Auftrag vs. Bestellung

English translation: purchase order

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

German term or phrase:	Bestellung
English translation:	purchase order
Entered by:	Kim Metzger

13:52 Oct 20, 2001

German to English translations [PRO]
Bus/Financial

German term or phrase: Auftrag vs. Bestellung

Both words are translated as order, but that wouldn't work in my text. *Lieferbedingungen f. Werkzeuge. 1. Auftragverteilung. Ein Auftrag gilt erst als erteilt, wenn er von uns schriftlich bestätigt ist. Einmal erteilte Bestellungen sind unwiderruflich.*

Kim Metzger KudoZ activity Questions: 1189 (none open) (10 closed without grading) Answers: 15751 Mexico
Local time: 19:46

order / purchase order

Explanation:
I've often been faced with this, and that's how I get around it.

Best,

Steve

Selected response from:

Steve Martin
Germany
Local time: 03:46

Grading comment

Thank you.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

4 +3

Just a bit more info ...

Mary Worby

Hi Kim, ...

Beate Lutzebaeck

4 +1

order / purchase order

Steve Martin

3 +1

Order, order (!)

patpending

commission / order

Klaus Dorn (X)

Auftrag : A job, assignment, task, mission

1964

2 +1

order / purchase order

Steve Martin

a vote for "order" and "order"

Dan McCrosky (X)

Answers

6 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

Order, order (!)

Explanation:
Kim, from the sense of this I would use "Order" to translate both.

When an "Auftrag" is "erteilt" it becomes an "erteilte Bestellung"

- so unless we are talking about a Pokémon-style evolution here I guess the word order covers both....

pat

Reference: http://www.pokemonvillage.com/

patpending
Local time: 02:46
PRO pts in pair: 51

6 mins confidence:

commission / order

Explanation:
to order something - to give in commission...would that work?

Klaus Dorn (X)
Local time: 04:46
Native speaker of:

English,

German
PRO pts in pair: 1514

9 mins confidence:

Hi Kim, ...

Explanation:
There is no reason why you shouldn't translate both Auftrag and Bestellung as "order", as they refer to the very same thing in this section of your text (and mean the same in general, anyway).

Experience

Beate Lutzebaeck
New Zealand
Local time: 13:46
Native speaker of:

German,

English
PRO pts in pair: 2079

10 mins confidence:

Auftrag : A job, assignment, task, mission

Explanation:
But Bestellung: order in my opinion first one Auftrag takes a job to complete a delivery not an order itself or there are two order
1 order : real comerrcial
2 other is a "command" type "order "

1964
Türkiye
Local time: 04:46
Native speaker of:

Turkish
PRO pts in pair: 101

50 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

order / purchase order

Explanation:
I've often been faced with this, and that's how I get around it.

Best,

Steve

Own experience

Steve Martin
Germany
Local time: 03:46
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in pair: 159

Grading comment

Thank you.

52 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

order / purchase order

Explanation:
order / purchase order

I've often been faced with this, and that's how I get around it.

Best,

Steve (this second posting because of my mistake up there in the confidence level)

Own experience

Steve Martin
Germany
Local time: 03:46
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in pair: 159

1 hr confidence:

peer agreement (net): +3

Just a bit more info ...

Explanation:
As far as I have always seen it, an Auftrag is a specific job, where as a Bestellung is a purchase order for this job.

It's not uncommon for me to receive an e-mail from a company in Germany saying 'Auftrag bestätigt - Bestellung folgt'. I've always read it as the Auftrag is the 6000 words on left-handed knitting, while the Bestellung is the piece of paper confirming they want you to to those 6000 words.

So ...

A job shall be deemed to have been confirmed when we have confirmed it in writing. Purchase orders, once submitted, shall be irrevocable.

HTH

Mary

Mary Worby
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:46
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in pair: 2770

11 hrs confidence:

a vote for "order" and "order"

Explanation:
I agree with the others who said that we need not make a distinction here between "Auftrag" and "Bestellung". The alternative, "purchase order" for "Bestellung", is quite correct but not necessary, just like the distinction between "Auftrag" and "Bestellung" was not really necessary.

The terms "purchase order", like "sales order", only make it clear who wrote the document. The "purchase order" is written by the buyer and accepted/confirmed by the seller. The "sales order" is written by the seller and accepted/confirmed by the buyer.

As a matter of fact, there might be one very good reason NOT to try to make a distinction here:

We translators often write because we have received an order / purchase order from the person/business/organization who/which wrote the original German source text. The real target group in your case though, is not the person/business/organization who/which wrote the text and placed the order / purchase order with you, but rather the people who will read the translated text. This is especially true if the members the target group are end consumers who might know even less about all this terminology than we do.

If two different words are used, the reader could quite easily also wonder why the difference is being made or if possibly, two different things or documents are meant (just like we experts are doing here). The reader might be unnecessarily confused by such writing. I'm sure the last thing your "Auftraggeber" wants to do is confuse the readers of the translated text.

BTW, I would feel uncomfortable with "confirming a job", I believe we confirm orders, not jobs.

HTH

Dan

Dan McCrosky (X)
Local time: 03:46
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in pair: 1541

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