 Track this topic | User | Thread poster: Reed D James Cardinal or Ordinal numbers in legal English? |
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Reed D James
Chile
Local time: 17:09
 Member (2005)
Spanish to English
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Hello. I am curious to know if it is more common in contracts for clauses to be numbered cardinally: One, Two, Three, or ordinally:
One, Two, Three. Any preferences? Thanks.
Reed
| | | | Lawyer-Linguist 
Portugal
Local time: 20:09
Member (2004)
Dutch to English
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| | Cardinals in EN (e.g. Clause Eleven - Jurisdiction) | Nov 20, 2006 |
Reed D. James wrote:
Hello. I am curious to know if it is more common in contracts for clauses to be numbered cardinally: One, Two, Three, or ordinally:
One, Two, Three. Any preferences? Thanks.
Reed |
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Hi Reed,
You mean the headings - One, Two, Three (cardinal) vs. First, Second, Third (ordinal), right?
Normal rule (this side of the Atlantic, at least = UK) - is to use cardinals.
I'm not aware of any different convention for the US or other EN-speaking countries, e.g. South Africa, where I've practised
So:
Clause One - Purpose (and not First Clause - Purpose, as would be the case if written in PT for example)
Clause Twenty - Applicable Law, etc
Not unusual for Article to be used instead of Clause this side either.
Hope this helps
D
[Edited at 2006-11-20 17:30]
| | | | Astrid Elke Johnson
Germany
Local time: 21:09
 Member (2002)
German to English
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MODERATOR | | Convention in Scotland | Nov 20, 2006 |
Hi Reed,
At the time when I was a legal secretary in Scotland (which is some years ago now), the convention appeared to be "Clause First", "Clause Second", "Clause Third" and so on.
As far as I can make out, this convention is not, however, prevalent outside Scotland.
Astrid
P.S. Pages were numbered in that way as well. Instead of writing "- 2 -", for example, at the top of the second page, it was customary to write out "Page Second".
[Edited at 2006-11-20 19:03]
| | | | Paul Dixon
Brazil
Local time: 18:09
Portuguese to English
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| | Numbering in Legal English | Nov 22, 2006 |
When translating into English I always translate in cardinal numbers, even though the Portuguese language confusingly uses ordinal numbers until 9 and cardinals from then on:
Artigo 9º (Artigo Nono) is followed by Artigo 10 (Artigo Dez) in Portuguese!
I use "article" or "clause" depending on the form used in the original, respectively "artigo" and "cláusula".
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