Part 3: A Few Words about Style
English prefers SVO (subject-verb-object) constructions, which sometimes means reworking the order of the original French sentences significantly in order to achieve a natural-sounding flow in English. This is something that all language professionals know, of course, but it is all too easy to forget when you are bogged down with long, complex “legalese” sentences.
One aspect of translating contracts that can be problematic is repetition. In French source contracts, repetition is often avoided by using pronouns (il, celui-ci, and celui-là, for instance) or relative clauses. However, English contracts do not use terms like “it,” “the former,” and “the latter,” which are the standard, non-legal translations for these terms. According to Tom, these constructions are best avoided in English contracts, in favor of repeating the proper noun again and again. One example he provided that illustrates this point was the translation of “Le bailleur donne bail à loyer au preneur, qui accepte, les locaux ci-après désignés…” as “The Lessor leases to the Lessee, and the Lessee hereby leases from the Lessor, the premises identified below…”.
Key take-aways:
- While repetition of proper nouns can feel clunky, it is standard in contract language and will remove the ambiguities that a direct, pronoun- and relative-clause-filled translation will create.
- Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style is worth revisiting for a refresher on how to craft clear, solid English sentences.
- Tom West also recommends Initiation au thème anglais (The Mirrored Image) by Françoise Grellet.
Upcoming Event:
For those who translate contracts into French, there is an upcoming training session sponsored by the SFT entitled “Comment traduire les contrats sans trahir le droit?” on October 7, 2006 in Lyon. http://www.sft.fr/formations/2006/RA_1007_TraductionContrats.html
Legal Writing Blog:
For those who translate contracts into English: http://www.utexas.edu/law/faculty/wschiess/legalwriting/
