Glossary entry

French term or phrase:

courant secondaire technique

English translation:

secondary technical power (if specifically measuring current in a transformer secondary: technical secondary current)

Added to glossary by Tony M
Jul 17, 2005 02:14
18 yrs ago
French term

courant secondaire technique

French to English Tech/Engineering Other other
It is about an energy/power bay and what it should contain. The exact sentence is
"Trois transformateurs d’intensité pour la mesure des courants secondaires techniques."

"courant secondaire" is clear but "technique"? I did not find any relevant reference anywhere on the net. Do you have any idea what "courant secondaire technique" may be? Thanks a lot.
Proposed translations (English)
5 +4 secondary technical power
4 -1 technical secondary currents

Discussion

Non-ProZ.com Jul 17, 2005:
I understand Anna Maria. Even to me, everything related to this document seemed "technique" at that time...:-). Thank you anyway.
Anna Maria Augustine (X) Jul 17, 2005:
Hi Diana,
current is the word used where I grew up and is probably just a short form of power current but at 4am I was very tired after a night of translating.
Non-ProZ.com Jul 17, 2005:
Hi Anna Maria. That's the only thing I thought of too, but I can't see how current can be technical.:-(

Proposed translations

+4
5 hrs
Selected

secondary technical power

First, in these sort of contexts, 'courant' is often best translated as 'power' (and cf. some recent KudoZ questions;...)

Second, power is described as 'technical' when it is being used to feed technical equipment; in these sort of TV mobile applications it is very important to segregate 'technical', 'domestic' (lighting, heating, etc.) and sometimes 'auxiliary OR services' power, to avoid unwanted interactions / interferenece, and sometimes for load-sharing reasons.

Third, 'secondary' might mean 2 things, but either way it won't change the translation; it might refer to some kind of 'secondary' supply, or it might refer to the current flowing in the 'secondary' winding of a transformer.

Note that those 'transformateurs d'intensité' are current transformers, and that by definition, they measure the CURRENT being consumed; but there is still no reason why you can't translate the 'courant' as power here, since clearly this power can be readily deduced from the current! It's just a slight differnece between the way we look at things in FR / EN, is all.


--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 5 hrs 53 mins (2005-07-17 08:07:54 GMT)
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\"Three current transformers for measuring secondary technical power\"

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 12 hrs 15 mins (2005-07-17 14:29:42 GMT) Post-grading
--------------------------------------------------

This question of \'courant\' is always a thorny one; in everyday, colloquial French, the term is used almost exactly synonymously with the way we in English would say \'(electric) power\' or simply \'electricity\' --- \"we didn\'t get the \'courant\' in our village till 1956\"

In more technical usage, it is very often used in the same sort of way, i.e. to describe electrical power IN GENERAL, rather than specifically the technical characteristic of power (= puissance, measured in watts or kilowatss, for example). In this sense, the word \'energie\' is also often used virtually synonymously.

The technical sense of current is more often rendered in French by \'intensité\' (as it once would have been in English too), and indeed, the internationally-recognized symbol for current (in this physical sense) is I.

So in some ways, \'courant\' in an electrical context might be regarded as something of a \'faux ami\', with the issue being clouded by the fact that we sometimes also use \'current\' (or even more colloquially \'juice\') inaccurately like this in English too!

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 344 days (2006-06-26 07:33:41 GMT) Post-grading
--------------------------------------------------

Bealted apologies for the typos above — must have been having a 'bad typing' day (when don't I?)

Of course:

interference
difference
kilowatts

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 344 days (2006-06-26 07:39:53 GMT) Post-grading
--------------------------------------------------

Oh dear! And I introduced another one with 'belated' :-((
Peer comment(s):

agree chinesetrans
1 hr
Thanks, Chinese trans!
agree writeaway : indeed;there are a couple of us who are not able to translate every single field and who tend to leave answering questions in fields they can't do to expert colleagues who can......
1 hr
Thanks, W/A! Couldn't agree more! ;-)
agree Vicky Papaprodromou
2 hrs
Efharisto, Vicky!
agree JCEC
3 hrs
Thanks, JCEC!
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thanks a lot Dusty."
-1
16 mins

technical secondary currents

can't think what else it could possibly be
Peer comment(s):

disagree Tony M : Please see my own answer for full explanation. Don't you think 4 is rather a high confidence rating in this case?
5 hrs
You're right. I should have put 5. Question of numerology!
Something went wrong...
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