Seeking help on translating technical terms

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Permalink Reply by Marc Vonhalmen on July 6, 2009 at 7:29pm

Did I make any mistake on translating following technical terms;
Me suis-je trompé en traduisant les termes techniques suivants?

information about reverse mergers
des informations sur les fusions inversées

public shell corporations
sociétés coquilles

IPO (Initial Public Offering)
Introduction en Bourse

start-up capital formation
formation d'un capital-investissement

market makers & public shell mergers
teneurs de marché & fusions coquilles

thanks in advance--> merci d'avance

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Permalink Reply by Stephen Liu on July 7, 2009 at 3:56am

Hi Marc,


Sorry I don't understand the structure of following sentence. Please explain :-
Did I make any mistake on translating following technical terms;
Me suis-je trompé en traduisant les termes techniques suivants?

According to;
http://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/suis
suis
1. Première personne du singulier de l'indicatif présent du verbe être.

What is "l'indicatif"? Thanks

trompé = misled/deceived


public shell corporations
sociétés coquilles

Is it "public" to be understood?


TIA

B.R.
SL

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Permalink Reply by Marc Vonhalmen on July 7, 2009 at 1:21pm

"tromper" = "to deceive", but the verb "se tromper" means "to make a mistake".
Je me suis trompé. I made a mistake.

"indicatif" is indicative. L'indicatif présent is the standard present tense (I am, you are, he is, ...)

For the public shell corporations, I had to look for the exact term on the internet, and they always referred to it as "coquilles" (without "public"), so I guess that's correct.

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Permalink Reply by Stephen Liu on July 7, 2009 at 2:05pm

Hi Marc,

Thanks for your advice.

Je me suis trompé
What is "me" here standing for?

"J'ai fait une erreur"
Does it have the same meaning? TIA

"J'ai fait des erreurs"
I made some errors/mistakes ?


B.R.
SL

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Permalink Reply by Marc Vonhalmen on July 7, 2009 at 4:38pm

The "me" is the "se" of "se tromper" for the first person. "se tromper" is a reflexive verb.
Je me trompe.
Tu te trompes.
Il se trompe.
Nous nous trompons.
etc.

Je me suis trompé.
Tu t'es trompé.
Il s'est trompé.
Nous nous sommes trompés.
etc.

J'ai fait une erreur has the same meaning, yes.

If you say "j'ai fait des erreurs", then you insist on the fact that you made several mistakes. You can also say "je me suis trompé" in this case, by the way.

J'ai fait une erreur = je me suis trompé = I made a mistake.
J'ai fait des erreurs = je me suis trompé = I made mistakes (is this correct?)

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Permalink Reply by Stephen Liu on July 8, 2009 at 10:31am

Hi Marc,

What is the difference in meaning between
Je me suis trompé

and
Je me trompe
?

Je me trompe = I'm wrong ? Thanks

Cordialement,
SL

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on July 8, 2009 at 2:59pm

The first one is the perfect tense, so generally means "I made a mistake". The second is the present tense, so would mean "I make mistakes" (generally) or "I'm wrong" (on this occasion).

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