Glossary entry (derived from question below)
French term or phrase:
à la politique tarifaire extrêmement agressive
English translation:
with an extremely aggressive pricing policy
Added to glossary by
Tony M
Jun 1, 2008 21:27
16 yrs ago
French term
United States
Telecom/new media tech, law, bus, mktg
Native in: English
Works in: Spanish to English, Portuguese to English, French to English, and 1 more.
à (punctuation query)
Non-PRO
French to English
Tech/Engineering
Telecom(munications)
I think this is a punctuation query. I'm having trouble making sense of the following sentence and I think I'm being stumbled by the comma before "à" or perhaps the accent over the "a" or maybe even both. Referring to the latter of two strategies which involves resellers rebranding white label IP Centrex offerings, it says:
"Cette dernière approche inspirée du modèle "switchless" de la présélection, à la politique tarifaire extrêmement agressive, a recontré un vif succeès commercial durant ses deux premières années."
For the moment, I have:
"The second approach, inspired by the “switchless” carrier preselection model to adopt extremely aggressive tariff policies, has met with great commercial success in its first two years."
This is a guess since I really don't know how to read the "à". Have I understood the meaning correctly?
"Cette dernière approche inspirée du modèle "switchless" de la présélection, à la politique tarifaire extrêmement agressive, a recontré un vif succeès commercial durant ses deux premières années."
For the moment, I have:
"The second approach, inspired by the “switchless” carrier preselection model to adopt extremely aggressive tariff policies, has met with great commercial success in its first two years."
This is a guess since I really don't know how to read the "à". Have I understood the meaning correctly?
Proposed translations
(English)
| 4 +7 | with an extremely aggressive pricing policy |
Tony M
|
| 4 | whose tariff policies are extremely aggressive |
swanda
|
| 3 | approach to |
Emma Grubb
|
Proposed translations
+7
30 mins
French term (edited):
à la politique tarifaire extrêmement agressive
Selected
with an extremely aggressive pricing policy
No, I don't thik you have been interpeting it correctly, Deborah.
This is a very common use of 'à' that more or less equates to the use of 'with' in EN; found an awful lot in things like menu descriptions, but also in everyday usage.
Here's how you might prefer to read it:
"Cette dernière approche inspirée du modèle "switchless" de la présélection, à la (= avec une) politique tarifaire extrêmement agressive, a recontré un vif succeès commercial durant ses deux premières années."
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Note added at 31 mins (2008-06-01 21:58:32 GMT)
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It is of course the 'approach' that has an aggressive pricing policy, not the switchless whatsits.
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Note added at 33 mins (2008-06-01 22:00:29 GMT)
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A culinary exaple (so dear to my heart...):
poulet à la crème > chicken with a cream sauce
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Note added at 34 mins (2008-06-01 22:01:54 GMT)
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In my reading, the comma is really there because "inspirée de...présélection" is almost parenthetic, and might well even have been written with a comma before 'inspirée'
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Note added at 10 hrs (2008-06-02 07:45:20 GMT)
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It's just one of those instances where FR uses a def. article while EN uses either an indef, or even none at all.
Just as in 'poulet à la crème' above, in fact!
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Note added at 10 hrs (2008-06-02 07:47:31 GMT)
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Yes, your first reading would have been closer, though I don't think it's as strong as "characterized by..." — it purely and simply means 'with' in the sense of "that has..."
This is such a very common construction, you really don't need to « chercher midi à quatorze heures ».
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Note added at 14 hrs (2008-06-02 12:06:02 GMT)
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I feel confident that it is the closing half of an implied parenthesis that starts with 'inspirée'
This is a very common use of 'à' that more or less equates to the use of 'with' in EN; found an awful lot in things like menu descriptions, but also in everyday usage.
Here's how you might prefer to read it:
"Cette dernière approche inspirée du modèle "switchless" de la présélection, à la (= avec une) politique tarifaire extrêmement agressive, a recontré un vif succeès commercial durant ses deux premières années."
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Note added at 31 mins (2008-06-01 21:58:32 GMT)
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It is of course the 'approach' that has an aggressive pricing policy, not the switchless whatsits.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 33 mins (2008-06-01 22:00:29 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
A culinary exaple (so dear to my heart...):
poulet à la crème > chicken with a cream sauce
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 34 mins (2008-06-01 22:01:54 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
In my reading, the comma is really there because "inspirée de...présélection" is almost parenthetic, and might well even have been written with a comma before 'inspirée'
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 10 hrs (2008-06-02 07:45:20 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
It's just one of those instances where FR uses a def. article while EN uses either an indef, or even none at all.
