This site uses cookies. Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site, while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used. For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
Cookie settings
confortable
mise au vent
This question was closed without grading. Reason: Answer found elsewhere
Mar 29, 2013 17:55
11 yrs ago
60 viewers *
French term

intervenant

Non-PRO French to English Bus/Financial Business/Commerce (general)
The explanation given for an intervenant was:

Intervener. Quelqu’un qui intervient pour faire un travail.

Ressource = groupe dans laquelle sont regroupés des intervenants faisant un certain type de travail.

This mostly concerns service desk activities (service support and service delivery), managing company assets (inventory) and related financial information.
......................................
The word is being used in various contexts for a business/inventory application:

Le profil "SUPERVISEURS", regroupant les intervenants administrateurs de l’application, ne peut
pas être supprimé.

Une ressource financière est un regroupement d'intervenants disposant de droits spécifiques pour gérer les documents financiers (Ex : Validation de demande d'achat).

I was thinking of operator - but it sounds too related to machines to me, operant?, or operative? - not sure if it sounds strange in a company context.
Proposed translations (English)
3 Facilitator
3 employee
2 +1 participant
3 work party member
References
zillions of choices

Discussion

AllegroTrans Mar 30, 2013:
Calm! This is becoming a highly emotional situation too. Vera, have a look at my reference entry and make a reasoned choice. We can't do this for you.
Tony M Mar 29, 2013:
@ Vera Well, in that case, you clearly have not given enough context for this highly exceptional situation to be apparent; I have obviously based my comments solely on the limited amount of text you have chosen to reveal to us, perhaps you could give us some other examples that support your argument and counter my own suggestions.
Tony M Mar 29, 2013:
@ Vera There is no "same role" of intervenant anywhere; it doesn't mean that, it just refers to 'one who is involved in something' (in a work sort of way) — hence you will almost certainly need a different word for your meeting (where 'participant' might indeed be suitable) and for you other occurrences.

This is the sort of term where an elementary word-for-word approach simply doesn't work, and the sentence in the target language will need to be carefully re-crafted for each instance in order to get round the problem and produce a translation that sounds both natural and idiomatic in English.
veratek (asker) Mar 29, 2013:
Using multiple terms would be terrible, because they are referring to the same role of intervenant all throughout the documents, even though the context varies.
AllegroTrans Mar 29, 2013:
My suggestion, offered professionally and politely is to use a Thesaurus to select the best word in each particular case, there is as Tony has already said, no "one-size-fits-all" solution.
AllegroTrans Mar 29, 2013:
It isn't rocket science but it is a matter of using lateral thinking and fitting the correct English word to the context within which the French term (which has a very broad meaning) is used.
Because this is a process that will be highly dependent on context, the field or industry concerned and the wide variety of possible expressions in English, I wonder whether this is really a suitable question for this forum.
Sheila Wilson Mar 29, 2013:
One word? I would have thought that after a long history of KudoZ questions, with a range of answers, it would be unlikely that anyone's suddenly going to pull a rabbit out of a hat. Unless you'd be happy with "worker", which I suppose would sort of fit all cases.
veratek (asker) Mar 29, 2013:
@Jennifer - employee I think not because of this:Quelqu’un qui intervient pour faire un travail. It's not just someone qui travaille, but it's more action-related. I had started out with inventory assignee, but that's too narrow, because then I found out it's not just inventory-related, so I thought of "responder," but that's also too narrow. Employee and worker seem too broad, that's why I was thinking along the lines of operator...
Tony M Mar 29, 2013:
This is one of those words... ...where there simply isn't a "one-size-fits-all" solution; you will need to find a different solution for each local context in which it occurs, as clearly illustrated by the first two examples you mention.

Please see previous KudoZ entries for a number of suggestions and/or workarounds.

Proposed translations

5 mins

Facilitator

IMHO
Note from asker:
for doing inventory? no, it doesn't work in this context
Peer comment(s):
neutral Tony M : Not really; certainly, some of the 'intervenants' might be facilitators; but one couldn't say that all intervenants = facilitators.
7 mins
neutral Verginia Ophof : mediator, maybe ?
2 hrs
Something went wrong...
16 mins

employee

The word "intervenant" is one of those vague French words that really need to be translated to a more specific English word based on the context. Since this looks like it's all internal to a company, would "employee" work?
Peer comment(s):
neutral Tony M : Probably risky; it is conceivable that someone might be an 'intervenant' in some given situation, without necessarily being anyone's employee; that's the whole trouble, the term is SO general and has SO many context-dependent meanings...
5 hrs
Something went wrong...
+1
1 hr

participant

suggestion
Note from asker:
These are not participants.
Peer comment(s):
agree Tony M : Could certainly work in at least some instances; in general contexts, this is often a good solution, but still needs to be used with some care.
3 hrs
Thank you Tony, but I agree with your advice on "treat with some care"
Something went wrong...
31 days

work party member

Clearly, this could only be used in certain very specific situations, but I cam across it as a translation of 'intervenant' the other day while researching something else, and it occurred to me that in certain contexts it could fit very well.
Something went wrong...

