Me

English translation: Maître

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

French term or phrase:	Me
English translation:	Maître
Entered by:	Jana Cole

19:39 Dec 22, 2016

French to English translations [Non-PRO]
Law/Patents - Law (general)

French term or phrase: Me

I know that Me means Maître. My question is:

What is the best translation? If it's a woman, I understand it's "Ms." So, if it's a man, would "Mr." be improper?

Jana Cole KudoZ activity Questions: 656 (none open) (67 closed without grading) Answers: 7 United States
Local time: 08:10

Maître

Explanation:
This is a title to which French lawyers are entitled (it includes notarues and even bailiffs)

There is simply no equivalent in English - using Mr. or Mrs. etc. simply robs the person of the title and trying to concoct English legal titles (which we don't use in English) doesn't work

« Maître » est le prédicat accordé aux personnes exerçant certaines professions juridiques.

Sommaire

1 Règles d'utilisation
2 Usages officiels
3 Notes et références
4 Voir aussi
4.1 Articles connexes
4.2 Liens externes

Règles d'utilisation

Son abréviation est Me (par exemple : Me Martin). L’abréviation de maîtres (au pluriel) n'est pas utilisée en France, on formule : Me Legrand et Me Lepetit[réf. nécessaire]. Par contre, en Belgique1 et au Québec on utilise Mes : Mes Dumas et Duverger2.
Usages officiels

En France, il y a plusieurs professions juridiques qui peuvent porter le prédicat de Maître : les notaires, les avocats, les huissiers de justice, les commissaires-priseurs judiciaires, les avocats aux conseils, les greffiers de tribunaux de commerce, les mandataires et liquidateurs judiciaires, et il y a peu, les avoués (profession supprimée en France).

Ces juristes perdent le prédicat de civilité commun (Monsieur, Madame) tout au long de leur exercice, exception faite en justice, devant les tribunaux, lorsqu’ils ne comparaissent pas dans l’exercice de leur fonction.

Avant la nomination du juriste, son prédicat est Madame ou Monsieur.
Pendant son exercice : Maître.
À la cessation de son activité, il reprend son prédicat d’avant sa nomination. Il ne pourra se refaire appeler Maître que s’il a reçu l’honorariat par ses pairs.

Au Québec, seuls les avocats et notaires peuvent se faire appeler Maître. Le juriste doit être membre du barreau ou de la Chambre des notaires pour utiliser l'appellation.

En Suisse romande, dans l'usage, les titulaires du brevet d'avocat, inscrits ou non au barreau, peuvent se faire appeler Maître dans la correspondance.

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Note added at 3 hrs (2016-12-22 22:54:38 GMT)
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Noun

Maître m ‎(plural Maîtres)

a title given to lawyers and notaries public in France, Belgium, and Canada

Abbreviations

Me

See following website where there is no attempt to "translate" this title:

http://www.rita-massad-lepaul-solicitor-lawyer-french-rivier...

Selected response from:

AllegroTrans
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:10

Grading comment

4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

4 +2

Maître

AllegroTrans

4 +1

Mr, Esq., Ms

Tony M

Summary of reference entries provided

"Maître" or "Me"

Nikki Scott-Despaigne

Discussion entries: 7

AllegroTrans

United Kingdom

Ellen

23:41 Dec 23, 2016

I don't believe judges in France are addressed as "Maître"

Ellen Kraus

Austria

19:27 Dec 23, 2016

sorry, my entry went off too fast. Wanted to add the English equivalent, in case maitre is a judge, you would say "Your honour " Il n'y a pas de formule particulière pour s'adresser à un avocat. Pour un juge, on dit "your honour".

Ellen Kraus

Austria

19:19 Dec 23, 2016

Maître » est le prédicat accordé aux personnes exerçant certaines professions juridiques. On dit p.ex. Cher maître avocat

Tony M

France

@ Nikki

15:52 Dec 23, 2016

Actually, Nikki, that's not entirely true — it is NOT a specific qualification-based title (in which case, of course, I'd agree with you entirely) like for example Doctor or Professor; it is simply a coutersy title given to a number of professionals with differing qualifications; and even to a musician, whom in EN we might adress as 'Maestro'.

As such, there is no equivalent courtesy title at all used in EN, whence my argument for not using anything at all; though it does, of course, depend on the context — in what way is this form of address required to be used? In some contexts, it might be "My learned colleague", etc. etc. In a letter, one would almost certainly write "Dear Madam / Sir" — unless addressing them by their surname as well...

So I would generally not be in favour of simply using it as it is, untranslated — unless, for example, I was speaking to them in person and in FR.

Nikki Scott-Despaigne

Do not translate.

15:15 Dec 23, 2016

You cannot translate titles with any degree of accuracy. They are indicative of a professional qualification specific to a particular country. Just as you cannot translate legal qualifications as equivalent, so it is not possible to translate the professional titles which apply. The exercise is all the more complicated where the source country is based on the Roman legal system and the target country is based on the common law system. A "Maître" in France, the title used for both male and female 'avocats' (-es) and 'notaires', is a "Maître" elsewhere too. It underlines the fact that the qualification and the title applies in France only.
http://www.proz.com/kudoz/french_to_english/law_general/9659...

Jennifer Levey

Chile

19:57 Dec 22, 2016

If it's man, what else could it other than "Mr."?

The question reminds of one I saw (not here on proz.com) some years ago, "I know you address a French-speaking lawyer as "Cher maître"; but if it's a woman, should I write "Chère maîtresse"? The 'best answer' was: only if you're in a hurry to get divorced!"

