French to German legal translation. Writing for German-speaking Swiss readers
A written submission from French-speaking Switzerland before a German-speaking court. General terms and conditions for the whole of Switzerland. The German text must use the words of the federal acts, in their Swiss spelling.
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Highlight a French word: CHnell shows the German version of the same federal text, with its source.
powered by Neur.onl'initié au sens de l'art. 161, ch. 1, CP doit être membre du conseil d'administration, de la direction ou de l'organe de révision, mandataire d'une société anonyme ou d'une société dominant cette société anonyme ou dépendant d'elle, membre d'une bourse, fonctionnaire ou auxiliaire de l'une de ces personnes.
Insider im Sinne von Artikel 161 Ziffer 1 StGB kann nur sein, wer Mitglied des Verwaltungsrats, der Geschäftsleitung, der Revisionsstelle, Beauftragter einer Aktiengesellschaft oder einer sie beherrschenden oder von ihr abhängigen Gesellschaft, Mitglied einer Börse, Beamte oder Beamter oder Hilfsperson einer der vorgenannten Personen ist.
GS-EFD FF20116329 Botschaft-zur-Änderung-des-Börsengesetzes-Börsendelikte-und-Marktmissbrauch - Source: fedlex.admin.ch - Data Set: Neur.onPolitique de rémunération selon le droit de la société anonyme en vigueur Une société anonyme peut rémunérer les membres de son conseil d'administration sous forme de tantièmes ou d'indemnités.
Aktienrechtliche Entschädigungspolitik unter geltendem Recht Eine Aktiengesellschaft kann ihre Verwaltungsräte entweder in Form von Tantiemen oder in Form von Entschädigungen entlöhnen.
EFV FF20088027 Botschaft-zu-einem-Massnahmenpaket-zur-Stärkung-des-schweizerischen-Finanzsystems - Source: fedlex.admin.ch - Data Set: Neur.onUne société de participation financière sous forme de société anonyme gère les participations de la Confédération aux sociétés anonymes.
Die Beteiligungen des Bundes an den Aktiengesellschaften werden durch eine Beteiligungsgesellschaft in der Form einer Aktiengesellschaft des privaten Rechts gehalten.
SR-934.21 BGRB-LEAC-LIAC - Source: fedlex.admin.ch - Data Set: Neur.onThe official equivalents, in all four languages
The vocabulary of companies and contracts, in the exact form of the German, French and Italian versions of the Code of Obligations. The English column gives the Confederation's translation published on Fedlex where one exists, which has no legal force, and the usual wording otherwise.
| German | French | Italian | English | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aktiengesellschaft | société anonyme | società anonima | company limited by shares | art. 620 CO |
| Verwaltungsrat | conseil d'administration | consiglio d'amministrazione | board of directors | art. 707 CO |
| Generalversammlung | assemblée générale | assemblea generale | general meeting | art. 698 CO |
| Revisionsstelle | organe de révision | ufficio di revisione | external auditor | art. 727 CO |
| Bürgschaft | cautionnement | fideiussione | contract of surety | art. 492 CO |
| Schadenersatz | dommages-intérêts | risarcimento del danno | damages | art. 107 CO |
Equivalents taken from official Swiss texts, published in German, French and Italian. In Corrext, each term opens in context in Fast lookup CHnell, with its source.
This language pair in practice
Most Swiss cantons administer justice in German. A written submission, general terms and conditions or a ruling drafted in French must therefore also exist in German. That version uses the terms of the federal acts: the ones a German-speaking reader recognises and the ones the court will cite.
The word already exists
Every concept in the Code of Obligations has an official German term in the version published alongside the French text. The translator does not choose between several synonyms: they use that term. Both versions can be read side by side in Fast lookup CHnell, each with its reference.
What gets converted
COOR
Abbreviations to convert
CO becomes OR, CC becomes ZGB, CP becomes StGB, LP becomes SchKG, LDIP becomes IPRG. The Banking Act becomes BankG, not a guessed abbreviation of Bankengesetz.
ßss
Never ß
Swiss Standard German always writes ss: Strasse, Abschluss, gemäss. A text delivered with ß shows at once that it was not written for Switzerland. The rule also applies to headers, tables and file names.
15'000
Amounts and dates
Thousands keep the apostrophe (15'000), and amounts stay in Swiss francs. Format conversions break financial tables more often than vocabulary errors do.
forGerichtsstand
False friends from French-speaking Switzerland
The ‘for’ of a contract (its place of jurisdiction) is a Gerichtsstand, not merely a place (Ort). An administrative appeal is not a Rekurs in every procedure. These slips come from the French of France or from cantonal usage.
What Corrext guarantees for this pair
Two native languages
French and German are two of the four native languages of LexMachina, trained on more than 15 million Swiss legal and financial segments. Together with Italian and English, they are also the only languages available in Highly sensitive content mode.
Consistency over time
The same term must be rendered the same way in the contract, its annexes and the amendments signed six months later. CHnell's terminology resources carry these choices from one project to the next.
Compounds to rebuild
Where French lines up four words, German expects a single compound: obligation de réparer le dommage becomes Schadenersatzpflicht. A literal word-for-word rendering reads like a translation.
Three moments when a German version is expected
Litigation
A French-language submission, filed in German
The prayers for relief and the case citations are converted first: ATF becomes BGE, CO becomes OR. The legal review then focuses on the argument, which must read like a text written in German.
Companies
General terms and conditions for the whole of Switzerland
A jurisdiction clause, a prescription clause and a contractual penalty clause leave no room for interpretation: they use the terms of the Obligationenrecht. Consistency between the two versions is checked line by line.
Authorities
A press release for two language regions
The German text must appear on the same day, in the same register. Translation projects organises the internal review and calculates the time needed from the number of standard pages detected.
Frequently asked questions about French to German translation
Should the text be in Standard German or Swiss German?
In Standard German, in its Swiss variety. Swiss German is a spoken language: no legal text is drafted in dialect. Swiss Standard German uses ss instead of ß, an apostrophe in thousands, guillemets as quotation marks and the vocabulary of the federal acts.
How do you avoid terms from German or Austrian law?
By starting from Swiss texts rather than a general-purpose corpus. LexMachina is trained on Swiss law, and any doubtful term can be checked in Fast lookup CHnell, which shows the official segment, its source language and its reference. A term that appears in no Swiss text has no place in the document.
Can both language versions of a contract be authoritative?
The parties can agree on that, and it is common for a bilingual Swiss contract. It requires a term-by-term check of both versions, because a difference in wording becomes a difference in law. Double review & certified translation is the review level designed for this case.
Can we require our company's own terminology?
Yes. Fast lookup CHnell covers 30 domains drawn from official sources, and your own resources can be added, with private or shared access. Your in-house terms then appear in later translations, with their context.
Where is the document processed?
Storage is in Switzerland in every case. With LexMachina or in Highly sensitive content mode, processing is too, and the content is not reused as translation memory. Third-party engines, hosted abroad, trigger the Attorney-Client privilege notice, which reminds users of your organisation's policy: the document must be pseudonymised.