French term
United Kingdom
il a, aurait pu ou pourrait entreprendre
"Monsieur X indique ne plus avoir aucune demande à formuler à quelque titre que ce soit vis-à-vis du Groupe ABC et renonce à toute action et instance, qu’il a, aurait pu ou pourrait entreprendre à l’encontre du Groupe ABC ou de l’une de ses filiales, sous réserve du paiement par la société ABC des sommes visées à l'article 1."
I'm getting my tenses muddled up. Can anyone help?
Non-PRO (1): df49f (X)
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Proposed translations
Hassle-free translations for busy people
Native in: English 
Works in: French to English
he may have... etc
Assuming there is no grammatical shortcut being taken, surely the tenses are:
il a pu entreprendre - he may have undertaken (but we don't know or don't wish to state whether he has or not)
il aurait pu entreprendre - he could have undertaken (had the right to, but didn't)
il pourrait entreprendre - he could undertake (in the future, if he felt so inclined)
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Note added at 6 hrs 52 mins (2005-07-30 01:48:57 GMT)
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Ah, I see that df49f has already posted a similar comment, but not as an answer itself. Well, I\'ll leave this in the hope that it at least fully clarifies what the 3 tenses actually are in full... :-)
| agree |
df49f (X)
: of course this is it! glad to see my disagree above was put to good use! I still don't understand why all the confusion... seemed to obvious from the very beginning that I even voted to make this "non-Pro"! ;-)
10 hrs
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Canada
Over 20 Years Freelance Translation
Native in: English 
, French
Works in: Italian to English, French to English, English to French, and 9 more.
that he has, could or would take
Another possibility.
United States
Lucid and Clean Translations
Native in: English
Works in: Italian to English, French to English
he has, would have been able, or would be able to undertake
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Note added at 38 mins (2005-07-29 19:34:55 GMT)
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The second and third original conjugations are both in the conditional. I think keeping the conditional makes sense here because upon signing this waiver of rights to litigate, the individual renounces litigation he *could have* pursued if he had not signed.
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Magdalena Talaban
8 mins
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| agree |
DocteurPC
: keeping the conditional is absolutely necessary in this type of context
39 mins
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| neutral |
Charlie Bavington
: "il a pu entreprendre" as "he has undertaken" (if I understand your answer correctly) - would that not be "il a entrepris"?
6 hrs
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Yes, but in the source text there is no "pu" after "il a", which leaves the question as to what is really implied/left out after. I think "qu'il a entrepris, qu'il aurait..." would make the most sense based on the context of waiving rights to litigate.
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| agree |
Kieran McCann
: with your take on 'qu'il a' vs 'qu'il a pu'
12 hrs
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United Kingdom
Qualified finance professional
Native in: English
Works in: German to English, French to English
has undertaken, could have undertaken or could (still) undertake
'has undertaken, would have been able to undertake or would still be able to undertake' if you prefer
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LinguaFidelis
: Good call =)
2 mins
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well this is pretty basic stuff, il me semble...
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jrb
2 hrs
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thank you: I won't say anything else in case Charlotte slaps my wrist again
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Charlie Bavington
: "il a pu entreprendre" as "he has undertaken" (if I understand your answer correctly) - would that not be "il a entrepris"?
6 hrs
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the original is a bit sloppy but without another 'pu' or at least an 'ou' after 'il a', I think 'qu'il a entreprises' is a more likely reading than 'qu'il a pu entreprendre'/+doesn't make a lot of sense: either he has or he hasn't as a matter of record
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that he did, could have or might undertake
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Jennifer White
: yes, right tenses here! (except slightly wrong grammar - "undertaken" Yes, I agree. The sentence would be clumsy with all that repetition
3 mins
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2 out of 3 is ok :-) -could have undertaken naturally, but I thought this structure was possible in such situations. if not, then the verb has to be repeated all the way through...../ditto for French
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Anne Grimes
: il a is the present tense, not the past
10 mins
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has in the other answers is not present tense at all. it's an auxilary verb. I prefer avoiding the present perfect in such texts
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| agree |
Charlie Bavington
: "il a pu entreprendre" as "he has undertaken" (if I understand your answer correctly) - would that not be "il a entrepris"?
5 hrs
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Canada
Handwriting specialist
Native in: English (Variants: Canadian, US)
Works in: Spanish to English, French to English, Latin to English, and 1 more.
he has, will have been able, or will be able to undertake
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Note added at 1 hr 2 mins (2005-07-29 19:59:11 GMT)
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See french.about.com and conjugate the verb pouvoir and you will see.
| agree |
Ghina
10 mins
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| agree |
soldini
: he has, he will be able to, he will be able to
17 mins
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| disagree |
Jennifer White
: no, wrong tenses. aurait pu = could have pourrait = might - perfect tense, past conditional and conditional
51 mins
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| disagree |
writeaway
: il a is indeed he has. but that's not the meaning here-it's has undertaken. you can't treat this as a just grammatical exercise.
1 hr
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of course it is he has undertaken, I just didn't write undertaken repeatedly, it is understood that it is he has undertaken, will have been able to undertake, or will be able to undertake.
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df49f (X)
: les 2 conditionnels sont essentiels - and disagree aussi avec ceci: "il a" is absolutely NOT to be understaood as "he has undertaken..." mais "il a PU entreprendre"= he may have undertaken (sinon l'infinitif Français entreprendre ne fonctionnerait pas)
1 hr
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Australia
I am a litigation attorney and linguist
Native in: English
Works in: French to English
any and all claims and potential claims ... and causes of action and potential causes of action
" waives any and all claims and potential claims and any and all causes of action and potential causes of action...etc"
More normal phraseology in English, rather than trying to follow the bouncing ball re tenses.
Discussion
Charlie - Good point. Where is 'entrepris'? In that case the sentence would have to be read as "qu'il a/aurait pu..."
Sorry if I implied that I don't understand the way French verbs work(! That would make me a pretty poor translator...) What I really meant was, what exactly is this legal language getting at by its use of these verbs in this context? Although fortunately most of you twigged that this was what I was getting at, as your answers reflect. I.e. that the employee waives all actions, including any that he has already brought, any he would have been entitled to bring, and any he might become entitled to bring in the future (save for this document).
I think Kieran's answer probably comes closest to expressing the sense of this paragraph, although I am sorely tempted to withhold the points from him as revenge for his comment that 'This is pretty basic stuff, il me semble'. ;-)
Not so basic that it hasn't resulted in five different answers.......