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.

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