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French to English translations [PRO] Law/Patents - Certificates, Diplomas, Licenses, CVs / French birth certificate
French term or phrase:a signé avec Nous
I'm getting a little grammatically thrown by this very long and complex bureaucratic sentence with a lot of commas - here's the context...from a French birth certificate:
"Dressé le 30 mars 19XX à 1430, sur la declaration de Pierre X, quarante-trois ans, employé, rue de X 4, ayant assisté à l'accouchement, qui lecture faite et invité a lire l'acte, a signé avec Nous Frederic FROST, fonctionnaire de la Mairie du XX arrondissement, déléguée par le Maire dans les fonctions d'officier d'état-civil, pour la signature des actes d'état-civil de l'espece.
L'Adjoint au Maire
Officier de l'état-civil NB Three signatures follow!
While I've got most of the legal phrases worked out, I'm confused about who is talking/being referred to here, particularly given the capital 'N' in 'Nous'. I should emphasize that there is no comma between 'Nous' and 'Frederic FROST'. Can't work out if the 'avec' in 'signé avec nous refers to Frederic FROST or Pierre X - which one is already part of the 'Nous' and which one is signing 'avec Nous'? Which one was invited to read the certificate and sign 'avec Nous'? Much hinges on the 'qui' - I'm not sure if it belongs to 'Frederic FROST' or Pierre X'. Furthermore would have thought 'Nous' refers to the people who later sign the letter - but there are three signatures yet only two job titles signed at the bottom. To complicate things further I am not quite sure if 'Officier de l'état-civil' is a sub-title for 'L'adjoint au Maire' or a separate individual. If, as stated in the text, Frederic FROST has got 'Officier de l'état civil' status, then I would assume he would be the 'Officier de l'état civil' who signs off the text. Or could there be more than one 'Officier de l'état civil' in this whole business?
Big points if someone can help me unpack this one!
The Nous is often the "royal we" used by the civil registry officer (think Queen Vic and "We are not amused"!). So it actually refers to Mr Frost. Its a fairly standard phrase used by French officials when drawing up BMD certificates. So your phrase is something like:
"...who, having been read and invited to read the certificate, signed it with me, Mr Frederic Frost, [officer] of the Town Hall of the XX arrondissement, authorised by the mayor...."
HTH
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Answers
3 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +1
"...a signe avec Nous..."
has signed with Us, (usually an name a title comes after)
Explanation: It's in every birth cerificate in France and in some other countries.
jmleger Local time: 02:32 Native speaker of: French PRO pts in category: 1
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +1
