“Time is Money” :_Translators address The Wordcount Challenge

With the advent of softwares the work of translators has never been so easy. Yet their ache remains in grasping the mindset ot the authors’ texts  which h is, most of time  culture-oriented .

Let the following example : Translating the English saying “Time is money” into  French :”Le temps ,c’est l’argent”

 This saying reflect the “into-the –haste “ mental attitude of our modern society, where slowliness and repetition are a waste of time.”

Remark 1): The number of French words is twice the number of English words for we well recall ourselves that French is a Latine-based language whereas English  belongs to the Germanic  language group. Then French texts are usually lengthier   than English texts. The alert translator makes sure this cultural aspect transpire in his or her work

Let the ongoing 2^nd  example : Translating from French into English this ad ” Avec X, Réussir , c’est bien choisir”   Solution : “X,Choosing  is Achieving”(a) or

                                                                                         “X,I choose ,I achieve!”(b)

Remark 2): Adtexts might not follow the above mentioned rule. Here the nature of the target population  weighs heavily on the translated text more than the spirit of the original text.

Referring to the 2^nd example, many people opt for the “b” for its wording more enhances the advertised product .

Generally  speaking French texts are 30% lengthier than English texts, in other words for a 10-word English text , we shall have a 13 or 14-word French text. The rule also applies the other way  around. Doing such an accounting exercise  and meeting the deadlines is  challenging  indeed.