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17:01 Dec 7, 2011
Catalan to English translations [PRO] Law/Patents - Law (general) / Police report
Catalan term or phrase:Sotsoficial de Policia
Sotsoficial de Policia
A police report from Andorra. They talk about three types of police officer in the report.
Agent de policia major
Agent de policia
Sotsoficial de Policia
I have found the last one in this website on the Andorran police force, however I am not sure how to translate it.
Explanation: In UK English. "Sergeant" is also possible, although I would think that is the translation of the Andorran term 'caporal'. You are looking for the third grade up from the bottom in a police heirarchy as your nearest equivalent, IMHO.
Thank you both for your answers - and Nigel in particular for all your helpful comments. In the end, I am still not sure of which term would be the closest to 'sotsoficial de policia' in English, but I gave the client a choice and explained the problem. Plus I added the Catalan names in all cases. Thanks again! 4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer
I would translate this as "senior constable". I know that this doesn't exist as a police rank anywhere in the English-speaking world, but it gets the idea across and allows us to have 'caporal' as "sergeant", and so 'sotsoficail' as "inspector".
Hi Nigel, Thanks for all your help! I don't know what is happening with proz.com tonight - are you having problems getting in at times too? Anyway, I agree it might be a good idea to contact the PR people. I'll try that tomorrow. I'm still a bit confused about the levels - if I compare the UK and the Andorran systems (from the websites I quoted), then the 3 levels would appear to be 'Constable', 'Sergeant' and 'Chief Inspector' in the UK system. However, that could be totally wrong and maybe your versions are correct. I'll need to check with the folk in Andorra I suppose. In any case, as I said, I'm going to include the original names. Thanks again! Sheila
Hi Sheila, I was just coming back to give another suggestion, but let's answer your question first! I think "Chief Inspector" is too high a rank to be doing the job that's being done here. They probably need someone from the 'policia judicial' to sign the reports, rather than just a basic grunt, which is why the third policeman is there. Also, I think the first two ranks BOTH correspont to "contable" in the UK, they just make a distinction for a constable who has a bit more experience.
If your deadline permits, you could try telephoning the Public Relations person for the Andorran Police to ask them what a 'sots-oficial' actually does, to help you choose between the equivalent ranks. The number is +376 872000 (that seems to be a switchboard for the main police station, you'll have to ask for PR). I've done this a couple of times with French-speaking police ranks, and the PR people are usually very happy to help out.
Sots-oficial de Policia seems to be the 4th rank up according to the Andorran website. So, what do you think? Thanks again! Sheila
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Answers
57 mins confidence:
inspector
Explanation: In UK English. "Sergeant" is also possible, although I would think that is the translation of the Andorran term 'caporal'. You are looking for the third grade up from the bottom in a police heirarchy as your nearest equivalent, IMHO.
Nigel Wheatley United Kingdom Local time: 23:08 Works in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 6
Grading comment
Thank you both for your answers - and Nigel in particular for all your helpful comments. In the end, I am still not sure of which term would be the closest to 'sotsoficial de policia' in English, but I gave the client a choice and explained the problem. Plus I added the Catalan names in all cases. Thanks again!
Explanation: This looks to me to be literally "under-officer".
I was surprised, however, at how high a rank this is when I viewed your link.
After comparing with the Wikipedia link of police ranks in the UK, I am of the opinion that "oficial" in Andorra equates more or less to "inspector" in the UK and that "sotsoficial" must equate more or less to sergeant.
One of the difficulties here may be that, if I'm not wrong, in English, officer is a general term for a member of the police and yet appears to be a specific rank in Andorra.
The translation workplace 
