French
Crossing geographical and cultural borders

The French say “Santé” when making a toast, the Swiss say it when someone sneezes. You should also pay attention to who is inviting you to “dîner”: if the person is French, you’re being asked to dinner; if they’re Swiss, Belgian or Canadian, they want to meet for lunch. The French team at Diction is your competent partner for translation, editing and copywriting in the following four regional varieties:

• Swiss French
• Standard French
• Belgian French
• Canadian French

Whether your readers are from Marseilles or Montreal: wherever you are, choosing the right word is a matter of cultural understanding. Many influences from German and Italian can be found in Swiss French, such as “poutser” (from the German “putzen” – to clean) or “sans autre” (from the Italian “senz’altro” – without further ado). If someone from the French-speaking part of Switzerland declares “entrez seulement” (come in), a French person may not come in at all. The influence of English on Québécois is just as strong – here, unlike the European variants, it is becoming increasingly common to use the informal form of address. Calques (literal translations of words from other languages) are also entering the vocabulary, such as “le chien chaud” (hot dog), “vous êtes les bienvenus” (you’re welcome) or “le surtemps” (overtime). The French team at Diction doesn’t just work in all national varieties of the language, but across all our specialist areas as well: The automotive and rail transport industries, banking and finance, marketing and advertising, haute horlogerie and many more.

We can also edit in PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, QuarkXPress and InDesign documents. We can even translate directly via your website’s CMS.

Feel free to contact us.