22:42 Feb 3 

If the author believes, rightly or wrongly, that a segment of the anglophone readership would be put off by unnecessary algebraic notation, I would be inclined to defer to his wishes.:-)

16:16 Feb 3 

FWIW, ghits support your "distinct preference" ;-)

16:04 Feb 3 

I have a distinct preference for the common or garden n and n-1, being totally standard and used for the reason that 'n' can represent any number. Indeed that is the whole idea behind the choice. No reason here to change a standard.

15:36 Feb 3 

I like y and y-1 :-)

15:24 Feb 3 

I quite often use the above when n is used to refer to years.

09:38 Feb 3 

Thanks for all the input and the links, in fact it would be simpler just to keep n-1 but the author seemed to think it should be something different in English, and I wasn't sure enough myself to insist, but he didn't want to put the years. However I think I can now make a case for keeping the original, though based on Jaila's link it looks like I should write year n and year n-1.

08:22 Feb 3 

You're right cc in nyc! n, n-1, n+1 etc. are perfectly understandable and do not need to be translated. For the Asker, here's a bilingual EU document if you need a reference (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/Notice.do?mode=dbl&lang=en&ihmlang=...

16:50 Feb 2 

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/asset-turnover-ratio.html


Asset Turnover Ratio - Definition

Total Asset Turnover Ratio: Total asset turnover ratio is used to measure operating performance. It is defined as the ratio between net sales and total assets. The ratio measures the revenue that is generated for every dollar of asset owned by the company. The formula for calculating the total asset turnover ratio is as follows:

Total Asset Turnover Ratio = Net Salesn / Average Total Assets

Where
Total Assets = Liabilities + Shareholders' Equity
Average Total Assets = Total Assetsn + Total Assetsn-1
n = Year

Fixed Asset Turnover Ratio: Fixed Asset Turnover Ratio measures the revenue that is generated by the company/management per dollar of fixed assets. The formula for fixed asset turnover ratio is as follows:

Fixed Asset Turnover Ratio = Revenuen / Average Fixed Assets

Where
Fixed Assets refer to Property, Plant and Equipment
Average Fixed Assets = Fixed Assetsn + Fixed Assetsn-1
n = Year

It would be perfectly natural in this sort of PPT presentation to use "n" and "n-1" in preference to words.

16:19 Feb 2 

Thanks Peter..yes we can put in brackets

14:47 Feb 2 

Any reason not to use "n" and "n-1" in your translation?