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Subject:RE: Spacing in French From:"France Baril" <France -dot- Baril -at- ixiasoft -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 27 Jan 2005 10:43:35 -0500
Lisa, I'm a bilingual writer, I write documentation in French and English. I am surprised by your comment/question because I have never noticed any major differences in the right edges alignments. Then again, maybe I'm just used to it.
Words are not that much longer in French. A French text is usually no more than 30% longer then the English version and part of that difference comes from the fact that we need more words to express the same thing.
I can't really help you without looking at the text, but I can offer to take a look at your document. Just send it to me to this address. I'll be happy to give you my French humble opinion.
[For comparison purposes, here is the French version of this message...]
Lisa, je suis une rédactrice bilingue, j'écris de la documentation française et anglaise. Je suis surprise par votre commentaire/question parce que je n'ai jamais noté de différence marquée dans l'alignement du texte du côté droit des documents. Remarquez, que je m'y suis peut-être simplement habituée.
Les mots français ne sont pas tellement plus longs. Un texte français dépasse rarement de plus de 30% sa version anglaise, et une partie de cette différence provient du fait que nous devons utiliser plus de mots pour exprimer la même chose.
Je ne peux vraiment vous aider sans avoir vu le texte, mais je peux vous offrir de jeter un oeil à votre document. Il me fera plaisir de vous offrir mon humble opinion de francophone.
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