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Glossary entry

French term or phrase:

À votre demande

English translation:

to answer your question / regarding your question ...

Added to glossary by Melissa McMahon
Jul 23, 2017 22:48
6 yrs ago
6 viewers *
French term

À votre demande

Non-PRO French to English Law/Patents Law (general) Criminal law - interrogation
I am translating a record of an interrogation of a suspect. It reads as an ordinary series of questions and answers between the investigating judge and suspect, with notes from the clerk sometimes inserted (eg. "We note for the record that x is attached to the present statement...").

At several places in the suspect's answers, he says "À votre demande...". Eg (I am changing some details), when explaining the purchase of a truck, he says: "Ils ont négocié. Moi je n'étais pas présent. À votre demande, j'ai
entendu que le camion avait été acheté 70.000 euros."

He is obviously providing extra details at the request of the investigating judge, but there must be a reason why that exchange is not recorded in the same way as the other Q&As. (eg. Q: Combien, selon vous, le camion aurait-il coûté? A: J'ai entendu 70.000 euros.)

Would it be a case where extra details are requested and provided later during the review of the statement before signature and that is expressed in a separate way?
Proposed translations (English)
4 +1 to answer your question / regarding your question ...
3 +3 At your request/demand
Change log

Jul 24, 2017 08:37: Rob Grayson changed "Level" from "PRO" to "Non-PRO"

Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

PRO (1): Daryo

Non-PRO (3): writeaway, mchd, Rob Grayson

When entering new questions, KudoZ askers are given an opportunity* to classify the difficulty of their questions as 'easy' or 'pro'. If you feel a question marked 'easy' should actually be marked 'pro', and if you have earned more than 20 KudoZ points, you can click the "Vote PRO" button to recommend that change.

How to tell the difference between "easy" and "pro" questions:

An easy question is one that any bilingual person would be able to answer correctly. (Or in the case of monolingual questions, an easy question is one that any native speaker of the language would be able to answer correctly.)

A pro question is anything else... in other words, any question that requires knowledge or skills that are specialized (even slightly).

Another way to think of the difficulty levels is this: an easy question is one that deals with everyday conversation. A pro question is anything else.

When deciding between easy and pro, err on the side of pro. Most questions will be pro.

* Note: non-member askers are not given the option of entering 'pro' questions; the only way for their questions to be classified as 'pro' is for a ProZ.com member or members to re-classify it.

Discussion

Melissa McMahon (asker) Jul 24, 2017:
It is definitely the full transcript of the interrogation. There are other interviews, but all references to other case documents are explained and noted by the clerk. The back-and-forth is quite conversational (ie not formal, "je vous demande..."), which is why I would have expected there to be the simple question "how much did the truck cost", when he says "à votre demande... the truck cost 70.000 euros". Since he does this at several points, it seems more and more likely to me that this is simply a mannerism of his, that he punctuates his own answers with "to answer your question". I will check whether any other suspects use this expression in their interrogation.
Daryo Jul 24, 2017:
the point of the statement being in what the suspect (or witness or victim) has to say, it might be that questions are simply not recorded (only a supposition);

OTOH I really can't see what kind of "requests" could be coming from an investigating judge if not requests to answers to pointed/specific questions?
Nikki Scott-Despaigne Jul 24, 2017:
Context How does the investigating J. open the interrogation? He/she may have started with something along the lines of "Je vias vous demande de..." or "Je vous demande de..." in which case the suspect may be taking a rather litteral approach, with a truncated version along the lines of what Daryo suggests, and kind of latching onto some type of request by the investigating judge at the outset.
Nikki Scott-Despaigne Jul 24, 2017:
Daryo's suggestion would make sense in that case, reading "à votre demande" as if it were a truncated version of "En réponse à votre demande/question". If that can fit your context then it may be the way to go. Effectively, as it stands, it does read rather stangely with a face-value meaning of "at your request". Is there absolutely nothing to suggest that previous questions have been put? Might there not have been a previous interview? Are you certain that your have the full record of the interrogation?
Melissa McMahon (asker) Jul 24, 2017:
I seem to be seeing a problem no one else, which could well be me overthinking, but for me the problem is that the suspect seems to be referring to a question that is not recorded in the interrogation transcript. If he is prefacing his own further elaboration, in the way we say "to answer your question...", I understand it. But I don't understand why he would give information "at your request" when no request for it has been recorded. As I say, I may have been staring at it for too long or maybe there are contextual elements I am not making clear.

Proposed translations

+1
13 hrs
Selected

to answer your question / regarding your question ...

À votre demande = concernant la question à laquelle vous m'avez demandé de répondre

it's not poetic licence in any shape of form, it's simply recognising that this an abbreviated form (a formula) used to avoid repeating the much longer version.

IOW, these are parts of the statement where the person being interrogated answers specific questions, instead of telling the story the way it wants.
Peer comment(s):
neutral Nikki Scott-Despaigne : This is what one would expect. In >27 years in France, I have never come across this phrase used to mean as you suggest, altho' your suggestion wld make sense. It does read as if it means "En réponse à votre demande,..." .
3 hrs
as Asker suggested (based on far more information), it could also simply be a mannerism of the suspect, not some standard formula, but I can't see any other possible meaning.
agree Tony M : Yes, having digressed with an aside, the person returns to the question: "In answer to your question, ..."
4 hrs
Thanks!
neutral AllegroTrans : With Nikki, your suggestion makes eminent sense though
5 hrs
as Asker suggested (based on far more information), it could also simply be a mannerism of the suspect, not some standard formula, but I can't see any other possible meaning.
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thank you, Daryo, I think this is the sense here, especially as only one interviewee uses the expression."
+3
23 mins

At your request/demand

As this is the translation of an official record, you have to stick closely to the source text. One answer has already been posted and it can indeed be quite colloquial. That said, if the suspect, during his interrogation, has gone to the trouble of specifying that something has been done or provided "à votre demande", I think you have to get that idea across. It is important as a fact of what he actually chose to say.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 25 mins (2017-07-23 23:13:04 GMT)
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As for your question at the end, I am sorry, but I don't see what you are getting at.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 9 hrs (2017-07-24 08:28:31 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

@Melissa: impossible to say without the full context. It could be as you suggest, but it might be a reference to something completely different. In any event, it is clearly in reply to something that has been requested of the suspect.
Note from asker:
I am asking why this question is recorded in a different way to the other questions.
Would this be like saying "to answer your question..." in the middle of an answer, ie a way of coming back to the initial question asked rather than a reference to a separate question?
Peer comment(s):
agree writeaway : oeuf corse
20 mins
agree AllegroTrans : Yes, keep to the literal in the circumstances; poetic licence is inappropriate here
1 hr
agree janthenor : agree
1 hr
agree Philippe Gurd Gross
3 hrs
disagree Daryo : you make it almost sound like the investigator asked the suspect to do whatever he's done in the past, like if it was done under investigator's instructions!
12 hrs
The FR does read oddly, as if the S. is indeed replying to a request by the investigating J. That is after all what the FR means as it stands. I agree that it wld make sense if read as "En réponse à votre demande". Common to have odd exp. in interrogation
Something went wrong...
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