When translating is (nearly) impossible: the case of administrative documents in French and English

Any translator who has tried to tackle administrative documents in French or English knows that the stylistic problems they pose may be nearly impossible to overcome. Take a look, for instance, at the following texts, the first, instructions from the IRS for completing a tax form in the United States, the second, a letter from the Ministère de l’Intérieur concerning traffic violations.

Completing your IRS Form 940

Follow These Guidelines to Correctly Fill Out the Form

To help us accurately scan and process your form, please follow these guidelines.

Make sure your business name and EIN are on every page of the form and any attachments.

If you type or use a computer to fill out your form, use a 12-point Courier font, if possible. Make sure you enter dollars to the left of the preprinted decimal point and cents to the right. Do not enter dollar signs or decimal points. Commas are optional.

You may choose to round your amounts to the nearest dollar, instead of reporting cents on this form. If you choose to round, you must round all entries. To round, drop the amounts under 50 cents and increase the amounts from 50 to 99 cents to the next dollar. For example, $1.49 153 becomes $1.00 and $2.50 becomes $3.00. If you use two or more amounts to figure an entry on the form, use cents to figure the answer and round the answer only. If you have a line with the value of zero, leave it blank. ___________________________________________________________________________

From a letter from the Ministère de l’Intérieur, sous-direction de la circulation et de la sécurité routières

Monsieur,

Aux termes du 3ème alinéa de l’article L. 223-6 du code de la route, en cas de commission d’une infraction ayant entraîné le retrait d’un seul point, ce point est ré attribué au terme du délai de six mois, à compter de la date du paiement de l’amende forfaitaire, de l’émission du titre exécutoire de l’amende forfaitaire majorée, de l’exécution de la composition pénale ou de la condamnation définitive, si le titulaire du permis de conduire n’a pas commis, dans cet intervalle, ne infraction ayant donné lieu à un nouveau retrait de points. Cependant, cette réattribution ne peut aboutir à ce que le nombre de points affectés au permis de conduire excède le plafond prévu pour les conducteurs en période probatoire ou le nombre maximal de points pour les conducteurs hors période probatoire.

The difference in the attitudes of the two authors and beyond that, of the language communities to which they belong, is striking.

The American tax form uses personal pronouns, terms of politeness like please and if possible and modal auxiliaries (may, must). It addresses the reader directly through the imperative and in general adopts a mildly friendly and helpful attitude, explaining what to do in different circumstances.

The French document, concerning the point system used for traffic violations, is diametrically opposed to this in terms of style and tone. It is totally impersonal: no pronouns of any sort are used, not even third person pronouns; the only reference to the reader is le titulaire du permis de conduire or the generic les conducteurs. The general tone is highly formal and abstract, and the text is full of expressions like hors période probatoire or l’exécution de la composition pénale, which are far removed from everyday parlance, in fact virtually incomprehensible for the general public. All actions are either nominalized or expressed by an impersonal form or put in the passive voice:

Nominalizations : en cas de commission instead of si vous commettez ; l’émission instead of vous émettez, etc.

Passives : ce point est ré attribué instead of nous vous ré attribuons ce point.

Impersonal forms : ayant entraîné, ayant donné lieu instead of cela a entrainé or cela a donné lieu.

For the student of French (or English), this is an interesting example of an important sociological difference between the two countries. For the translator it is a striking example of the impossibility of translating certain types of texts without making major changes in phrase and sentence structure, modality, voice, use of ellipsis, and so on.

If you want to try your hand at translating these texts into French or English without violating the stylistic and sociological constraints imposed by the two language communities, you’ll find an example of how to do so in A Linguistic Handbook of French for Translators and Language Students, Chapter 7, pp. 102-103 and 273.