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  3. General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters

par précaution

02:04 Dec 2, 2015
This question was closed without grading. Reason: Other

French to English translations [Non-PRO]
Bus/Financial - General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters / Correspondence
French term or phrase: par précaution
This appears in the following line at the beginning of a correspondence:
"Lettre recommandée avec accusé de réception par précaution".

Any assistance will be appreciated.
Julius Ngwa
Canada
Local time: 11:24


Summary of answers provided
3as a backup / backed up by / for security
B D Finch
4 -1leave it out
James A. Walsh


Discussion entries: 2





  

Answers


8 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
as a backup / backed up by / for security


Explanation:
Your choice of term for translation depends partly on how formal the letter is, e.g. is it a business or legal letter or a letter to a friend or colleague where this precaution is simply to ensure they get the letter and anything sent with it.

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Note added at 8 hrs (2015-12-02 10:05:15 GMT)
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If it's informal, then "just in case" might be appropriate.

B D Finch
France
Local time: 17:24
Works in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 136

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  writeaway: not as a back-up. just as a precaution. it's no more complicated than that.
1 min
  -> I think that, in this case, back-up and precaution are practically synonymous.
neutral  AllegroTrans: it may be a formal requirement to state this
14 hrs
neutral  Julia Burgess: We need more context to be sure; back-up may not be formal enough
23 hrs
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9 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): -1
par précaution
leave it out


Explanation:
I'd be inclined to weed it out as a redundancy since it's implicit that an "acknowledgment of receipt" is a precaution, and I don't think it needs to be expressed in the English.


    Reference: http://tinyurl.com/oyq6tc3
James A. Walsh
Spain
Local time: 17:24
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in SpanishSpanish
PRO pts in category: 8

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  writeaway: It doesn't have to be in the French either, but it is. Not sure it's the translator's call
2 hrs
  -> Fair point, and one I've also considered. But I still find it pointless to replicate in the English since it's superfluous so adds nothing to the sentence.
disagree  AllegroTrans: It may be highly important (legally) to state "as a precaution" so I don't think you can presume to leave this out
12 hrs
  -> If it was a highly important legal concept, I would have thought it would have more than 8 Google hits: http://tinyurl.com/pgljehl And since a "registered letter" and "acknowledgement of receipt" are both legal documents, what does it add? Nothing, IMO.
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