Blog
Field notes on English to French translation for institutions, NGOs and law firms.
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Net Zero at the Scale of One Desk
I started four times this article about joining the SME Climate Hub, and deleted it four times. In March, Words We Trust became a signatory of the SME Climate Hub, the small-business pathway into the UN-backed Race to Zero campaign. The commitment is public and specific: halve emissions before 2030, reach net zero before 2050, report progress every year. In June, a newsletter landed in my inbox celebrating a milestone: the community is now ten thousand small businesses strong. Ten thousand. And me, at one desk in Nice, wondering whether I belonged in that number, and whether saying so out…
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The Invisible Decisions That Keep One Health Whole in French
The words for One Health already exist in French. Keeping the concept intact — ecocentric, dynamic, credited — was the actual job. One Health was built to tear down walls. Between human medicine and veterinary science. Between plant health and the health of the rivers, soils and forests that hold everything else up. The whole point of the framework is that these were never separate in the first place. So there is a quiet irony in what happens when the concept crosses into French. The hardest part of the work is not finding the words. The hardest part is refusing…
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Reading the PPED Backwards: A Translator’s Reading of the French and English Draft Articles
I was reading 18 articles. Two versions of one text, English and French, each in the language of a different legal tradition. I read the French, then I read the English, and I realized they were not saying the same thing. Not because anyone made a mistake. Because the two versions, at several points, make different choices about what needs to be said explicitly. I wanted to know whether those choices were the drafters’ or the languages’. The International Law Commission’s Draft Articles on the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters, the text on which the General Assembly…
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How the CAT Tool Is Costing You Credibility
You know the feeling. You don’t speak French fluently, but you have a bilingual colleague skimming the French translation of your annual safeguarding report. They stop and frown. “Is it wrong?” you ask. “No,” they say, hesitating. “Grammar and terminology are good. Numbers match.” “So it’s good?” “It’s compliant, but… it doesn’t flow. It sounds… tired.” The description of a translation that has passed every Quality Assurance check but failed its only real purpose: impact. The uncomfortable truth: You hired a human specialist. Then you gave them a workflow designed for a machine. And in French, that workflow is a…
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I Stopped Searching for Translation Jobs. Now They Find Me Every Morning.
Most freelance translators know the ritual. You wake up, coffee in hand, and open five browser tabs (at least). For me, it was ReliefWeb, UNJobs, ProZ, my LinkedIn saved search, and whatever new board someone mentioned in a Discord server last week. You scroll and skim. You click through 20 postings to find one that matches your language pair and your specialization. By the time you’ve researched the opportunity well enough to draft a credible bid, it’s lunchtime. And you haven’t translated one word. I did this for years. Nine hours a week of mixed non language work: some of…
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Vicarious trauma in translation work: why duty of care matters
It is 11:00 AM on a Tuesday in a quiet home office in Lyon. The coffee is lukewarm and the street outside is silent, save for a passing delivery van. On the screen, however, the world is ending. The translator—let’s call her Elena—is working on a witness statement from the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. She is not weeping nor trembling. She is debating syntax. Now she pauses over a verb. The witness describes the sound of a machete hitting a door frame. In French, should this be frapper (to strike) or s’abattre (to crash down with weight)? The…
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When Ebola Posters Failed: What I Learned Translating Life or Death Instructions
Picture a poster on the wall of an Ebola treatment center in Guinea, 2014. It shows the symptoms to watch for: fever, vomiting, diarrhea, bleeding. It lists what to do: wash hands, avoid contact, seek help. It carries a message that, in communities where touching the dead is a sacred duty, asks the unthinkable: do not wash the body of your loved one. The poster was translated from English into French, and the words were accurate. But in a village where French is a third or fourth language, where literacy rates hover around 30%, where people are afraid, and where…
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Humanitarian Translators as First Responders
Seventy-two hours after the earthquake, the field hospital begins to fill. The patients aren’t arriving with crush injuries anymore; they are arriving with the first, shivering signs of infectious disease. Rumors metastasize in five languages. The water is poisoned. The aid workers are stealing children. In the chaos, a doctor in dirty boots scribbles a health advisory in English. She hands it to a local staffer—a bright young woman who speaks “good English”—and tells her to get it out. The staffer translates it into the lingua franca, but she halts over a specific idiom. She stares at the word. She…
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Quality is not a happy accident: it’s engineered
Stop treating translation like a gamble. Discover why high-quality translation is an engineered outcome based on industrial standards like ISO 17100 and precise specifications, and learn how professional workflows protect your global brand from liability and revenue loss.
