Hi,

I'm trying to translate an old joke into French and was wondering if this works:

The original English version goes "Sure we lose money on each sale but make it up in volume!" But to make sense in French, I need to make sure a proper business term for success or profits is used. This is the best I could come up with but would happily accept any improvements.

Thanks,
Bob Wilson

Operation Iraqi Oil Freedom:

Automatic, stock, project car.

My other 1500 cc car:

Automatic, stock, backup car.
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My fiancee's daughter is married to a Frenchman, lives in France, and speaks fluent French. I'll e-mail her the text of your message and see if she can help out.

Jim

Lifetime fuel mileage:

After learning how to hypermile:

It works fine.

RFB
SAFRAN Group
Headquarters, Paris

It is the ignorant among us that will eventually destroy us all.

I'll give it a try:

"Sure we lose money on each sale but make it up in volume!"

"C'est certain que nous perdons de l'argent à chaque vente mais au moins on augmente notre volume"

Hope that help.

Soleil24
Quebec, Canada 06 HCH owner

Well, if you still need this, here is her response:

The translation's not too bad, but a little too word-for-word. I think it would be better if it said:

"Bien sûr nous perdons de l'argent sur chaque vente mais nous nous rattrapons en volume!"

The two identical words side by side (nous) are supposed to be there--it's not a typo.

Jim

Lifetime fuel mileage:

After learning how to hypermile:

Hummmm, I'm not sure because it needs to suggest a belief that profits will come with more volume of the 'losing money sales.' It is starting to get a little wordy (good jokes need to be brief.)

"Certainement nous perdons l'argent avec chaque vente mais faisons nos profite avec les volume !"

Too much Franglish?

"Certainement nous perdons l'argent avec chaque vente mais faisons nos profite avec plus ventes !"

Bob Wilson

Operation Iraqi Oil Freedom:

Automatic, stock, project car.

My other 1500 cc car:

Automatic, stock, backup car.
Free speech, dialog and knowledge thrives without the poison of SPAM.

Another try:

En continuant de vendre à perte nous finirons bien par faire de l'argent

It's hard to be shorter than this, french sentence are always longer to write then english one...

Soleil24
Quebec, Canada 06 HCH owner

Excellent, not bad at all. If we add something to imply guileless enthusiasm . . . there was a French character in literature, Christien(?), who like the "Mr. Bean" character goes from incident to incident but by shear luck and happy accident, seems to succeed:

"Bien sur, en continuant de vendre à perte nous finirons bien par faire de l'argent !"

Attributed to the dying British actor and director Sir Donald Wolfit, "Dying is easy, comedy is hard," attempts to transfer humor from one language to another is not easy. Now if we could just slip this into a politician's speech . . .

Thank you, everyone, for your help,
Bob Wilson

Operation Iraqi Oil Freedom:

Automatic, stock, project car.

My other 1500 cc car:

Automatic, stock, backup car.
Free speech, dialog and knowledge thrives without the poison of SPAM.