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French to English translations [PRO] Bus/Financial - Management / Management manual
French term or phrase:direction/service/département
I know I'm supposed to post 1 term at a time but the problem is I'm not sure of the difference between these 3 terms. Is it: directorate / division / department? I have quite a lot of context (below) but I'm just not sure how to word it. Any help greatly appreciated :)
Context:
"Direction: Premier niveau de décomposition organisationnelle de la société
(Direction > Service > Département / Pôle)
Service: Niveau supplémentaire de décomposition organisationnelle
( Direction > Service > Département / Pôle)
Département: Subdivision d'une direction ou d'un service. Le responsable hiérarchique du responsable de département a la possibilité de lui déléguer des pouvoirs : management, signature.
(Direction > Service > Département > Pôle)"
I suggest that you take any three terms that make sense to you: division, department, section, (sub-section), unit,....
Personally, I would avoid directorate unless your client is the EU.
The main thing is to be consistent within your text. No-one in the outside world can tell whether a French "service" is 3 people or 300 just from the word alone - ditto an English department.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 24 mins (2008-06-16 10:17:04 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
FWIW it's worth, on the face of it, I would probably go for dept -> section -> unit in your example
(someone else might reverse unit and section)
Divisions can be actual separate companies (not always), and might be interpreted as such.
Honestly, just scout around the web looking for big companies and see what they call their levels - the variety is endless :-)
Right, Charlie, except maybe if the culprit is a very charming young lady, one could perhaps sentence her to a little pole dancing, as an educational way to make amends ;)
This especially applies if you've found that anyone has translated "Pôle" as "pole". Call the police and insist that this person has their computer confiscated.
If any do exist, and you think they're usable, you can use them as a basis which should be acceptable to the client; if you don't like any you find, check with your client first whether it's OK to override them.
As Charlie says, no hard and fast rule -- *except* that it's always worth asking, and/or doing your own research, to find whether any English terms may have already been used anywhere in the organisation or its literature (esp. web site).
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Answers
19 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +1
no hard and fast rule
Explanation: You've got the info you need :-)
I suggest that you take any three terms that make sense to you: division, department, section, (sub-section), unit,....
Personally, I would avoid directorate unless your client is the EU.
The main thing is to be consistent within your text. No-one in the outside world can tell whether a French "service" is 3 people or 300 just from the word alone - ditto an English department.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 24 mins (2008-06-16 10:17:04 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
FWIW it's worth, on the face of it, I would probably go for dept -> section -> unit in your example
(someone else might reverse unit and section)
Divisions can be actual separate companies (not always), and might be interpreted as such.
Honestly, just scout around the web looking for big companies and see what they call their levels - the variety is endless :-)
Charlie Bavington Local time: 08:54 Specializes in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 16
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +1
