German to French: make the relationship and reference explicit
German Sie needs interpretation, not just replacement
Capitalized Sie is polite address in German, whether the recipient is one person or several. French vous generally preserves that polite relationship. Lowercase sie is different: it may refer to a woman or to several people or things. In a message copied without reliable capitals, look at the verb ending and the previous sentence before deciding who is being addressed or discussed. A translation that mistakes they for you can turn a report into an instruction.
Familiar plural ihr also becomes vous in French, although it is not polite German address. The resulting French verb alone will not preserve every nuance of the original relationship. Use the greeting and the rest of the exchange to maintain the intended tone. For a familiar individual, “Kannst du morgen kommen?” becomes “Peux-tu venir demain ?”
Bring the German final verb forward
A German dass clause can end with the conjugated verb after its objects and other details. French normally returns to subject–verb order. “Ich glaube, dass er morgen kommt” becomes “Je crois qu’il vient demain.” The German clause-final kommt does not justify postponing the French verb until after demain. The contraction qu’il is also part of ordinary French spelling, not an optional stylistic embellishment.
Separable German verbs require particular care because their components may be far apart. Read the prefix together with its verb before selecting the French equivalent. When German contains several nested conditions, it can help to reconstruct the main action first and then add each condition in French. Keep the logical dependency: a delivery condition must still qualify delivery rather than accidentally qualifying payment.
A completed action is not every kind of past
German conversational Perfekt can cover both an isolated completed event and a description of a repeated former situation. French often distinguishes these using passé composé and imparfait. A one-time arrival is different from the circumstances prevailing when someone arrived. Identify whether a sentence advances the events or describes their background before deciding on a French tense.
The continuing present is a useful point of similarity. “Ich kenne ihn seit drei Jahren” becomes “Je le connais depuis trois ans.” Both versions describe acquaintance that continues now. The French object pronoun comes before connais, unlike the German object ihn after kenne. Depuis accepts the duration without the German dative ending used after seit.
Recover the noun behind er, sie, or es
German grammatical gender cannot be preserved independently of the French noun. Das Mädchen is grammatically neuter, but a later reference to the person must be interpreted with attention to meaning and the surrounding text. For objects, the French noun controls the relevant agreement; the German article supplies no shortcut.
Finally, do not transfer German noun capitals wholesale into French. An everyday object normally loses that capital, while personal names and actual organization names retain their identity. In an administrative email, distinguish an official name from a descriptive label before translating it. That distinction helps the recipient recognize the institution without mistaking every capitalized German noun for a proper name.
Language references