Translating a document from French to English: the method

Before translating: prepare the French document

A good translation starts with a good source file. A few minutes of preparation saves most of the back-and-forth.

• Freeze the version. Translate the approved version, not a draft: every later change to the French means reworking the English.
• Check the format. A Word (.docx), PowerPoint (.pptx) or Excel (.xlsx) file, or a PDF with a text layer, can be translated directly. A scanned PDF, which is just an image of a page, cannot be processed as it is: go back to the original file if you have it.
• Clarify acronyms. SARL, CDI, URSSAF or SIRET have no direct English equivalent. If the reader needs to understand them, spell them out once in the French text.
• Split overlong sentences. A five-line French sentence with three subordinate clauses will produce a heavy English one. Better to break it up at source.

For format issues, two articles cover the precautions in detail: translating a Word document without losing its formatting and translating a PDF without breaking the layout.

Choosing your English: British or American

Both varieties are easily understood, but a document that mixes them looks careless. Decide before you start and stick to it throughout.

• Spelling: organisation / organization, colour / color, centre / center.
• Dates: 03/04/2025 means 3 April in the UK and 4 March in the US. Write the month in full (3 April 2025) and the ambiguity disappears.
• Vocabulary: flat / apartment, turnover / revenue for chiffre d'affaires, CV / résumé for a job application in the US.

For a European partner or an international audience, British English is a common choice; for an American client or investor, go with US English.

The traps of French-to-English translation

False friends

Numbers, currency and typography

• Reversed separators: 1 234,56 becomes 1,234.56. In a financial table, a misplaced comma changes an amount by a factor of a thousand.
• Currency: 54 € is written €54 in English.
• Punctuation: no space before colons, semicolons, question marks or exclamation marks; “ ” quotation marks instead of « ».
• Capitals: days, months, languages and nationalities take one (Monday, March, French).

Register

Business English is more direct than French. « Nous vous prions de bien vouloir trouver ci-joint » simply becomes “Please find attached”. A translation that sticks too closely to the French sounds stilted, even confusing.

Which translation level for which document

English is one of the common languages (coefficient ×1.0). Express delivery is +0% and the original layout is included in the price. For volume tiers and minimum charges, see the pricing page and the French to English translation page.

Costed example: a 3,000-word document

Take a 3,000-word document (around 8 pages) to be translated from French into English. These are the prices shown on the quote on the day of writing:

• Essentiel: €17.40, giving a total of €18 after rounding up to the next euro;
• Professionnel: €54;
• Premium: €105.

If the same document also needs to go into German and Spanish at the Professionnel level, the gross amount of €162 qualifies for the 30% three-language discount, i.e. €48.60 off: a total of €114. VAT not applicable, article 293 B du CGI. To read a quote line by line, see how to get and read a quote for translation into English.

The step-by-step method

1. Upload the file to the translation workspace (up to 40 MB).
2. The word count is taken from the actual document and the quote is shown before any payment.
3. An extract is translated free of charge: check the tone, the terminology and the variety of English.
4. Choose the level and confirm.
5. The translation is delivered within minutes to your client area and by email, with the original layout preserved.

Each document is handled by the specialist for its subject. A letter, a presentation or a general document goes to Atlas; a contract goes to Thémis, a balance sheet to Métis. No file is read by a human, servers are in France and documents are never used for training.

Proofread the English version before sending

• Figures, amounts and dates: compare them one by one with the original.
• Proper names, company names, product names: as a rule, they are not translated.
• Variety of English: a single spelling convention across the whole document.
• Titles, headers, footers and table captions: they often slip through proofreading.
• In-house vocabulary: if your company already uses established English terms, check they have been kept.

When you need a sworn translator

A birth certificate, diploma, court judgment or Kbis extract intended for a foreign authority or university often requires a sworn translation, carried out by a traducteur expert près une cour d'appel (a court-approved translator). Manuce does not provide this type of translation. To find out whether your document is concerned, read the guide sworn translation: when is it compulsory.

Conversely, an English version does not always replace the French: for goods and services presented to consumers in France, article 2 of loi n° 94-665 du 4 août 1994 requires the use of French. More in our article on the Toubon Law.