fongibilité

English translation: saleability

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

French term or phrase:	fongibilité
English translation:	saleability
Entered by:	Lydia Smith

22:47 Aug 8, 2002

French to English translations [PRO]
Bus/Financial / Property

French term or phrase: fongibilité

I have found some references to this on Eurodicautom so I vaguely understand what it means in a financial context BUT I am translating some copy for a brochure advertising holiday apartments in France and the rest of the text has all been very lightweight and flowery. This is the sentence (talking about the company):
"Ces critères de qualité concourent à faire de nos résidences des ensembles remarqués et des produits parfaitement reconnaissables. Notre stratégie volontariste garantit aux propriétaires une ligne de produits cohérente et leur assure la fongibilité et la valorisation de leur patrimoine."

Lydia Smith KudoZ activity Questions: 200 (none open) (3 without valid answers) (1 closed without grading) Answers: 1
Local time: 04:22

saleability/saleable/fungible

Explanation:
I don't find an exact word for fongibilité,exception made of "fungible".The meaning is that the residences are built and managed in such a way that they can be easily sold.Fungible means exchangeable for another thing that reflects value.Usually this is said about money.
Hope it helps.

Selected response from:

MikeGarcia
Spain
Local time: 05:22

Grading comment

Thank you. I didn't actually use the term "saleability", but your explanation (can be easily sold) helped me the most. Thanks also to Valerie (can't I give you points too?!) for suggesting that I turn the sentence round instead of using clumsy nouns.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

4 +3

Fungibility

Cinta Cano Barbudo

4 +1

saleability/saleable/fungible

MikeGarcia

3 +2

exchangeable/ exchangeability

writeaway

commutablity

R.J.Chadwick (X)

4 +1

assures them the value of their investment and the possibility to sell on short notice

kostan

readily marketable

rkillings

interchangeability

Francis MARC

assures them the value of their investment and the possibility to sell on short notice

kostan

Answers

4 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +3

Fungibility

Explanation:
This is the term. Don´t you like it?

Just suggesting...

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Note added at 2002-08-08 22:53:24 (GMT)
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interchangeability

Cinta Cano Barbudo
Spain
Local time: 05:22
Native speaker of:

Italian,

Spanish

Grading comment

I don't like it as it is too obscure for this context

The asker has declined this answer
Comment: I don't like it as it is too obscure for this context

8 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

saleability/saleable/fungible

MikeGarcia
Spain
Local time: 05:22
Native speaker of:

Spanish
PRO pts in pair: 175

Grading comment

19 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

exchangeable/ exchangeability

Explanation:
A suggestion.
If it is a time-share property or something like that, then exchangeability could well apply.

fungible:
(law) of goods or commodities; freely exchangeable for or replaceable by another of like nature or kind in the satisfaction of an obligation.
This is also what I saw in Websters.

google
. Look for a property that meets your needs. ... them to change the week they visit for the property ... the demand for the period involved governs its exchangeability. ...
www.officeonweb.com/suite102/faq.htm - 16k

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Note added at 2002-08-09 06:11:07 (GMT)
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(Just for the sake of accuracy, my dictionary reference is the Oxford dictionary, not Websters...)

writeaway
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in pair: 2913

5 hrs confidence:

commutablity

Explanation:
“Fungible/fungibility” appear to be extremely rare terms in English (though not, apparently, in French), and hardly anyone would know what you were talking about if you used them. For that reason, in a translation it might be better to either find some equivalent but more current expression or to gloss the phrase in a precisely literal manner.

The dictionary definition of fungible is as follows:-

fun·gi·ble Pronunciation Key (fnj-bl)
adj.
1. Law. Returnable or negotiable in kind or by substitution, as a quantity of grain for an equal amount of the same kind of grain.
2. Interchangeable.

n.
Something that is exchangeable or substitutable. Often used in the plural.

[Medieval Latin fungibilis, from Latin fung (vice), to perform (in place of).]

fungi·bili·ty n.

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

From this it would seem that “interchangeable and/or substitutable for other commodities” more or less covers the meaning.

For this meaning there is an existing English word i.e. “commutable/commutability”.

The following set of definitions from

http://machaut.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/WEBSTER.page.sh?PAGE=287

directly relate “commute/commutable/commutableness/commutability/commutation/commutative” to an economic context and thereby suggest that this might be a good and intelligble translation of the French term.

Commutability
n. The quality of being commutable.

Commutable
a. [L. commutabilis.] Capable of being commuted or interchanged. The predicate and subject are not commutable.

Commutableness
n. The quality of being commutable; interchangeableness.

Commutability
<n. The quality of being commutable.

Commutable
a. [L. commutabilis.] Capable of being commuted or interchanged.
The predicate and subject are not commutable. Whately.
Commutableness

n. The quality of being commutable; interchangeableness.