Jana Cole

United States

ASKER

19:54 Dec 22, 2016

Would it be improper to translate as "Mr"? Also, to be clear, would a woman have simply Maître in front of her name, without "Madame la"?

Answers

19 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

Me = Maître Mr, Esq., Ms

Explanation:
Of course it all depends how you want to use it; if it is simply a title before their name, then it needs to be Ms or Mr as appropriate. If you are addressing them, you might address them as Dear Sir (or Madam)

A rather dated title traditionally used for a man might be Esq. (= esquire), placed after the name.

Generally, in running text, in En it would be more natural to simply write "Jane Smith, defending, remarked ..."

So as you can see, there are many different things to take into account.

By the way, this has been discussed several times before, so it shoulc have come up in a term search. As the KudoZ search won't accept 2-letter terms, you can either search within KudoZ using Google, or else simply search for 'maître' which I feel sure will throw up some useful discussions.

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Note added at 22 minutes (2016-12-22 20:02:13 GMT)
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In answer to the second part of your question, confusingly about FR usage, no, you would NOT say 'Madame le maître'! 'Maître' is not a job tiltle, like Madame le maire ou Madame la présidente — the 'Maître' replaces the other forms of address like Monsieur or Madame.

Tony M
France
Local time: 17:10
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 258

2 hrs confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

Maître

AllegroTrans
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:10
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 1355

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)

neutral

Jennifer Levey: Recusation: You quote, as 'evidence', the quasi-English version of the website of a French lawyer. // But 'maître' DOES have perfectly-acceptable equivalents in English, in the same way as "M. le Juge ..." can properly be translated as "The Hon. Judge..."

47 mins

-> True, but I maintain that this is a title that cannot be translated; the French are punctilious about these things and would consider it to be very rude to simply downgrade a lawyer to Mr. Miss Ms. or Mrs

agree

Nikki Scott-Despaigne: This should not be translated. "Maître" is a title conferred upon 'avocats' and 'notaires' in France. As it is impossible to translate qualifications, it is also impossible to translate the titles acquired.

13 hrs

-> thank you

agree

B D Finch

16 hrs

-> thank you

Reference comments

19 hrs peer agreement (net): +1

Reference: "Maître" or "Me"

Reference information:
Either will do, but in formal address, great care needs to be taken. There are surnames (family names) containing "maître", "Le Maître", for example is a family name. And, as it is not uncommon, well, there are some rather appropriately named 'avocats'. Just check the directiry of the Paris Bar : http://www.avocatparis.org/annuaire !

Christophe LEMAITRE
No. de Toque D1280
Catégorie professionnelle Inscrit
Date de serment 28/05/2003

Emmanuelle LEMAITRE
No. de Toque D1964
Catégorie professionnelle Inscrit
Date de serment 21/03/2002

Marie-Hélène LEMAITRE
No. de Toque E1795
Catégorie professionnelle Inscrit
Date de serment 10/12/1997

Pascal LEMAITRE
Inscrit Tél.: 0145266134 Afficher plus d'information
5 RUE JULES LEFEBVRE 75009 PARIS Fax.: 0148744762
plan Itinéraire mail : [email protected]
Sophie LEMAITRE
Inscrit Tél.: 0147665119 Afficher plus d'information
4 AVENUE VAN DYCK 75008 PARIS Fax.: 0146225398
plan Itinéraire mail : [email protected]
Valérie LEMAITRE
Inscrit Tél.: 0140746800 Afficher plus d'information
12 RUE DE TILSITT 75008 PARIS Fax.: 0140746888
plan Itinéraire mail : [email protected]
France LEMAITRE BASSET
Inscrit Tél.: 0156697000 Afficher plus d'information
47 RUE DE MONCEAU 75008 PARIS Fax.: 0156697071
plan Itinéraire mail : [email protected]
Audrey MAITRE
Avocat non exerçant depuis le 31/07/2016 Tél.: Afficher plus d'information
Fax.:
plan Itinéraire mail :
Aurélie MAITRE
Avocat ayant quitté le Barreau le 13/09/2016 pour exercer au Barreau de Lyon Tél.: Afficher plus d'information
Fax.:
plan Itinéraire mail :
Grégory MAITRE
Inscrit Tél.: 0143066049 Afficher plus d'information
C O SCP BARADUC DUHAMEL
204 RUE DE VAUGIRARD 75015 PARIS Fax.: 0145673831
plan Itinéraire mail : [email protected]
Marièle MAITRE
Inscrit Tél.: 0664891102 Afficher plus d'information
5 RUE GUY MOQUET 75017 PARIS Fax.:
plan Itinéraire mail : [email protected]
Marie-Pierre MAITRE
Inscrit Tél.: 0156592959 Afficher plus d'information
81 RUE DE MONCEAU 75008 PARIS Fax.: 0156592939
plan Itinéraire mail : [email protected]
Stéphane MAITRE
Inscrit Tél.: 0158578398 Afficher plus d'information
21 RUE VIETE 75017 PARIS Fax.: 0158578397
plan Itinéraire mail : [email protected]

Etc, etc, etc.!

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Note added at 19 hrs (2016-12-23 15:27:48 GMT)
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THis means that some Paris 'avocats' can be addressed as "Maître" or even "Maître Maître" or "Maître Lemaître" orally, but in writing it would still be "Cher/-ère Maître".

Nikki Scott-Despaigne
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 451

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