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CORPORATE VOICE : English vs FRench
English corporate communication tends to pull everyone toward the center. French pushes them to the edges. If you read the corporate blog of a major American multinational, you might notice a pattern. The CEO sounds friendly and accessible. The CTO sounds approachable and simple. The Ombudsman sounds helpful and polite. In the Anglosphere, modern corporate communication has gravitated toward a universal register: “Professional-Friendly.” A democratic style where accessibility is king and hierarchy is softened. Everyone is encouraged to “sound like a human,” which, in practice, often means: shorter sentences, warmer plain verbs, fewer formal markers, more “I,” more “we,” more…
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Working With a Translator: When the Project Manager Checks Out
Part of the series “Working With a Translator: A Guide for Clients” You send your files to the agency. You get translations back.Some are fine. Some are… strangely flat. Some cause problems three months later when a parent complains, or a donor queries a sentence in your report. On paper, there’s a “project manager” looking after all this. In practice, that person can either be your best ally… or the invisible reason your translations always feel a bit off. This article is about the second kind: the checked-out, lazy, or overwhelmed PM — and how you, as the client, can protect your…
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Between Home and Elsewhere: Domestication and foreignization in translation
Every translator knows the feeling: you hit a sentence and think, Do I make this sound like it was written here, or do I let it sound like it travelled? For EN–FR translators, project managers and revisers, that question is where readability, ethics, and cultural risk collide. That tension sits at the heart of one of translation studies’ best-known debates: domestication and foreignization in translation. These two labels, popularized by Lawrence Venuti (drawing on a line that goes back at least to Schleiermacher), describe how far a translation leans toward “home” or “elsewhere”. In practice, these are the forces we…
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When Legal Systems Don’t Match
This article is based on personal notes, professional experience, and research in comparative legal translation. It is offered as a supportive resource for fellow translators, revisers, and multilingual professionals navigating legal systems. You’re welcome to share or reference this work — with proper attribution to Words We Trust. Please note: this content does not replace legal advice or institutional guidance. Every translator and client remains responsible for verifying the appropriateness, accuracy, and contextual suitability of the terms and approaches used. Legal texts carry consequences, and due diligence — including consultation of client glossaries, official sources, and relevant jurisdictional norms — is always essential. Two Systems, Two…
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What Clients Should Know Before Asking for Legal Translation
Legal translation isn’t only a service. It’s legal infrastructure. It connects jurisdictions, enforces obligations across borders, and upholds the integrity of international frameworks. At Words We Trust, we work with lawyers, NGOs, international institutions, and compliance teams to ensure their documents are translated with clarity, precision, and legal integrity. Here’s what every client should understand before requesting legal translation. 1. Legal systems don’t map one-to-one There is no such thing as a universal legal language. A French fiducie may resemble a common law “trust,” but the systems they belong to are built on different foundations. Civil law and common law…
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Working With a Translator: The power of retainers
Part of the series “Working With a Translator: A Guide for Clients” Why a retainer? In today’s fast-paced global ecosystem, language is not just a medium—it’s your frontline asset. Whether you’re shaping policies, launching campaigns, managing legal disclosures, or rolling out humanitarian assessments, clarity across languages isn’t optional. It’s fundamental. But here’s the difference between translating and truly communicating: proximity. What if your translator wasn’t just a contractor, but a trusted partner—embedded in your team? That’s the power of long-term language consultancy. A retainer isn’t just a billing model—it’s a relationship. It ensures you have a dedicated linguist on hand…
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Working With a Translator: More Than Polish
Part of the series “Working With a Translator: A Guide for Clients” What is proofreading really? Proofreading is often misunderstood as a simple spellcheck. But at Words We Trust, we know it’s far more than that. ✅ It’s the final safeguard before your content reaches the world.✅ It’s the difference between being understood and being overlooked.✅ And sometimes, it’s what protects your reputation, your budget, or even your credibility. It’s the final step to ensure your message is sharp, accurate, and professional. Precision that preserves meaning Whether we’re fixing a jumbled metaphor or a misplaced comma, the goal is always…
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It’s Never Just Translation
