9. Beware of false friends, jargon and abbreviations

In a multilingual environment like the European Commission, we often mix up our languages. Bor­rowing between French and English is common. For instance, ‘to control’ in English normally means ‘to command/direct’ or ‘to restrict/limit’.

It does not mean simply ‘to check/supervise’ like ‘controler’ in French. Using the wrong word can alienate readers, making the EU institutions look like a closed club that is out of touch with the real world. In the worst case, it can lead to misunderstandings and diplo­matic incidents (for example, if you just want to say that Luxembourg is small, but you write that ‘Lux­embourg is not an important country’).

French	False friend	Why is it wrong?	What's the correct word?
actuel	actual	'actual' means 'real'	What's the correct word?
adequat	adequate	'adequate' means 'sufficient'	current,.topical
assister a	assist at	'assist' means 'help'.	suitable
attribuer	attribute to	'attribute to' means 'consider to be due to/characteristic of'	attend, participate in
completer	complete	'complete' means 'finish'	allocate to, assign to
delai	delay	'a delay ' means 'a postponement or hold-up'(= retard in French)	deadline, time limit
elaborer	elaborate (verb)	'to elaborate' means 'to go into detail'	draft, develop, produce
eventuel	eventual	'eventual' means 'ultimate'	any
prevu	foreseen	'foreseen'.means.'predicted'	provided for, planned
important	important	'important' is right if you mean 'significant'; but not if you mean>	> large
materiel	material	'material' means 'matter', 'information'	supplies,.equipment
opportunite	opportunity	'opportunity' means 'chance'	advisability
perspectives	perspectives	'perspective' means 'standpoint'	prospects, outlook
respecter	respect	'to respect' means 'to value' or 'honour' someone or something	comply with (rules), meet (a deadline)
sensible	sensible	'sensible'.means.'reasonable'	sensitive

Avoid or explain jargon

Jargon is vocabulary used by any group of insiders or specialists to communicate with each other, and is acceptable in documents which are only read by that group.

However, outsiders (especially the general public) will have to work harder than they need to or want to when reading jargon. Some readers may even stop reading — so make sure that any document you want outsiders to read is as jargon-free as pos­sible.

And if you DO have to use jargon terms in docu­ments for the general public, explain them when you first use them, or add a glossary, a hyperlink or a reference to one of the websites indicated at the bottom of this page.

This non-exhaustive table contains a number of terms commonly used in the EU institutions:

Jargon term	Suggested definition
acceding country	country about to join the EU
acquis (communautaire)	body of EU law
candidate.country	country still negotiating to join the EU
cohesion	approach aimed at reducing social and economic disparities within the EU
comitology	procedure under which the Commission consults committees of experts
Community method	method developed for taking decisions in the EU, where the Commission, Parliament and Council work together
enlargement	expansion of the EU to include new members
mainstreaming	taking into account in all EU policies
proportionality	principle that a level of government must not take any action that exceeds that necessary to carry out its assigned tasks
subsidiarity	principle that, wherever possible, decisions must be taken at the level of government closest to citizens

Take care with abbreviations Too many unfamiliar abbreviations can make a document incomprehensible and send your reader to sleep: (ERDF + EAGGF + CAP = ZZZ).

If the meaning of an abbreviation might not be clear to your reader, you should:

• write them out in full if the expression only occurs once or twice in the document; or
• spell them out when you first use them in a docu­ment, followed by the abbreviation-in brackets, and then use the abbreviation in the rest of the document; and/or ;
• attach a list of abbreviations or a hyperlink to show what they stand for.

The ‘Main Acronyms and Abbreviations’ section of the Interinstitutional Style Guide (http://publications. europa.eu/code/'en/en-5000400.htm) defines many of the acronyms and abbreviations used in Euro­pean Commission documents.


As always, consider your readers’ needs:

• Some readers will be irritated if ‘common’ abbre­viations are spelled out.
• Writing ‘marketing authorisation holder’ on every other line instead of ‘MAH’ will make the docu­ment much longer.

Remember that abbreviations and acronyms can mean different things in different contexts.

For example:

ESA stands for:	European Space Agency Euratom
	Euratom Supply Agency
	European System of Accounts
	Endangered Species Act
	Environmentally Sensitive Area
	Eastern and Southern Africa
	Electron Stimulated Adsorption and several other alternatives.

Source: http://iate.europa.eu