Why choose BeTranslated as your partners for French translation?

The two founders of BeTranslated are French-speaking translators and they naturally focused their first efforts on their native language. They both translate from English, Spanish and Dutch and have been working together to grow BeTranslated into a leading translation network. They have attracted many proficient translators along the way, who share the same eagerness to satisfy customers, and who all have had a role in the BeTranslated success story.

We collaborate with a core of eight French-speaking professionals who know each other well and are accustomed to working in teams, furthering the proven BeTranslated methodology. As needs arise, we know we also can count on the more than 4000 translators registered in our database, covering a very wide area of specialized domains.

Why translate to or from French?

• There are approximately 129 million French speakers worldwide. Only English leads French in languages most commonly taught.
• French is the only language apart from English with important representation in all the continents of the world.
• It is the sole official language of France, and is one of several official languages of Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Monaco, and many other nations in Africa, South America, the Caribbean and the Pacific.
• French is widely used among numerous international organizations including the UN, European Union, Interpol, the Red Cross, and others.

French and e-business

• France has been identified as the third-largest Internet economy in Europe, with steady growth forecast for years to come.
• Canada has among the highest levels of Internet use in the world, in addition to high disposable income.
• Belgium, which hosts the capital of Europe, Brussels, as an Internet penetration rate of 48%.

Standard French versus Canadian French, Swiss French, Belgian French

French varies mostly in its spoken form from country to country. The colloquial language also varies (slangs, youth language, etc.), but for the rest, French is French.

An educated French native speaker will understand most of the nuances that are in use in the other French-speaking countries, even if certain expressions might cause amusement.

A typical example is the way natives say “dishtowel” in Standard French versus in Belgium. In France, the word is "torchon”, while speakers in Belgium would use this word to describe a piece of cloth used to wash floors. One can easily see how a word chosen badly could bring unintended humor.

So, should you be targeting a Belgian audience, a Belgian translator will fit your needs better than a French or a Canadian one, and the same applies for each French-speaking market.

Nevertheless, for highly technical texts, for instance, the differences diminish, as most terms carry the same meaning in all the French-speaking countries. Most accept and freely use some English technical terms, while Canadians prefer to translate everything into French.

As you can see, the choice of the translator is quite important, whether you want to reach a French, Canadian, Belgian, Swiss or other audience. There are thousands of French-speaking translators around the world, but they will not all say “I can’t translate this text because it is meant for Canada and I’m not Canadian.”

Understanding the myriad national habits and nuances, and assigning the best qualified professional to your project, is what sets BeTranslated apart. Translation is a specialized industry and our aim is to provide the right solution 100 percent of the time.

BeTranslated will provide the right French translator for your needs

We will assign French translators with thorough knowledge of the source language and subject matter. Our skilled French translators will render your source text into a French document readily understood by all French speakers. We can also discuss our localization capabilities should you wish to target a particular market.

Large projects? Quick turnaround? Pas de problème

Our global network of translators working to or from French can readily handle French translations with quick turnaround times. Furthermore, BeTranslated’s strength lies in its capacity to quickly and efficiently set up a team of 4 or 5 translators (to or from French) to complete your urgent projects while maintaining high quality. We will accommodate any reasonable request. However, please do not expect a 200-page long technical user guide that required 6 months to write to be translated overnight or in a couple of days!

Whether it's French to English or English to French, or French in any other language pair (German-French, Spanish-French, Dutch-French, Italian-French, French-Spanish, French-Dutch, French-Italian, French-German), all BeTranslated associates have internationally recognized translation degrees or qualifications, with many years of collective experience. All our translators translate exclusively into their mother tongues. Some very technical fields may require subject experts rather than linguists, but even in these cases, a language expert always checks linguistic issues, style, grammar and spelling.

Translation rates for the French language

Our rates range from EUR 0.1 (US $0.13) to EUR 0.15 (US $0.20) per source word, according to the following factors:

• Specificity of the text – if a translator has to perform a lot of research, the translation logically takes more time.
• Total word count.
• Requested deadline – if we have to work overnight or during weekends, there is a 50% increase over the basic rate.
• Format of the document – the best-fit format for translation purposes is a word processing format (for instance, MS Word-compliant) or html.

As is evident, a number of factors influence the price of a translation. That is the reason that we ask you to send us all files that require translation as soon as possible, so that we can provide you with an exact quote, based on all the factors mentioned above.

Note on Adobe Acrobat pdf files

To avoid problems, we like to point out that converting a pdf file into Word for editing corrupts the layout of the text, mostly the embedded tables and pictures.

Confidentiality

We understand the importance of safeguarding proprietary information. We assure all clients that their valuable data will always be treated confidentially.

French links

Tennessee Bob's Famous French Links
English-French-English electronic translators
Learn French