Part of the series “Working With a Translator: A Guide for Clients” Translation is often seen as a mechanical act: a message in one language becomes a message in another. But for professionals who live and breathe the craft, it’s anything but simple. At Words We Trust, we don’t just carry words—we carry intent, emotion, nuance, field expertise and trust. That’s why we say: It’s never just translation. Every translator knows the thrill of landing on a phrase that really works— feels natural, precise, and full of life. That’s not luck — it’s the result of practice, subject-matter expertise, and…
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Translating crisis communications : to AI or not to AI
As wars and climate-driven disasters displace millions, speed is everything. Humanitarian responders are turning to AI-powered translation tools for rapid, multilingual crisis communication, broadcasting evacuation orders, medical guidance, and aid instructions across linguistic divides in seconds. But if speed is the vehicle, what/who, exactly, is steering? Because in high-stakes scenarios where clarity can save lives and nuance carries emotional weight, the margin for error isn’t just technical. It’s ethical. The hidden risks of AI translation in crisis Despite its syntactic prowess, AI still struggles with dialects, emotional register, and the cultural context that renders language human. A phrase like “You are eligible…
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Migration Regulation Updates: What Translators Need to Know
(Last updated: March 2026) The global migration landscape demands precision and understanding. And humanitarian translators stand at a critical intersection, tasked with ensuring clarity and accuracy in documents that directly impact lives. From interpreting complex legal frameworks to conveying urgent needs, our work shapes access to vital resources and protection. This article is a migration regulations update that explores recent regulatory shifts in key regions, providing practical guidance to navigate challenges and uphold the highest standards of ethical practice. While Words We Trust specialises in EN→FR translation, migration law does not follow language pairs. French-speaking translators regularly work with source…
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Translating for accessibility and inclusion
Language shapes how we see the world and holds the power to foster inclusion, amplify voices, and break down barriers. For LSPs, translators and revisers, this responsibility takes on greater significance when addressing sensitive topics like disability. Beyond political correctness, it’s about preserving dignity, promoting understanding, and ensuring equitable access to information. As we approach the International day of Persons with Disabilities on December 3rd, I’d like to explore how thoughtful translation practices align with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) — notably Goal 10 (Reduced Inequalities) and Goal 17 (Partnerships for the Goals). Person-first language: people before labels Person-first language puts the individual before the disability, emphasizing humanity…
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Translating the Target 3 Guide into French
I’m Gladis, an EN–FR translator. Biodiversity conservation is one of the fields I work in, and one of the ones I care about most. This post is about translating the Guide to Inclusive, Equitable and Effective Implementation of Target 3 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework into French, and about what happens when the experts who will use a translation are the ones reviewing it. About me I’m a specialized translator: a DipTrans, an RNCP Level 7 diploma in EN–FR translation (master’s level), another in EN–FR legal translation, and a BA in international relations. I also hold certificates in a…
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Environmental responsibility in our workspaces and homes
As a sole proprietorship and fully remote company deeply committed to social and environmental responsibility, Words We Trust views environmental stewardship as an endeavor that extends beyond the traditional office setting to create a sustainable workspace and home; we recognize the impact our individual choices have on the planet and actively encourage sustainable practices. This commitment is detailed in the company’s mission statement and reflected in our alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We weave environmentally conscious choices into our work on a daily basis. This includes: We believe that small, individual actions can significantly contribute to a larger…
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Upholding dignity: Sphere’s impact in 2023
We at Words We Trust have eagerly awaited the release of Sphere’s 2023 Annual Report, and it’s finally here. As specialists in translating complex humanitarian, legal, and development content, understanding Sphere’s initiatives and achievements is crucial for us. The Sphere Annual Report informs our translations and our support to projects that uphold the dignity and rights of crisis-affected individuals. We found some particularly notable achievements from the 2023 report to be the following: We also clearly see Sphere’s dedication to education and ongoing training in the array of events and the rollout of cutting-edge resources that extend the reach and…
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The true cost of cutting corners on translation: can you afford the risk?
