledge.
• Texts usually expand by about 30% when translated from English
into French. It is extremely important to take this into account in the
document authoring stage. For example, buttons on a web site should allow for
this expansionand page layouts in English should include more white space to
accommodate the longer French translation.
• French is a Latin 1 language and typesetting of French texts
does not pose any major technical difficulties, but hyphenation can be an
issue.
• Beware of false friends. Make sure you mix English and French
carefully. One should also be aware of a common misconception - French
is an easy language to learn. So, as with any other language, having taken
a couple years of French or being able to speak French, does not
necessarily make one a translator. Translation requires more skills than just
good command of source and target languages.
French Language Vital Information
Speaking Population: About
417 Million
Where Spoken: Europe: Belgium, Channel Islands, France, Italy,
Luxembourg, Monaco, Switzerland; Americas: Canada, French overseas territories,
Haiti, US; Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African
Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Niger,
Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Togo; Asia: Laos, Lebanon; Oceania: Vanuatu
Writing Systems: Latin 1
Code Pages:
ANSI - 1252
Mac - 10000
Windows - Western European
Unicode Supported: Yes
Common Phrases: (phonetic pronunciations in parentheses)
French: français (fran-SAY)
Hello: bonjour (bon-JOOR)
Good-bye: au revoir (aw-revWAR)
Please: s’il vous plait (see
VOO play), s’il te plait (see TUH play)
Thank you: merci (mer-SEE)
Yes: oui (wee)
No: non (no)
English: anglais (ang-LAY)
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