French translation - French interpreting
English French translation - French English translation - French interpreter service - transcription - subtitling - French voiceover - Certified French translation
French translation has been core business for over 20 years, delivering much-complimented French-English and English-French translation, and professionally qualified French interpreter services, to hundreds of private and public sector French translation clients across the UK. We're also preferred French-English translation providers to many translation agencies in France itself - quite a compliment in itself! Lifeline Language Services is the reliable, professional and user-friendly source for all your French interpreter and translation needs, with over 4000 French projects delivered to date. It's best to know a little about French translation in selecting your translator, and we've answered some common questions below - but for more please call our helpful team on 0800 783 4678!
- D'you do much French translation?
Absolutely! French-English translation and English-French translation are the second most searched on the web (Spanish is first, our best seller!) - and our much-complimented French translation makes us great partners. Projects to date include technical translation, logistics, insurance, legal, general commercial and financial, and private work (particularly for certified French translation). German, Polish, Dutch and Russian are also very popular, both from and into English, plus many more languages. - I need some English-French translation - anything I should know?
Well, yes. European and Canadian French differ - it's important to know which you want. A compromise "generic French" translation for both really doesn't work! We've established partners in Canada for Canadian French, and in France for European French. The language is also spoken in Wallonia (part of Belgium), Monaco and Switzerland, and parts of Africa (where normal European French works fine). - I can use the French translation in more markets than I thought - cool! But how do I ensure it's GOOD translation?
There are many French translation providers - some are great, others aren't and we've written-off a number over the years. Our FAQ page offers some useful tips on spotting decent ones along with lots more useful info. While selecting an appropriate provider is key, there's other ways to ensure you get a translation that's right for you - you'll find lots of tips in our Really Helpful Friendly Guide to Language Translation.
- That's useful, thanks - anything else?
In English-French translation UK clients are often surprised by French punctuation. Key punctuation differences are:
Spaces separate punctuation from text; before colons : and semicolons ; - exclamation ! and question marks ?
Inverted commas ("speech marks") vary in French translation depending on context - ones like « this » are used (and also include spaces) but the single quotemark is also used for reported speech in a conversation...
Secondly, commas and points are reversed in numbers. So 1,234.56 in an English-French translation becomes 1.234,56
Thirdly, French correspondence is more "flowery" than in the UK - so English-French translation of correspondence may grow considerably. Equally, French-English translation often shrinks... a shorter text doesn't mean we've missed something!
Author-recipient relationship affects tone and salutations, so if we're providing an English-French translation of a business letter there's reason behind our nosey questions about you and the addressee!
Finally, English-French translation can grow up to 30% - important for translation of a text to be typeset. This coupled with the unusual French punctuation means typesetting French translation isn't a wise amateur choice and is best left to experts - see our French translation typesetting. The extra length also really matters in French voiceover - if you're making the video please allow for longer French! There's good guidance in our useful voiceover guide...
- Handy - thanks! Do you have a French interpreter UK service?
We deliver stacks of French interpreter UK assignments, and many abroad - see our interpreting page. For our French interpreter UK service just call us on Freefone 0800 783 4678 or drop an e-mail to our French interpreter UK team. Large French interpreting users are our court & legal interpreting and our medical interpreting services .
- Great! So what's "certified translation" about?
Certified French translation is the UK equivalent to Europe's "sworn French translation"; the translator needs excellent language qualifications and experience, denoted by membership of the Chartered Institute of Linguists or the Institute of Translation and Interpreting. For English-French translation you may also need notarisation, or a Consulate registered translator - see our certified page for more details. - What about French transcription?
We do lots of French transcription - see our Transcription page. French transcription is popular for research and conferences, and can be mono- or bilingual - so the transcription may have a French-English translation (legal use often requires certified transcription). Software developers are large Canadian and European French transcription clients. - Cool - oh, the other thing's French voiceover or subtitling?
No problem - see our voiceovers page. Since we're primarily a language service, the translation standard of our French subtitling and voiceover scripts is identical to our commercial French translation - mother-tongue, professional translators + 100% review in-house - something you won't find from many voiceover providers!
While UK demand for French voiceover is usually for European French, we naturally also provide Canadian French voiceover. Some French voiceover samples include (click name for sample): Gilles, Bertrand and Nicole, while Canadian French voiceover includes Francois, Cécile and Nathalie.
Your French translation services sound ideal! – So what next?
Thanks! Just click here to Get a FREE quotation
or simply call our friendly helpful team on UK Freefone 0800 783 4678 (Intnl 0044 1772 558858)
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