French term
France
ou
"le chocolat XX ou le plaisir ultime"
Comment traduiriez-vous ce OU en anglais (OR me semble inapproprié) ?
D'avance merci pour votre aide...
| 3 +8 | omit |
Beatriz Ramírez de Haro
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| 3 +3 | or |
Rebecca Breekveldt
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Sep 17, 2019 11:13: writeaway changed "Field" from "Art/Literary" to "Marketing"
Sep 17, 2019 13:44: Yvonne Gallagher changed "Level" from "PRO" to "Non-PRO"
Non-PRO (3): Rachel Fell, mchd, Yvonne Gallagher
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Proposed translations
Spain
Golf, Literature and Religion Specialist
Native in: Spanish 
Works in: English to Spanish, French to Spanish, Spanish
omit
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Note added at 16 mins (2019-09-17 10:33:52 GMT)
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Or "XX chocolate. The ultimate pleasure."
| Thank you Beatriz and thanks as well to the other translators for their explanations. I think I will finally omit the "OR" as I initially thought, and my client will have the last word. I have taken an example with chocolate to illustrate, but the real slogan is for a perfume and is talking about the feeling XX perfume is providing. So it is not a matter of choice between the perfume or "the chocolate" and the feeling it is providing. |
| agree |
writeaway
: It's marketing...
44 mins
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"Il est, n'est-il pas?".
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| agree |
Tony M
: Really needs copywriting properl in EN, as FR formulations often sound clumsy or clunky when translated too literally.
1 hr
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I couldn't agree more.
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| agree |
SimJ
1 hr
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Thank you Simret.
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| agree |
Rachel Fell
: or with a colon or a dash in between
1 hr
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Yes, much better!
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| agree |
B D Finch
: I think this question illustrates why copywriting should be done by native speakers who can relate to the context, rather than picking out specific words.
2 hrs
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Thank you.
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| agree |
Michele Fauble
5 hrs
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Thank you.
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| agree |
Yolanda Broad
12 hrs
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Thank you.
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| agree |
Michael Davies
21 hrs
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Thank you Michael.
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Austria
Helping to communicate across cultures
Native in: English 
, Spanish
Works in: French to Spanish, English to Spanish, Spanish to English, and 3 more.
or
Maybe you can give a bit more context, but I am imagining that the slogans are like questions of the 'which would you rather?' type. 'XX chocolate or ultimate pleasure?' 'XX chocolate or ...?' In that case I think 'or' works.
| agree |
liz askew
41 mins
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| neutral |
Tony M
: I don't read the context the way you do. This formulation is sometimes used in EN, but often seems rather "forced"; I'd advise Asker to tackle it rather as marketing copywriting, and avoid slavish translation.
1 hr
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| agree |
Adrian MM.
: as in the law, to be read conjunctively rather than disjunctively.
1 hr
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| agree |
Eliza Hall
: This is a normal turn of phrase in titles (Thoreau's "Walden, or, a Life in the Woods," for instance).
2 hrs
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Discussion
If you want to strictly translate, then you must use "or"
But it's all a matter of a slogan, and therefore personal preference
On top of that, you can't really "steal" someine else's slogan (Mr Cadbury has a powerful set of lawyers on hand)
Ask the client what they want, that's my advice
On the other hand itf this is just a conversation, take your choice between the 2 answers proposed