Reference comments

6 hrs
Reference:

zillions of choices

Definition: person who takes part in activity
Synonyms: a party to, actor, aide, assistant, associate, attendant, colleague, contributor, helper, in, member, partaker, participator, partner, party, player, shareholder, sharer

Definition: person active in interest
Synonyms: addict, admirer, aficionado, believer, buff, bug*, bum*, devotee, eccentric, fan, fanatic, follower, freak, habitué, lover, maniac, monomaniac, nut*, optimist, participant, partisan, rooter, supporter, votary, worshiper, zealot
Antonyms: critic, detractor, pessimist
* = informal/non-formal usage
Main Entry: entrant
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: person entering competition, starting new activity
Synonyms: aspirant, beginner, candidate, competitor, contestant, convert, entry, incomer, initiate, neophyte, new member, newcomer, novice, participant, petitioner, player, probationer, rival, solicitor, tenderfoot
Antonyms: fan, spectator
Main Entry: entry
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: person participating in competition; effort
Synonyms: attempt, candidate, competitor, contestant, entrant, participant, player, submission
Antonyms: fan, spectator
Main Entry: follower
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: person who believes or has great interest
Synonyms: addict, adherent, admirer, advocate, apostle, attendant, backer, believer, bootlicker, buff, client, cohort, companion, convert, copycat, devotee, disciple, fan, fancier, freak*, habitué, hanger-on, helper, imitator, lackey, member, minion, parasite, participant, partisan, patron, promoter, proselyte, protégé, pupil, representative, satellite, sectary, servant, sidekick, stooge, supporter, sycophant, toady, vassal, votary, worshiper, zealot

Main Entry: partner
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: person who takes part with another
Synonyms: accomplice, ally, assistant, associate, buddy, chum*, cohort, collaborator, colleague, companion, comrade, confederate, consort, coworker, crony, date, friend, helper, helpmate, husband, mate, pal*, participant, playmate, sidekick*, spouse, teammate, wife

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 6 hrs (2013-03-30 00:12:29 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Main Entry: entry
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: person participating in competition; effort
Synonyms: attempt, candidate, competitor, contestant, entrant, participant, player, submission
Antonyms: fan, spectator
Main Entry: follower
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: person who believes or has great interest
Synonyms: addict, adherent, admirer, advocate, apostle, attendant, backer, believer, bootlicker, buff, client, cohort, companion, convert, copycat, devotee, disciple, fan, fancier, freak*, habitué, hanger-on, helper, imitator, lackey, member, minion, parasite, participant, partisan, patron, promoter, proselyte, protégé, pupil, representative, satellite, sectary, servant, sidekick, stooge, supporter, sycophant, toady, vassal, votary, worshiper, zealot
Antonyms: leader
* = informal/non-formal usage
Main Entry: partner
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: person who takes part with another
Synonyms: accomplice, ally, assistant, associate, buddy, chum*, cohort, collaborator, colleague, companion, comrade, confederate, consort, coworker, crony, date, friend, helper, helpmate, husband, mate, pal*, participant, playmate, sidekick*, spouse, teammate, wife Main Entry: entry
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: person participating in competition; effort
Synonyms: attempt, candidate, competitor, contestant, entrant, participant, player, submission
Antonyms: fan, spectator
Main Entry: follower
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: person who believes or has great interest
Synonyms: addict, adherent, admirer, advocate, apostle, attendant, backer, believer, bootlicker, buff, client, cohort, companion, convert, copycat, devotee, disciple, fan, fancier, freak*, habitué, hanger-on, helper, imitator, lackey, member, minion, parasite, participant, partisan, patron, promoter, proselyte, protégé, pupil, representative, satellite, sectary, servant, sidekick, stooge, supporter, sycophant, toady, vassal, votary, worshiper, zealot
Antonyms: leader
* = informal/non-formal usage
Main Entry: partner
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: person who takes part with another
Synonyms: accomplice, ally, assistant, associate, buddy, chum*, cohort, collaborator, colleague, companion, comrade, confederate, consort, coworker, crony, date, friend, helper, helpmate, husband, mate, pal*, participant, playmate, sidekick*, spouse, teammate, wife

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 6 hrs (2013-03-30 00:42:18 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

a person who joins with others in some activity or endeavor;
compeer, equal, peer, match - a person who is of equal standing with another in a group
adjunct - a person who is an assistant or subordinate to another
affiliate - a subordinate or subsidiary associate; a person who is affiliated with another or with an organization
ally, friend - an associate who provides cooperation or assistance; "he's a good ally in fight"
bedfellow - a temporary associate; "politics makes strange bedfellows"
cooperator, pardner, partner, collaborator - an associate in an activity or endeavor or sphere of common interest; "the musician and the librettist were collaborators"; "sexual partners"
confrere, colleague, fellow - a person who is member of one's class or profession; "the surgeon consulted his colleagues"; "he sent e-mail to his fellow hackers"
co-worker, colleague, fellow worker, workfellow - an associate that one works with
fellow member, member - one of the persons who compose a social group (especially individuals who have joined and participate in a group organization); "only members will be admitted"; "a member of the faculty"; "she was introduced to all the members of his family"
participant - someone who takes part in an activity
shipmate - an associate on the same ship with you
teammate, mate - a fellow member of a team; "it was his first start against his former teammates"

3. associate - a person with subordinate membership in a society, institution, or commercial enterprise; "associates in the law firm bill at a lower rate than do partners"
subordinate, subsidiary, underling, foot soldier - an assistant subject to the authority or control of another
Peer comments on this reference comment:
agree writeaway
8 hrs
Something went wrong...
Close search
Term search
  • All of ProZ.com
  • Term search
  • Jobs
  • Forums
  • Multiple search