Intermark Language Services Corporation

The Legal and Financial Translation Experts

Since 1995

  • HOME

  • ABOUT

  • CLIENTS

  • TESTIMONIALS

  • BLOG

  • PUBLICATIONS

  • CONTACT

  • CONTACT

    © 2018 by Intermark Language Services Corporation, USA Tel. (423) 305-1413

    • Twitter App Icon
    • LinkedIn App Icon

    Defining Terms in German Contracts

    March 1, 2015

    It is customary to define important terms in contracts in English by capitalizing them.

     

    Thus, for example, we might find the following:

     

    This End User License Agreement (the “Agreement”), consisting of the terms and conditions set forth below,  is made and entered into as of the 25th day of January, 2015  (the “Effective Date”), by and between ABC, Inc., a corporation organized under the laws of Delaware (hereinafter referred to as “Vendor”) and XYZ, Inc.,  a corporation organized under the laws of Oregon (hereinafter referred to as “End User”). Vendor and End User shall be collectively referred to herein as the “Parties” and shall sometimes individually be referred to as a “Party.”

     

    The problem when it comes to translating contracts into German is that all nouns in German are capitalized. From reviewing contracts originally drafted in German, I believe that one way around this is to use the prefix "Vertrags-" before the defined terms. So instead of translating the "Parties" (wih a capital P) as die Parteien, we could translate it as die Vertragsparteien.

     

    Instead of translating the items defined as the "Products" as die Produkte, we could translate it as die Vertragsprodukte.

     

    Instead of translating the defined territory in which the Products are allowed to be distributed (the "Territory") as das Gebiet, we could translate it as das Vertragsgebiet.

     

    Unfortunately this won't work in every case, but I mention it because it has a very important implication for translators from German to English: When you see die Vertragsparteien or die Vertragsprodukte or das Vertragsgebiet in a German contract, you can translate them into English simply as the Parties, the Products and the Territory. The initial capital letter in English "translates" the German prefix "Vertrags-". This also keeps you from having to write clumsy things like "the Contractual Products," which is not very likely to appear in English (since lawyers use capitalization instead to define which products are covered by the contract).

     

     

    Tags:

    german

    german legal translation

    Please reload

    Featured Posts

    What are the U.S. Government requirements for translated immigration documents?

    June 15, 2016

    The French They Never Taught You 1: Connaître means more than you know!

    February 2, 2015

    Our new Trilingual Swiss Law Dictionary

    May 15, 2017

    1/10
    Please reload

    Recent Posts

    Our new Trilingual Swiss Law Dictionary

    May 15, 2017

    The points of the compass in Spanish

    May 13, 2017

    "Civil" in Spanish is not always "civil" in English

    May 11, 2017

    The Spanish adjective caribeños is different

    May 9, 2017

    In Spanish "aspecto" can mean "respect" instead of "aspect"

    May 4, 2017

    Spanish Translators Sometimes Have to Leave Words Out

    May 1, 2017

    What are the U.S. Government requirements for translated immigration documents?

    June 15, 2016

    The French They Never Taught You 23: bouche, feuille

    April 30, 2016

    Unexpected meanings of "contrastar" and "verificarse"

    March 14, 2016

    A Weekend of Legal Translation Seminars in Seattle

    March 10, 2016

    Please reload

    Archive

    May 2017 (6)

    June 2016 (1)

    April 2016 (1)

    March 2016 (6)

    February 2016 (3)

    October 2015 (1)

    September 2015 (1)

    July 2015 (8)

    May 2015 (1)

    March 2015 (5)

    February 2015 (17)

    January 2015 (24)

    December 2014 (2)

    July 2008 (1)

    Please reload

    Search By Tags

    Afrikaans

    Ecuador

    Quebec

    Spain

    Spanish

    Spanish legal translation

    Spanish translation

    chile

    court costs

    french

    french legal translation

    french prepositions

    german

    german legal translation

    italian

    legal latin

    legal translation

    portuguese

    spanish

    spanish legal terms

    spanish legal translation

    teaching translation

    Please reload

    Follow Us
    • Facebook Basic Square