ne pas attendre

02:56 Feb 1, 2009

This question was closed without grading. Reason: Errant question

French to English translations [Non-PRO]
Bus/Financial - General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters

French term or phrase: ne pas attendre

I'm totally of two minds about this: Is the "ne" intended, or is it a false negative (which French is fond of, as in "craint de ne...").
This is a Board of Directors meeting in Dec 2008 considering how to deal with the possibility that their two new product launches may fail in the new year (as none of their usual customers have signed up to the products yet). The meeting's minutes record that: "Le President [CEO] insiste notamment sur l'importance de ne pas attendre la fin de l'annee en prenant les mesures qui s'imposent pour limiter les consequences liees a cette hypothese."
I think the "ne" is a typical false negative and that he's saying "We must not end the year by failing to implement measures to limit the consequences of the products failing."
I'd be grateful for thoughts :-)
(There is, by the way, no other context on this point.)

Rimas Balsys KudoZ activity Questions: 218 (1 open) (16 without valid answers) (13 closed without grading) Answers: 67
Local time: 14:43

Summary of answers provided

4 +4

(the importance) of not waiting (for)

Rebecca Davis

4 +2

not to wait

Rod Nelson

absolutly

bowse123 (X)

not waiting until

Clayton Causey

Discussion entries: 4

Answers

8 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

not to wait

Explanation:
I understand what you're saying about the "ne" in French (the pleonastic ne, if memory serves), but your example is "ne pas" and there's no ambiguity there, right?

Rod Nelson
Canada
Local time: 14:43
Native speaker of: English

10 mins confidence:

absolutly

Explanation:
you are correct!

bowse123 (X)
Local time: 17:43
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

French,

English

4 hrs confidence:

peer agreement (net): +4

(the importance) of not waiting (for)

Explanation:
The "ne" is correct, I think; you could translate this bit as "the importance of not waiting for the end of the year, by..."

Rebecca Davis
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:43
Works in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 20

10 hrs confidence:

not waiting until

Explanation:
Sometimes the French infinitive (attendre) should be translated to English in the gerund (waiting).

"The CEO stressed the importance of not waiting until the end of the year to take the measures necessary to curb the negative consequences of this proposal." Or something to that effect.

Clayton Causey
Native speaker of:

English

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