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Blood relations in the ascending line
around 7
Dec 15, 2009 12:35
15 yrs ago
2 viewers *
English term

metric system

English Other Art, Arts & Crafts, Painting design, architecture, art, history, general
Should I be translating measurements in the metric system into the Imperial system for a French to American English translation project?
Responses
4 +11 depends
4 +1 système métrique
5 yes, but...
References
Using both is more normal than I thought
Change log

Dec 15, 2009 12:50: writeaway changed "Language pair" from "French to English" to "English to French"

Dec 15, 2009 12:50: writeaway changed "Language pair" from "English to French" to "French to English"

Dec 15, 2009 12:51: writeaway changed "Language pair" from "French to English" to "English" , "Field" from "Art/Literary" to "Other"

Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

Non-PRO (1): Charlesp

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Discussion

David Vaughn Dec 15, 2009:
Imperial I completely agree with R Colin that for a US catalogue, both cm & inches should be used (when the original measurements are in cm). But remember that the US doesn't use Imperial units of measurement - probably not a factor here if you're not dealing with volume or liquids.
Raoul COLIN (X) Dec 15, 2009:
metric/Imperial measures your translation will be read by some people used to Imperial measures. How ill at ease will they be with measures unknown to them.

The way I do in my own translations it is to put side by side both measures. In this case, because of the "mixed audience" I would put the metric measures first and between brackets the Imperial. For a general audience I would round up the Imperial measures with an "about" in front, whether it is rounded up to the nearest or half units.
For a technical paper, only the exact conversions should be used.

And when I do the conversions myself, once I have done and written them, before sending the paper, I do then again a second time for the ticklish one. On Interner there are a lot of conversion tools to help with that.
djberger (asker) Dec 15, 2009:
Thank you so much - that solves it. I'll keep it in meters, with the technical entries in the back of the catalogue to be updated with both units of measurement (inches in brackets). THANK YOU!
Françoise Vogel Dec 15, 2009:
maintain original (agree with David's explanation) People will know the exhibition is in Europe; they will have to comply with local measurements. And accuracy is essential.
David Vaughn Dec 15, 2009:
Maintain original If you simply translate to inches, you will be falsifying the level of accuracy. If for example you have 20cm, how do you translate it? At best the original implies a level of accuracy at plus or minus a half centimeter. If you translate as 7.9 inches, you are implying an accuracy of one twentieth of an inch. If you translate as 8 inches, your accuracy is a half inch. Which is best? Neither. The only solution is to keep the cm and perhaps add inches in brackets. Remember also that for a US catalogue, much of the audience will be foreign. Inches will mean nothing.
writeaway Dec 15, 2009:
This is not a Fr-En question I have moved this to the En-En site. This isn't a Fr-En question and it may be helpful to hear advice from a broader spectrum of native En speakers
djberger (asker) Dec 15, 2009:
It's for an exhibition catalogue - French version is complete with all measurements for objects/spaces/areas included, but I am not sure if standard practice for such things is to translate all measurements as well - it's not just for an American audience, it's for a European, Asian, etc. audience but it will be in American English.
Stephanie Ezrol Dec 15, 2009:
It depends both on the subject matter and the intended audience. A more technical audience and/or subject matter might expect the use of the metric system. Can you give us some more context?

Responses

+11
7 mins
Selected

depends

If you're talking size of works of art, I would definitely leave the metric measurement - with an inches size in brackets. That way the relative accuracy (and level of error) of the metric measurement is maintained, and it is clear the inch measurements are more approximate.
For other measurements - kilometres, etc, the NY Times also gives the metric, with a miles in brackets or parentheses.
Peer comment(s):
agree Stephanie Ezrol : I checked a few similar documents and they all give both. Metric than inches in brackets.
12 mins
Thanks, Steph. Yes, I think using both will best serve the international audience of most exhibitions large enough to have a catalog.
agree Yasutomo Kanazawa
15 mins
agree Dominique Broady
17 mins
agree Rolf Keiser
23 mins
agree Jenni Lukac (X)
53 mins
agree Mark Nathan
1 hr
agree Charlesp
2 hrs
agree jccantrell : I tend to leave the original. If you do it without direction by the client and you make a mistake, watch out and make sure you are insured!
2 hrs
agree Verginia Ophof
3 hrs
agree Sabine Akabayov, PhD
6 hrs
agree eski
7 hrs
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Selected automatically based on peer agreement."
+1
4 mins

système métrique

I'd translate measurements yes
Peer comment(s):
agree mimi 254 : i'd also say
3 mins
Something went wrong...
2 hrs

yes, but...

yes, do also provide the conversions (in paren), but if you are talking about volume, do not use the Imperial system. (Not sure when, but sometime after the Revolution, which we can thank the Frenchman Beaumarchais for helping to finance, the US stopped using the Imperial system).

One reason to make the conversions is that it can assist the reader to learn metric measurements, and become more international. So you'd be doing them a service.

But keep the metric, because when measurements are stated in generalities, they look odd when converted to specific fractions (eg "I walked like 10 kilometres to get there," doesnt work in "I walked like 6.21371192 miles to get there" - even if it is rounded to 6.22 miles).
Something went wrong...

Reference comments

25 mins
Reference:

Using both is more normal than I thought

I googled

"art exhibit" +centimeters +meters
Example sentence:

The Army Corps of Engineers is creating an underwater sand dune to shelter the Queen Anne's Revenge, which sits about 26 feet (8 meters) underwater off the North Carolina coast.

Reference:

http://mpa.gov/pdf/cultural_resources/c-n-h-news-vol3-2-0206.pdf

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