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in het gedrang brengen

English translation: compromise

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GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

Dutch term or phrase:	in het gedrang brengen
English translation:	compromise
Entered by:	Ken Cox

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14:43 Sep 10, 2005

Dutch to English translations [PRO]
Construction / Civil Engineering / language usage (Belgian)

Dutch term or phrase: in het gedrang brengen

General context:

The phrase appears in the safety instructions of an operator's manual for an item of construction equipment (the usual sort of boilerplate safety instructions). For background: according to information from the end client, the text was translated by 'collega's', most likely from Spanish, and IMO it is noticeably unnatural (unusual syntax, convoluted, and occasional incorrect terms).

Specific context (original version):

'Het is ten strengste verboden een apparaat dat de veiligheid in het gedrang brengt te verwijderen en / of niet behoorlijk functionerend te maken.'

Revised version (provided by the end client after I pointed out to the agency that the sentence appeared to be confused and IMHO meant the opposite of what one would expect):

'Het is ten strengste verboden een onderdeel dat de veiligheid in het gedrang brengt te verwijderen of wanneer dit niet behoorlijk functioneert te herstellen.'

As the end client apparently does not see any logical problem with the usage of 'in het gedrang brengen', I'm wondering whether '[iets] in het gedrang brengen' is sometimes understood to mean 'to be essential to [something]', or the client just has an uncommon understanding of the term.

Ken Cox KudoZ activity Questions: 232 (none open) (1 closed without grading) Answers: 4219
Local time: 23:22

that controls safety

Explanation:
The only sensible reading of this sentence is : It is strictly forbidden to remove and/or to render ineffective a piece of equipment that controls safety (or is a safeguard).

i.e. this relates to the removal of something that is a safeguard like a cover on a machined oir similar

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Note added at 2005-09-11 09:15:27 (GMT)
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Please excuse the poor typing above.

This relates to the removal of safety controls. It cannot be the case that it is forbidden to remove a piece of equipment that compromises safety?????

Selected response from:

Kate Hudson
Netherlands
Local time: 23:22

Grading comment

It appears that the only reasonable approach is to ignore the grammatical logic and translate the sentence according to what it 'should' mean, although here I would use 'is critical to' rather than 'controls'. As for the translation of the term, I agree with Jack's suggestion (so that's what I'm putting in the glossary). Incidentally, the document contains several other gems, such as 'De machine is gebouwd en ontworpen volgens de laatste vaardigheden' and (in the German text of the multilingual EC Declaration of Conformity) a reference to the 'eigenschlägigen Richtlinien'.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer