Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
turning up to work
French translation:
se présenter au travail
English term
turning up to work
I have this sentence that challenges me:
It can be too easy in a business to just go through the motions of turning up to work and doing the same old things.
I'm not sure about the meaning of "turning up to work"
My translation for the whole sentence would be:
Il peut également être facile dans une entreprise de simplement se contenter de se remettre au travail et de faire les mêmes choses qu’avant.
By the way, I translated "just go through the motions of" with "de simplement se contenter de".
Am I right? Close? Wrong?
Thanks in advance for you help.
Regards.
Nov 29, 2018 07:39: FX Fraipont (X) Created KOG entry
Non-PRO (1): GILLES MEUNIER
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Proposed translations
se présenter au travail
| agree |
Tony M
: Ou 'se pointer' ('au boulot', for the informal tone given by 'turning up to work') — the idea is physically being there, but not really applying one's intellect!
30 mins
|
| agree |
Elisabeth Richard
: Je dirais même presque 'faire acte de présence'.
2 hrs
|
| agree |
Christine HOUDY
: se présenter au travail
3 hrs
|
| agree |
B D Finch
3 hrs
|
| agree |
AllegroTrans
4 hrs
|
| agree |
Lorraine Dubuc
5 hrs
|
| neutral |
Daryo
: correct, but wrong register - too formal
6 hrs
|
United States
An economic geek with social skills
Native in: French 
Works in: English to French, French to English, Spanish to English, and 1 more.
aller au travail
| neutral |
Tony M
: I think using 'go' instead of 'come' changes the colour of the phrase.
3 hrs
|
| neutral |
AllegroTrans
: it's more about arriving than going
8 hrs
|
| neutral |
Daryo
: going there and getting there is not the same
10 hrs
|
s'enliser dans la routine de se pointer au travail et refaire machinalement le même boulot
Il peut arriver facilement dans une entreprise de s'enliser dans la routine de se pointer au travail et refaire machinalement le même boulot
CL3 as the context is in fact not very clear - this could apply to an employee BUT the ST could as well be talking of an entrepreneur allowing himself / herself to sink into a routine. - in which case the translation would be different.
| agree |
Lorraine Dubuc
: J'aime bien
1 hr
|
|
Merci!
|
|
| neutral |
Germaine
: Redondance: "refaire machinalement le même boulot" = s’enliser dans la routine. //What could be wrong with "s’enliser dans la routine... de s’enliser dans la routine."? It’s like "monter en haut/descendre en bas. Si ça se dit, ça ne s’écrit pas (en FR).
1 day 11 hrs
|
|
What would be wrong with redundancy? Especially in a non-technical text like this ST, that tends to be close to the everyday natural language which is usually full of redundancies ... AFAIK, redundancy is a basic feature of "normal/usual" language.
|
Graduate engineer
Native in: French (Variant: Standard-France)
Works in: English to French, French to English
Discussion
Also I think @ Lorraine Dubuc, it deals with the persons inside the business that make everyday job.
Thank you again. I'll wait to see if there are more inputs before closing the post.
Preuve par absurde: how would a company "turn up for work"???
going through the motions=> agir selon/suivre une procédure sans trop y croire/ sans réfléchir / juste pour la forme ...
@ Asker - there is a crucial element of context missing: the use of "in a business" makes me think that the person "just turning up to work ..." could be the person running the business / that started the business, NOT an employee. Any clarification?
ou : En affaire il peut être facile de répéter les mêmes façons de faire.