The English language can be very confusing especially to those learning it or those that have another language as their first language. In English words can sound the same, but be spelt differently to mean different things. This is fine if reading a word but if trying to understand that word when someone is speaking it can be extremely tough to understand what they mean.
In French we have a word for everything and I am constantly telling my husband this as he doesn’t know very much French. This came to light the other night while he was reading an advertisement on his Twitter feed. He was able to make out most of the ad and understand the basics of it but he had a few words he didn’t understand. One word was for a truck and the other for a truck driver. He mistook the word for truck “routier” and thought it meant truck driver which is “camionneur” . Mistaking this word changed the whole meaning of the ad.
Why is this a big deal?
In the ad they were giving income estimates to how much a truck driver can earn on the road during the course of the week. As the truck had team drivers (two people in one truck) they were saying the truck would earn $2500 per week. The problem is if you change “routier” and”camionneur” the same sentence would show each driver makes $2500 per week which is double the money.
Once I corrected the proper noun for the sentence it made much more sense and he understood where he went wrong. He was sure that the truck drivers would not make that much money on the road. He was about to become a truck driver again.
This is why it is important for you as a company to use a translator familiar with the dialect of the region as words can change and change the meaning of your message. Using a translator that understands the language of the recipient will go along way to creating a good
About the Author
Carmen Outridge is the owner of Outridge Translation Services and has been translating documents between English and French for over 30 years. Carmen is from Eastern Townships part of Quebec and understands the language and dialect of Quebec. To learn more about Outridge Translation Services or to get help with your next project visit www.outridgetranslation.com
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