Ensuring your French translation is current
Younger generations are leading the way in using and creating apps and services which come with a whole new set of terminology. This finds its way into every day conversations, including those in the workplace. There are also a plethora of new tech-related terms in both languages.
Torn between preserving its cultural heritage and moving with the times, the French language is evolving, borrowing many English words and adapting them. Amongst new entries in the French dictionary are ‘webinaires’ and ‘vlogs’.
Translating a website or social media profile into French is thus quite complex. A word for word translation might sound jarring. It's essential to understand the context and the culture in order to create an accurate translation and attract people to your website, engage with them, and keep them interested. Translation bots have a long way to go, they’re just not designed to decipher idioms and nuances. If a title or paragraph is poorly translated, visitors will be instantly turned off, wheras a professional French translation will increase the trust the hold for your company.
Translating your website in the era of smartphones
One study on localisation showed that that being able to get information on a product or service in their own language is more important than price for 56% of consumers. The channels you use to promote your products and services link back to your website, and the way you communicate on all these platforms should be coherent and current, particularly with translated content.
Every piece of content should be proofread and approved by a French native to vouch for the translation, this is crucial to ensure your message is clear and to build trust with visitors of your website.
What’s more, other aspects such as the layout and design style commonly used in France must be taken into consideration (with a responsive design for visitors on a computer, tablet or smartphone). Dates, currencies, and phone numbers will need to be reformatted. All these components are referred to as the localisation process. Working with an experienced team will ensure your website reads well in French.
Integrating Semantic Keywords in your French content
Semantic keywords are terms search engines use to determine how relevant content is for a particular keyword. They are closely related to a core keyword, but not synonyms of it. For example, if we research semantic keywords for "marketing", the top 10 results on Google tend to mention, "marketing strategy", "promoting and selling products or services", and "target audience". Including these keywords on a page will help us rank higher with Google for "marketing".
When researching semantic keywords in French, some of these terms, like "marketing strategy" are bound to be the same, however others will only apply to a French audience. Examples include:
- définition du marketing (marketing definition)
- long terme (long term)
- comportement des consommateurs (consumer behaviour)
- marketing opérationnel (operational marketing)
- attentes des consommateurs (consumer expectations)
- canaux de distribution (distribution channels)
- besoins des consommateurs (consumer needs)
For a fully optimised English to French translation, you therefore need to include different keywords and this might involve additional research, or covering somewhat different topics in your translation. When we complete a full SEO translation, we therefore incorporate an element of copywriting into it, particularly when writing blog content.
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The art of translation
If you read the translated version of any book, you will immediately see that translation is an art. It's not a case of the translated copy being like Google translate, only better, instead content is rewritten to appeal to a new culture, while preserving the ideas, the beauty and the authenticity of the original text.
Our professional native French translators understand the importance of adapting content to a different culture and will treat your content - whether it's marketing material, an article, or a website, with the same respect as we would translate a work of art.
Our translation service will come as close as possible to the original text including important changes to harmonize with the differences in culture. When your clients read your translated text, they will be able to relate to it.
Automated translation software is no substitute for translating important content. Don't be tempted by a free, instant translation. When we edit tools created by an automatic online translator, we have to improve virtually every sentence. While it may just about make sense, it never sounds natural or flows well.
A few points we pay particular attention to when translating content into French are:
Formality |
Numbers |
Culture |
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The French tend to be formal, using "Vous" unless addressing a child or teenager, in which case the informal "Tu" is used. Though modern culture has become more relaxed, using "Tu" on your website is likely to offend some visitors, therefore you're best erring on the safe side and using "Vous". |
In French, use a comma instead of a period to separate decimals. For instance: 1,000.99 becomes The country code for France is +33. When writing phone numbers it's standard to put a space between every second digit, e.g. 04 68 12 34 56. In France they use the 24 hour clock as standard, particularly in writing, with a "h" to separate the hours and minutes, e.g. 16h30. |
France has a modern and highly developed culture and economy. The French are proud of their independence and achievements. With the Paris Climate Agreement and other initiatives, they have taken a lead on tackling global warming. The French take great pride in their spelling and grammar, we therefore pay particular attention to getting this right. |
The French value certifications and qualifications, and are likely to include logos of awarding bodies, or even payment methods accepted for ecommerce sites. If you have any certificates or awards, we therefore recommend mentioning them with logos on the home page, about us page, contact page and checkout page.
