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  3. Electronics / Elect Eng

prise secteur reliée à la terre

English translation: earthed mains socket

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
French term or phrase:prise secteur reliée à la terre
English translation:earthed mains socket
Entered by: Diana Lupu

18:27 Apr 16, 2008
French to English translations [PRO]
Tech/Engineering - Electronics / Elect Eng
French term or phrase: prise secteur reliée à la terre
Branchez l’appareil uniquement sur une prise secteur reliée à la terre.

Thank you.
Diana Lupu
Romania
Local time: 10:22
earthed mains socket
Explanation:
or mains socket with an earth connection/pin

‘prise au secteur’ is just a mains/electrical socket found in the home (Routledge).

The natural way to say the phrase would be “only plug the unit into a socket with an earth pin”.

The phrase probably seems strange to the British context as all domestic electric sockets are earthed (save for isolated electric shaver sockets) in the UK (US I don’t know about). However, in France some sockets have an earth connection, and some do not. For those that do it is in the form of an earth pin. The failure of this system is that equipment that needs to be earthed can still be plugged into an unearthed socket, hence the instruction.


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Note added at 2 hrs (2008-04-16 21:02:11 GMT)
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In fact if the translation is being done to sell the unit in question on the British market the phrase is essentially redundant, or at best gets reduced to ‘Plug the unit in’ (to an electric socket goes without saying). And to talk of a socket with an earth pin would just serve to confuse. A note to the client might be in order.
Selected response from:

Andrew47
Local time: 09:22
Grading comment
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
5 +6earthed mains socket
Andrew47
4 +1power socket / socket outlet with earth [UK] ground [US]
Charles Hawtrey (X)
4an earthed socket
Jack Dunwell


  

Answers


10 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
an earthed socket


Explanation:
sic

Jack Dunwell
France
Local time: 09:22
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 3
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13 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
power socket / socket outlet with earth [UK] ground [US]


Explanation:
There are many ways of expressing this...

Charles Hawtrey (X)
Local time: 08:22
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 71

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  chris collister: Er, there does seem to be a general agreement here
2 hrs
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

10 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +6
earthed mains socket


Explanation:
or mains socket with an earth connection/pin

‘prise au secteur’ is just a mains/electrical socket found in the home (Routledge).

The natural way to say the phrase would be “only plug the unit into a socket with an earth pin”.

The phrase probably seems strange to the British context as all domestic electric sockets are earthed (save for isolated electric shaver sockets) in the UK (US I don’t know about). However, in France some sockets have an earth connection, and some do not. For those that do it is in the form of an earth pin. The failure of this system is that equipment that needs to be earthed can still be plugged into an unearthed socket, hence the instruction.


--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2 hrs (2008-04-16 21:02:11 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

In fact if the translation is being done to sell the unit in question on the British market the phrase is essentially redundant, or at best gets reduced to ‘Plug the unit in’ (to an electric socket goes without saying). And to talk of a socket with an earth pin would just serve to confuse. A note to the client might be in order.

Andrew47
Local time: 09:22
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 12
Notes to answerer
Asker: Than you a lot for all these details.

Asker: Thank you for the detailed explanation. I think the unit in question will be sold on the EU market. Anyway in Romania only a few of the domestic electric sockets are earthed: the ones for the washing machine and the refrigerator.


Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Johannes Gleim
1 hr
agree  Bourth (X): Possibly worth saying "mains" since this is electronics and there might be other earthed voltages, who knows.
2 hrs
agree  Tony M
2 hrs
agree  swanda
2 hrs
agree  Joan Berglund: or "grounded" as Charles mentioned. Never seen a wall socket without the ground/earth pin, but we do have extension cords in the US that don't have it, so maybe worth saying the whole phrase
3 hrs
agree  sporran
6 hrs
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