The true cost of cutting corners on translation: can you afford the risk? Picture this: a mistranslated contract clause …
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More than just translations, we’re building a Business for Good
Have you ever considered the power of words to not only bridge cultures and share ideas, but also foster positive change? That’s the driving force behind Words We Trust (WWT). We’re more than just a translation service; we’re passionate about building a business that makes a real difference in the world. So we’ve established a clear framework for social and environmental responsibility. These commitments aren’t just a formality; they guide every decision in practice: 1. Commitment to social responsibility 2. Commitment to environmental stewardship The heart behind the business
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Putting raw emotions aside
This year and the one before, the world bore witness to some truly horrific acts of war, which challenged us all in ways we could never have imagined. As humanitarian linguists and communicators, one might expect us to focus on content directly related to aid. However, the reality of our profession demands that we work objectively across a wide range of fields — putting aside our raw emotions. Some content we translate is harrowing and carries a heavy emotional toll, yet it is essential in the global fight for justice and accountability. We have to learn to navigate these waters with professionalism,…
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Bridging communication gaps during sudden-onset crisis
Just two weeks ago, I shared a post on LinkedIn about the 6.8 magnitude earthquake that rocked Morocco to its core. However, this earthquake is just one among a series of devastating natural disasters that have struck the world this year. Earlier, we witnessed the catastrophic earthquake that shook Turkey and Syria, resulting in the loss of over 50,000 lives and displacing millions. And countless floods and fires wreaked havoc across the globe, leaving a trail of destruction and displacement in their wake — a stark and sobering reminder of the growing impact of climate change. When sudden-onset disasters occur, every second…
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Humanitarian Translation: Non-Native English Texts
Diversity in Humanitarian Communication When we talk about translating humanitarian content, we often focus on ensuring messages reach affected populations. But amplifyng the voices of the end beneficiaries is equally important. In the vast expanse of humanitarian work, a significant portion of content is generated in English by non-native English speakers. While this diversity in voices, experiences, and perspectives is invaluable, it simultaneously poses a unique challenge to the accurate and effective dissemination of ideas, which are vital in shaping policy, directing resources, and, ultimately, improving lives. The Challenge of Linguistic Interference The phenomenon known as ‘Linguistic Interference‘ manifests quite…
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A call for ethics and responsibility in humanitarian pro bono translation
Many novice translators volunteer to translate humanitarian content in order to gain experience and boost their CVs. But let’s be clear: effective humanitarian translation requires more than linguistic skills. We cannot translate what we don’t understand. Complex terminology and concepts are involved, and without in-depth knowledge, the risk of a mistranslation is very high. Mistranslation is never an option. As humanitarian translators, we are accountable to affected populations. To take on this responsibility, we need to – at the very least – understand the Core Humanitarian Standard, the Four Humanitarian Principles (Humanity, Neutrality, Impartiality and Independence), the Cluster System, the…
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Humanitarian translation experts/NGO collaboration: A win-win for impactful outputs
Part of the series “Working With a Translator: A Guide for Clients” When it comes to humanitarian action, the importance of effective communication cannot be overstated. As NGOs strive to reach and empower diverse communities around the world, the expertise of humanitarian translators becomes an essential asset. Why should NGOs engage directly with such experts, even when working through LSPs? To ensure exceptional end-products and maximize positive outcomes for end-beneficiaries. 🤝 🌐 Partnerships between NGOs and humanitarian translation experts are a powerful force for positive change around the world. By engaging directly with dedicated humanitarian translators, NGOs gain access to invaluable…
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Embracing the power of collaboration: A game-changing approach for translators and clients
Part of the series “Working With a Translator: A Guide for Clients” In this ever-changing world, it’s essential to stand out from the crowd. As a small LSP, we understand the challenges faced by translators and clients in our sector. Today, we touch on a game-changing idea: the transformative power of collaboration. Building trust and understanding One of the cornerstones of a successful translation project is building trust and understanding between translators and clients. Rather than seeing each other as separate entities, we propose a paradigm shift: a true partnership. By encouraging open lines of communication, actively listening to each…