Just as in 'poulet à la crème' above, in fact!
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 10 hrs (2008-06-02 07:47:31 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Yes, your first reading would have been closer, though I don't think it's as strong as "characterized by..." — it purely and simply means 'with' in the sense of "that has..."
This is such a very common construction, you really don't need to « chercher midi à quatorze heures ».
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Note added at 14 hrs (2008-06-02 12:06:02 GMT)
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I feel confident that it is the closing half of an implied parenthesis that starts with 'inspirée'
Note from asker:
| Thanks, Tony. I did consider "with" but then is it "with" as in "together with" or "with" as in "characterized by"? My original rendering was, "The second approach, inspired by the “switchless” carrier preselection model and characterized by extremely aggressive tariff policies, has met with great commercial success in its first two years." Was I closer to the correct understanding the first time around then? |
| Interesting to see the comments back and forth. I'm still stumbled by that comma! It does, for my audience, matter whether the approach or the model is characterized by an aggressive pricing policy or whether the approach is combined with an aggressive pricing policy. "A la" as used to describe menu items I understand and I'd understand 'poulet, à la crème' the same as 'poulet à la crème'. The problem for me is that I can't figure if the comma in my text indicates half of a parentheses or an unnecessary addition that should not be there at all! |
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
sueaberwoman
19 mins
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Thanks, Sue!
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| agree |
Jennifer Levey
: That makes a lot of sense. And to Deborah's question: 'with' or 'characterized by'? I'd say' characterized by'.
57 mins
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Thanks, M/M! Yes, certainly the general idea, though please see my added note above on that subject.
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| agree |
Melissa McMahon
: that's how I read it - "à la" = "characterised by" (indeed, as per food - "moutarde au vin")
5 hrs
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Thanks, Melissa!
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| agree |
CMJ_Trans (X)
: this is a VERY common construction in French. It means "which has", thexxx of which is" and the sentence in French is indeed fine as it is
8 hrs
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Thanks, CMJ! Quite!
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| agree |
Rob Grayson
: Yes, except that I would say "with its extremely aggressive pricing policy" - "its" referring of course to the model in question
9 hrs
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Thanks Rob! I don't think it's actually necessary for comprehension, but if you feel it reads better....
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| agree |
katsy
: 'with its..' or 'whose pricing policy is...' get my preference // OK for your feelings about 'whose' - though I don't feel so strongly about it (as 'of which' often comes out a bit 'heavy') - a simple 'with' (tho' I'd keep 'its')is perhaps enough
9 hrs
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Thanks, Katsy! Fair enough, though I don't personally feel it is necessary to add in a possessive. In any event, I would tend to avoid 'whose', I always feel that as a general rule it sits uncomfortably with inanimate objects!
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| agree |
Charles Hawtrey (X)
17 hrs
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Thanks, Charles!
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Selected automatically based on peer agreement."
9 mins
Emma Grubb
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
Native in English
Works in field
United Kingdom
Your patent translation partner
Native in: English 
Works in: German to English, French to English, Italian to English
approach to
I'm not a native French speaker, but I read it as:
"Cette dernière approche (inspirée du modèle "switchless" de la présélection) à la politique tarifaire extrêmement agressive, a recontré un vif succeès commercial durant ses deux premières années"
In other words, I think its referring to the "approche à la politique..."
"Cette dernière approche (inspirée du modèle "switchless" de la présélection) à la politique tarifaire extrêmement agressive, a recontré un vif succeès commercial durant ses deux premières années"
In other words, I think its referring to the "approche à la politique..."
Note from asker:
| The only problem is that there's nothing before this sentence that refers to aggressive pricing. It is first mentioned here. The text preceding talks about approaches to participating in the market, either as a very small local player using a particular platform or as a reseller. |
3 mins
whose tariff policies are extremely aggressive
*
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Note added at 9 hrs (2008-06-02 07:14:44 GMT)
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that's it
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Note added at 9 hrs (2008-06-02 07:14:44 GMT)
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that's it
Note from asker:
| So I should read "à" here as "whose" and understand it as pointing back to modèle "switchless" de la présélection""? |
Discussion