Hi,
I am trying to read some papers on Algebraic Geometry in French. But I am stuck in understanding some Math.French.Words. Anybody has a good reference for it?
Thank you all.
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2$\begingroup$ I don't know of any such references. I wonder if this site could not be a very good place to collectively produce a lexicon with a list of french words and their english translations (and comments that are helpful, for example to signal slightly different uses, or tricks to remember the translations). Their should be just one answer, of course in community wiki, and each user would edit it to add words at their right place for the alphabetic order. $\endgroup$– JoëlCommented Dec 30, 2012 at 13:16
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3$\begingroup$ For a start see for example here math.unicaen.fr/~reyssat/dico/dicofa.html . A general method I find helpful is via wikipedia; for somewhat standard things it works quite well: go to the page of the object or related one and then change the language. $\endgroup$– user9072Commented Dec 30, 2012 at 13:38
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8$\begingroup$ @Joël: This site is not a good place for creating and in particular maintaining something like this. $\endgroup$– user9072Commented Dec 30, 2012 at 13:42
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2$\begingroup$ As said by Joel, your linguistic background is important. If your background is english or german, I would say that a standard french dictionary from a bookstore is sufficient, because the mathematical vocabulary is really very similar and for the words that are not so similar one can usually puzzle it out from a standard dictionary. Reading Bourbaki in this manner is an excellent way to learn mathematical French. That's how I learned it, anyway, although I must admit that it was not good enough for passing my French language exam at Princeton on the first try...... $\endgroup$– Lee MosherCommented Dec 30, 2012 at 16:12
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5$\begingroup$ A useful book in that regard is the bilingual edition of the Grothendieck-Serre correspondence (from 1956-1964): lots of typical french sentences, and technical math words, translated carefully side by side. A few more recent technical words are thus missing, to be found online. The book is edited by the AMS, and a preview is here books.google.fr/… $\endgroup$– Thomas SauvagetCommented Dec 30, 2012 at 20:18
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3 Answers
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Kai-Wen Lan has written a glossary for French and German. Quoting from his web page "These are prepared primarily for reading mathematical texts". You can find the French one here.
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$\begingroup$ Thanks Ricky. Your answer was very helpful. Also, thanks others for their help. $\endgroup$– SinaCommented Jan 3, 2013 at 22:42
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$\begingroup$ The term VERSEURS is not listed, Help from a 1946 paper by Lamaitre on Quaternions $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 15, 2016 at 17:31
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$\begingroup$ That one is actually quite easy: versor. @RichardLAmoroso $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 15, 2016 at 20:31
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I have given a 3-hour course trying to help mathematical students with an English background to read papers in French. You can find notes here.
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Please notice a few differences between French and English. "Un nombre positif" is a non negative number, "supérieur à" is "greater than or equal to". In English 0 is not a natural number, while in French it is "un entier naturel". A stack is "un champ", while a field is "un corps (commutatif in rather old texts, now what we used to call 'un corps non commutatif' has become 'une algèbre à division'). Finite fields were first known as "champs de Galois". A linear or vector space is always "un espace vectoriel". A covering is "un revêtement", a map "une application", and both manifolds and varieties are "variétés". A set is "un ensemble". An abstract is "un résumé", but abstract structures are "structures abstraites". And both groups and music bands are "groupes"!
answered Aug 15, 2016 at 19:01
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$\begingroup$ Fascinating, and helpful. What is the French for “a positive number”? $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 15, 2016 at 20:35
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5$\begingroup$ The meaning of "positive" and of "natural number" is certainly not a matter of language. $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 15, 2016 at 20:35
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3$\begingroup$ @RobinHouston: "un nombre strictement positif." Same construction for greater "x est strictement superieur a y" (I dropped some accents for ease of typing). $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 15, 2016 at 21:15
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8$\begingroup$ @FredRohrer: I wasn't aware there is full consensus on whether the naturals include 0 even in the English language literature. $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 15, 2016 at 21:18
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2$\begingroup$ @FredRohrer: Ah, I see. It seems I (and possibly also YCor) read into your comment the opposite meaning as you had intended. $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 16, 2016 at 21:06