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Guidelines for Translation from French into English

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Robin Lambert

Part 6 Other Problems

Possessive nouns and ‘the’: a special case

Texte intégral

The name of a person or a place can show possession if you add apostrophe s. For example: Mary’s husband, Italy’s coastline

When you attach apostrophe s (’s) to the real name of a person or a place, you do NOT use ‘the’.

Example Explanation
Death comes to us all in the end. ‘death’ is a general concept here
The death of President Kennedy was a shock to the nation. one single precise death, followed by a title and a name (no apostrophe s)
The President’s death was a shock to the nation. one single precise death, with the title but not the name
President Kennedy’s death was a shock to the nation. the person’s name, with apostrophe s, so without ‘the’
The population of London reached one million by the eighteenth century. a precise population
London’s population reached one million by the eighteenth century. the name of a place, in the possessive, so without ‘the’

NEVER the President Kennedy’s death/the London’s population

IMPORTANT: THIS STRUCTURE ONLY WORKS WITH THE NAME OF A PERSON OR A PLACE.

When you have an acronym for the name of an organisation, you need the word ‘the’ with the possessive: The FBI’s investigations revealed nothing about the terrorists. An acronym is not the name of a person or a place.

Examples:

Une conférence se tenait pour examiner les moyens de renverser le régime de
Bachar el-Assad.
A conference was held to explore ways to overthrow Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
(NOT the Bashar al-Assad’s regime)
Une conférence se tenait pour examiner les moyens de renverser le régime du président. A conference was held to explore ways to overthrow the president’s regime. (There is no name, so you use ‘the’.)
La nouvelle génération des talibans serait encore plus proche d’Al-Qaida. The new generation of the Taliban is even closer to al-Qa’ida.
(NOT the new Taliban’s generation)
David Axelrod, le stratège de campagne de Barack Obama, a minimisé le bilan économique de M. Perry. David Axelrod, Barack Obama’s campaign strategist, played down Mr Perry’s economic record.
(NOT the Barack Obama’s campaign strategist and NOT the Mr Perry’s economic record)

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