Translate Terms and Conditions of Sale in Word into English

What changes when terms of sale move into English

Terms and conditions are not translated like a brochure. Contract English has its own conventions, and a few elements deserve close attention, whatever your source language.

• Contract vocabulary. The title usually becomes General Terms and Conditions of Sale; a statutory cooling-off right becomes right of withdrawal; local tax labels such as French TTC/HT or German inkl./zzgl. MwSt. become including VAT and excluding VAT.
• Defined terms. the Seller, the Customer, the Order take a capital letter and must stay identical throughout. One stray the Buyer among forty the Customer creates ambiguity.
• Obligations. Many source languages state duties in the present tense; English contracts tend to use shall or must. What matters is that one choice is applied consistently.
• References to national law. A citation such as Article L. 221-18 of the French Consumer Code keeps its number; only the name of the code is translated.
• Numbers and dates. 1 250,00 € becomes €1,250.00. A date written 03/04/2025 reads as 3 April in the UK and 4 March in the US: spelling it out (3 April 2025) removes the risk.
• British or American. authorised or authorized, cancelled or canceled, licence or license: pick the variant your customers use and keep to it.

Plurals are simple (two forms: 1 day, 14 days). English text from French typically runs 10 to 15% shorter, so an eight-page document may lose some length.

What Manuce returns, and what it does not do

Your terms are handled by Thémis, Manuce’s legal specialist engine. It translates:

• the body of every clause, from the definitions to the governing law clause;
• tables, such as a delivery charge or late-payment penalty grid (a merged cell is translated and charged only once);
• headers and footers, such as “Terms of Sale – version of 1 January 2025”;
• text boxes, often used for a highlighted withdrawal notice.

You get your original .docx back, processed text run by text run: fonts, sizes, colours, bold and italics, styles, clause numbering and table widths stay as they were. An automatic check compares the layout of the translated document with the original and flags any difference. You receive the file in its original format, plus a Word version, a PDF and plain text.

What is not done:

• Automatic fields (table of contents, “see page 4” references) keep working, but their numbers are not recalculated. Because English is shorter, update the fields in Word after translation.
• Manuce does not produce sworn or certified translations. If a court or authority requires one, you will need a sworn translator.
• Translating is not adapting: your terms remain drafted under their original governing law. The English version does not make them compliant with English or US law.

Preparing the Word file before upload

A few minutes of preparation saves paying to translate text that is about to change.

• Start from the final version. Accept or reject tracked changes and check the version date in the footer.
• Keep automatic numbering. Clauses numbered by Word (“Article 1” to “Article 14”) keep their numbering. Hand-typed numbers stay too, but make sure they match the cross-references in the text.
• Look for text inside images. A price table pasted as a screenshot is not text and is not among the elements translated. Rebuild it as a real Word table if you need it in English.
• Note what must stay unchanged. Company name and legal form (“Dupont SAS”, “Müller GmbH”), registration numbers, brand names, Incoterms such as EXW or DAP: Manuce does not take term lists, so check these in the free sample and again in the translation.

Reviewing the English version before publishing

Before putting the English terms online or attaching them to a quotation, check the following, in this order:

1. Update the fields in Word to refresh the table of contents and page references.
2. Check internal cross-references. “See Article 7” (or Clause 7) must point to a clause that still deals with the same subject.
3. Scan the defined terms: the Customer everywhere, always capitalised.
4. Verify amounts and time limits: euro symbol position, separators, “14 days” rather than “two weeks”.
5. Decide which language prevails. Many bilingual terms state that the original version governs in case of discrepancy. Whether to add such a clause is a question for your legal adviser, not for the translation.

For terms you will publish or have signed, the Professional or Premium level is the better fit; Essential is enough to understand a supplier’s terms.

In practice

1. Finalise the .docx: tracked changes resolved, version date up to date.
2. Upload the file: the quote appears at once, based on the exact word count.
3. Read the free sample: defined terms, British or American spelling, names to keep.
4. Pay and download the translated .docx, Word version, PDF and plain text.
5. Update the fields in Word and review cross-references, amounts and dates.