French translation services & French interpreter services
BS EN ISO 17100-accredited SME-friendly French translation services – professional, qualified, mother-tongue, fully-reviewed
BS EN ISO 18841-accredited SME-friendly French interpreter services – helpful, qualified, experienced
– Notarized & certified French translation
– French copywriting and typesetting
– French multimedia – voiceover, subtitling …
French translation services have been core business since 1990, with over 14 million source words of French-English & English-French translation delivered. With our own French subsidiary in the beautiful Grand Est of France, we’re also Members of the French Chamber of Great Britain.
We price to be the most cost-effective we can to assure you of the best professional translators and interpreters. That means if you really, really just want the cheapest solution, it probably isn’t us – but before leaving, do check out these examples of low-cost “professional” translation – and yep, every one is real.
Our expert mother-tongue French translation services go to and from Spanish, Chinese, English and German, Dutch, Polish, Russian and more, all professionally translated and fully proof-read as standard – not an extra-cost option.
We’ve a great client base and reputation particularly in engineering, logistics, insurance, legal, healthcare, environmental, and health & safety translation.
Notarized & Certified French translation
Official business? You need certified translation in the UK, or sworn in France. Both validate your stuff for official use (we also notarize for legal purposes).
Not business at all? Don’t worry, we’ve helped hundreds of private individuals and families with certified and sworn documents – more info here.
“The French doctors commented particularly on the high quality of translation.”
– nationwide solicitor group
SME-friendly French language services
With over 30 years’ experience in a wide range of sectors and specialisms we now handle most subjects, and with 3,000+ professional confidentiality-assured partners, and our built-in double review process – included in the translation price – we know our French translation will be spot-on. And that’s the case whether the you need translation of a tender, technical manual, brochure or legal contract.
In the same way our expert French interpreter services, drawing on our wide network of highly-experienced well-qualified professional interpreters across the UK and Europe, will ensure that your interpreting need – whether meetings, training, a site visit or something else – is delivered smoothly, cost-effectively and hassle-free.
As exporters ourselves, we’d love more SMEs to win the export success you deserve. So our SME-friendly pricing assures you of great quality and great service. Even if you’ve never bought translation or interpreting before, don’t worry – our helpful expert PMs are here to help.
Check out this press release to see how well that’s working for this SME.
French typesetting and multimedia
Need that translation in a Quark brochure or Illustrator flyer? How about as a training video or cool animated presentation? Our multilingual typesetting and multimedia services are just what you need. With SME-friendly pricing and decades of experience, what’s not to like? And it’s all in-house too – unlike most providers we don’t subcontract your stuff to the cheapest supplier.
Our other French language services
As well as translation and over 600 French interpreter assignments (as far away as The Gabon!), we’ve delivered 100s of hours of French transcription together with reams of press-ready French typesetting. Our French copywriting services are helping to bring visitors to trade shows and tourism destinations all over Europe.
Our French translation secret weapon!
We actually own a French translation company – Cabinet UTP, based in Metz in the Grand Est of France. Established in 1987 UTP has a fantastic team of outstanding mother-tongue French interpreters and translators, with a broad base of expertise across a wide range of topics meaning we can hand-pick for your project the very best professional French linguists, carefully selected for experience in your sector and material!
Interested in French translation services for your business?
Here’s a few useful things to know.
French has a number of peculiarities it’s well worth knowing – not least, so that you don’t assume our French punctuation is wrong, and “correct” it in your new French catalogue! Yes, that’s happened…
This matters.
The national language of France, French is also spoken in Canada, Belgium, Monaco and Switzerland, parts of Africa, Haiti, and many more. This makes French a popular exporters’ choice, but be aware that translation quality matters more in French exporting than any other language. “Le français” is adored by its millions of speakers – it’s even legally protected by the unique Académie française – and poor French really WILL cost sales – not to mention that it’s likely to find itself all over French social media, and not in a good way…
Swiss French is also surprisingly different to French French – so make sure you use the right translator. We provide both Swiss French and French French translation.
French translation punctuation & grammar
Is particular, and a real minefield for the non-professional. Just a few examples include non-breaking spaces before colons : & semicolons ; – exclamation ! and question marks ?.
A dead giveaway for amateur translation and formatting is the presence of just a : or ; or ? or ! at the start of a line – this SHOULD have stayed with the word it follows!
“Speech marks” are different, appearing as « this » (note spaces) but ‘this’ for reported conversation. UPPER CASE is much less used than in English (except in SURNAMES, where it’s de rigueur) – “French” for example becoming “français”. Commas and points in numbers also switch – so 234.56 becomes 234,56 – but there’s a lot more to correct number and currency formatting in French than that!
Accents on letters matter enormously, actually changing the meaning of the word – and it’s VERY important to note that a number of fonts – especially “designer” fonts created for a company – often lack the required accented letters. If in any doubt – at ALL! – do get your document proofread!
Ask Us a Question Get a Free QuoteFrench typesetting services
English to French translation can grow 30%; this, along with unique French punctuation and many accented characters, makes French typesetting a minefield for the unwary – our French proofreading finds errors in 90% of others’ French typesetting that clients ask us to check. Many commercial fonts simply don’t include the French characters needed – which may go unnoticed by inexpert eyes in the UK, but will really hurt your business in France!
Don’t cut corners on French typesetting – it’s likely to waste your translation expenditure and will hurt your sales badly. We offer fully-proofread professional French typesetting in Quark, Illustrator, InDesign and more, recent projects including technical brochures, food packaging, health and safety training and much more.
French interpreter services
Our expert French interpreter services don’t just cover the UK – we’ve interpreted as far away as The Gabon, as well as in many less remote places. We provide liaison, conference, remote and medical French interpreter services, the insurance and health & safety sectors both being large users. Our (free!) Really Helpful Friendly Guide to Interpreting offers lots of useful tips.
Notarized and certified French translation
Certified translation is the UK equivalent to Europe’s “sworn translation”. To be able to certify translation a translator needs excellent qualifications and experience, and is normally a full member of either the CIoL or the ITI.
Non-UK use may require sworn or notarised translation, or a Consulate-registered translator – see our certified page for more info.
French transcription services
Our French transcription services are popular for research and legal applications. We can provide French transcription as both mono- and bilingual (so with French to English translation). French transcription for legal use in the UK generally needs certification, as above.
French voiceover or subtitling
Most providers offering “French voiceover” services are much more interested in recording and video than in translation accuracy.
Not us. We’re first and foremost a translation company, so accuracy is key. We translate and review all our French subtitling and voiceover scripts ourselves, with every word translated by professional mother-tongue translators and reviewers. So our French voiceover doesn’t just sound good – it IS good. And our French subtitling is to the same high standard. There’s more information on our voiceover page.
Length is a key factor in French voiceover. A French translation from English can easily grow 30%, so if you’re making video that will need French voiceover it’s a good idea to allow extra space for this longer translation. Also do make sure your translator is familiar with French voiceover translation – it’s really not like ordinary translation! You’ll find more advice on French voiceover in our Really Helpful Friendly Voiceover Guide.