Read more on how to translate a website.
A professional service
We provide affordable and efficient translation services for a wide variety of industries and have provided full website translations in the fashion, tourism, ecommerce and technology industries to name a few. Whether you need a document translated from English to French or French to English, or you need an entire website translated, our English French Translation services will help you make a good impression to your new and existing clients.
Increase Website Traffic & Revenue with English to French Translation
The Internet offers no boundaries. If you're trying to attract French speaking users but your web content is geared exclusively towards English speaking users, you're losing potential traffic and revenue. In order to compete successfully in an international marketplace, your content must target people in their native language.
When you choose Indigoextra's translation services, you can expect to receive the proper context, style, accuracy and coherence. We help you make a positive impact on your company's message.
Learn how our website translation works.
The importance of SEO
As a professional French SEO company, we optimize content as we translate it from English to French, or from French to English and can also write original content in both languages and several other European languages (German, Spanish, Dutch and Italian) if required.
When carrying out an English to French translation, a skilled French translator will analyse and use the most popular keywords and include them a suitable number of times in the French text.
Let's say you had a French website that was optimized for 'Vacances en France'. The most obvious English translation of this would be 'Vacations in France', however a check in our keyword popularity software reveals that more than twice as many English people search for 'holiday' than 'vacation'. We would therefore use 'holiday' in the translation. The same process applies when translating into French. Luckily SEO has evolved considerably in recent years, therefore it's no longer necessary to include the keywords an excessive number of times in the text, we will simply include them organically.
We will also translate the Metatags of your site so that they are the correct length in French and are written to appeal to a local audience. This will help improve your SEO and also mean that your site receives more clicks in the search results.
We also translate website articles, blogs and other forms of online media. There's no job too complicated for our talented team of professional translators to handle.
The language of social media
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Even if there is a French translation for an English word, sometimes the French word just does not work, such as “gazouilli” for tweet. To tag a friend translates as “marquer”, meaning labelling a friend, which just doesn’t make sense in French, so “mentionner un ami" ou "taguer un ami” have become the most commonly used expressions.
When it comes to technical terms, many anglicisms have slipped into the French language. Knowing the current French vocabulary is crucial to communicate to a younger audience online and on social media.
Here is a list of anglicisms that have entered common parlance in French social media:
| French | English |
|---|---|
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a blogger |
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to like |
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Timeline on Facebook or Twitter |
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trending tweets |
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an emoji |
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a geofilter |
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to swipe |
On the other hand, some terms have translated seamlessly, such as these examples:
| French | English |
|---|---|
|
A follower |
|
Hard drive |
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Software |
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An app |
|
Search engine |
|
Browse the internet |
|
An email attachment |
|
Database |
|
A screenshot |
These terms are now accepted and as well as appearing in dictionaries, are used in conversations and written in magazine articles and newspapers. Your website needs to reflect the current French language.
Knowing and using these terms in the right context will help you share ideas in French.
Why use Indigoextra's Service?
Translation plays a major role in communication. The way your text is translated can make or break your presentation. It takes more than simply knowing how to speak a language to produce quality translation.
Regardless of how hard a person tries to achieve the perfect translation on their own, whether they take a course at a University or use high-tech translation software, there is nothing better than having access to a professional translator. For this reason, we only hire skilled SEO translators who are native French speakers and who understand the subtleties of both languages. We also proof read all content and guarantee that your text will read flawlessly.
Read more about our multilingual website translation service.