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Staying up-to-date with CPD, or why I do it
The translation industry keeps changing as the world around us evolves, and technology too has played a large role in driving change. As a result, translators need to keep up with trends and technological advancements in order for us to remain relevant and competitive. One of the best ways to stay relevant is through continued professional development (CPD). In this article, I will tell you why it has been important to me, the benefits it can provide, the different types of education available, and how to choose the right program. The Changing Landscape The industry has undergone significant changes in…
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Legal translation or why you should use a specialized legal translator
Part of the series “Working With a Translator: A Guide for Clients” Legal translation is a type of technical translation, and translating between a common/law (English) system and a civilist/romano-germanic (French) system can be challenging due to significant differences in legal principles, terminology and procedures. However, with a deep understanding of both systems and specialized training, legal translators can translate accurately and effectively the common law notions from English into French without polluting them with civilist ones. Giving your legal texts to a specialized legal translator is important for several reasons: Accuracy: Legal texts are often complex and contain technical legal…
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New Interview
After having donated over a million words to humanitarian causes through TWB, I was approached by Swiss Global for an interview. As a humanitarian and legal translator, it was an opportunity to send a few critical messages to fellow translators. Read what I had to say here : https://swissglobal.ch/en/blog/translators-without-borders-words-for-a-good-cause/
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GDPR Compliance & Translation
Data processor: Words We Trust Do I collect and process client data? I do collect some data necessary for the purpose of quoting on jobs, providing translations and issuing invoices. Such data may include name, phone number and email address. As a linguist, it is important that my clients feel safe knowing I never use any collected data for promotional activities. In addition, I take special care when working on medical records, certificates and personal documents. Clients may ask to view, limit or delete their personal data at any time. Who is personal data shared with? Nobody. I never share…
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ISO 17100 – Translation services!
The quality standard ISO 17100 currently being discussed is based on the European standard EN 15038 and aims to establish top quality service requirements for translation agencies. According to ISO 17100 – Translation services, a translator should have one of the following: A relevant master’s degree or higher A degree plus full-time two years experience in translation 5 years full-time experience in translation Be government certified The production cycle should include: Translation – checked by the translator; Revision – by a reviser; Review – optionally to assess how suitable the translation is for the purpose/domain; Proofreading – optionally pre-publication; Final verification and release – verify against specifications and release. ISO…
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Why choose professional translators?
Part of the series “Working With a Translator: A Guide for Clients” Over machine translations? Simply because if you want to display, market or sell your product to a quality audience, you need to offer quality. Even if approaching a professional translator seems unnecessary, or you think it might affect your budget negatively, think again. It might give you the critical edge you need. A professional translator and/or proofreader can offer you many advantages over your competition:
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More about our specialty fields
We specialize in translating and proofreading the following fields: Internet governance & policies Government & public affairs Human rights Humanitarian development Nutrition & food safety Pedagogy/education Crisis relief NGOs and INGOs Law: General & contracts Humanitarian communication Semi-medical Social reports & studies Find out more about our Pro Bono work: We join hands with organisations working for peace and contribute our skills, knowledge and ideas on UN Volunteers and Translators Without Borders. Eligibility: Your organization must be an NGO, a civil society organization, or a United Nations agency. Civil society organizations need to provide documentation on their non-profit status. If you comply with our eligibility criteria, you may…
“Every word we translate carries purpose. Every line builds trust.”
Gladis Audi · Chartered Linguist (MCIL CL) · DipTrans · Access to Knowledge Empowerment Award 2018 · CIOL · ATA · SFT
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