Commutation
n. [L. commutatio: cf. F. commutation.]
1. A passing from one state to another; change; alteration; mutation. [R.]
So great is the commutation that the soul then hated only that which now only it loves. South.
2. The act of giving one thing for another; barter; exchange. [Obs.]
The use of money is . . . that of saving the commutation of more bulky commodities. Arbuthnot.
3. (Law) The change of a penalty or punishment by the pardoning power of the State; as, the commutation of a sentence of death to banishment or imprisonment.
Suits are allowable in the spiritual courts for money agreed to be given as a commutation for penance. Blackstone.
4. A substitution, as of a less thing for a greater, esp. a substitution of one form of payment for another, or one payment for many, or a specific sum of money for conditional payments or allowances; as, commutation of tithes; commutation of fares; commutation of copyright; commutation of rations. Angle of commutation (Astron.), the difference of the geocentric longitudes of the sun and a planet. -- Commutation of tithes, the substitution of a regular payment, chargeable to the land, for the annual tithes in kind. -- Commutation ticket, a ticket, as for transportation, which is the evidence of a contract for service at a reduced rate. See 2d Commute, 2.

Commutative
a. [CF. F. commutatif.] Relative to exchange; interchangeable; reciprocal. -- Com*mut"a*tive"ly, adv.
Rich traders, from their success, are presumed . . . to have cultivated an habitual regard to commutative justice. Burke.

A web search for “commutable” in co-occurrence with “commodities” and other economic concepts will reveal that the term already has a certain currency in English such that it would do as a translation for the French term -- but I will not bore you with the raw results of my investigations in that regard.

P.S. If there is anyone who has an objection to the way I operate in these pages (always with good intention and good humour) then they should direct their comments to me personally and transparently rather than in the form of snide and boarish ad hominem remarks which reveal little more than an inadequate personality best dealt with by a pyschiatrist.

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Note added at 2002-08-09 03:57:17 (GMT)
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P.P.S. Otherwise I might just shift to the German section and leave you to your own devices.

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Note added at 2002-08-09 06:20:30 (GMT)
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On second thoughts I will bore you with a few raw results. “Commutable” and “commutability” often come up especially in relation to annuities, pensions, retirement funds, and life insurance investments. So it appears that “commutable” and “commutablity” do have a standard (if specialized) acceptation in certain investment contexts. Whether this parallels the use of “fongibilité” in French language contexts I do not know.

See:-

Personal Services - provisions for the payment of salaries, wages and other compensation (e.g., merit, salary increase, cost of living allowances, honoraria and COMMUTABLE allowances) of permanent, temporary, contractual and casual employees of the government.
(http://www.cats.edu.ph/~nscb5/glossary/glossary15.html)

It is not necessary for the member’s employment to fully cease and generally, a member would not be eligible for temporary incapacity benefits if they were receiving sick leave benefits. The cashing restriction is that the benefit must be paid as a NON-COMMUTABLE income stream.
http://www.ato.gov.au/content.asp?doc=/content/Professionals...

Commutation -- The giving up of part or the entire pension that would be paid at retirement in exchange for a lump sum. Applied to any exchange of a series of payments to which someone is entitled for a lump sum. In the case of approved pension arrangements the amount that is COMMUTABLE is strictly limited.

Commutation Factors -- Factors used to determine the amount of pension to be given up in exchange for a lump sum benefit.
http://www.grosvenor-butterworth.co.uk/glossary_c.html

But there are still a number of traps of which financial planners will need to be careful, particularly as clients may be investing in NON-COMMUTABLE products. If the adviser makes an error, clients may not be able to rearrange their portfolios.
http://www.cpaonline.com.au/Archive/9812/pg_aa9812_newsocial...

non-commutable -- in relation to an annuity or pension, this means it cannot be converted into a lump sum but must be taken as a series of periodic payments. See also annuity, commutation, pension
http://www.superannuation.asn.au/dictionary/myindex.htm

R.J.Chadwick (X)
Local time: 11:22
PRO pts in pair: 71

5 hrs confidence:

readily marketable

Explanation:
Seems to me "fungible" is far more common in English than "commutable". But in this text I'd scrap the noun and talk about the owners' properties being readily marketable, or something like that.

rkillings
United States
Local time: 20:22
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in pair: 3085

5 hrs confidence:

interchangeability

Explanation:
alternative if you don't like the previous propositions

general meaning of "fongibilité": one may be used in place of another in the satisfaction of an obligation

that means here that you're not trapped all your life long with your apartment bought at Nice and will be able later on to exhnage it for one in Megève.

Francis MARC
Lithuania
Local time: 06:22
Native speaker of:

French
PRO pts in pair: 6500

7 hrs confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

assures them the value of their investment and the possibility to sell on short notice

Explanation:
as suggestion

kostan
Austria
Local time: 05:22
Native speaker of:

German,

English
PRO pts in pair: 161

7 hrs confidence:

assures them the value of their investment and the possibility to sell on short notice

Explanation:
as suggestion

kostan
Austria
Local time: 05:22
Native speaker of:

German,

English
PRO pts in pair: 161

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English translation: saleability

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