8 July 2013

FR > EN: using "ought" to translate "logiquement"

This from a text this morning:


Pullback en cours sur l’ancienne droite de tendance ascendante située à 1644.4 points cette semaine. Un redémarrage baissier doit logiquement suivre.

Pullback under way to breached uptrend line at 1644.4 points this week. Decline ought to resume subsequently.

 The Collins-Robert suggests using "should" as in the following example:

logiquement, il devrait faire beau (« normalement ») :  the weather should be good

"Ought to" and "should" are both noted in the OED as expressing probability but "ought to" to my mind seems closer to the idea of "logiquement", i.e. if logic is to be followed, this "ought to" happen. Moreover, "should" has more meanings than "ought to" so perhaps should not be used when a modal with more restricted meaning is available.

Successful conference in Spiez this year

Congratulations to all the organisers and participants of the summer school in financial translation, held in Spiez this year.

I attended excellent workshops on the translation of fixed-income commentary and marketing materials along with a review of latest IFRS changes. The plenary sessions were also informative; Michel Girardin was especially good, explaining to us how private banking works in Switzerland and making us laugh at the same time: a tall order indeed!

Looking forward to the next summer school (in Brussels next year).