Real document
A French technical term can be explained without replacing it
Explain a French technical term in plain language while preserving its meaning. Compare a useful gloss with a fluent but misleading substitute.
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In short
Keep the technical term when it matters, then give a short functional gloss. Le taux d’attrition, c’est-à-dire la part des participants qui quittent le suivi… is clearer than replacing it with échec, which introduces an evaluation and changes the referent.
Yellow the idea to rememberBlue French to learn
Plain-language mediation is a meaning task. A familiar word can be wrong even when it reads smoothly. This practice research note distinguishes people leaving a study from a treatment’s failure. Read what the figures measure before choosing a gloss.
Note de suivi
Extrait
Sur cent participants inscrits, quinze ne poursuivent pas le suivi jusqu’au terme prévu. Le rapport appelle ce phénomène « attrition ». Il ne donne pas, dans cet extrait, les raisons individuelles de ces départs ni les résultats du traitement.
Reformulation fidèle
Quinze participants ont quitté le suivi avant son terme.
Remplacement trompeur
Le traitement a échoué pour quinze personnes.
Ce qui change
Quitter le suivi ne permet pas de connaître le résultat du traitement ni la raison du départ.
Tap one on the left, then its partner on the right.
What must survive the explanation?
Preserve the object measured, its unit, the population and any uncertainty essential to the claim. You may omit an unnecessary symbol for a general audience, but you cannot turn a group-level association into an individual guarantee. If the source does not explain a term, avoid inventing a technical definition from a familiar-looking word.
Le rapport constate des départs du suivi ; il ne permet pas d’en déduire les résultats individuels du traitement.
The report observes departures from follow-up; it does not permit individual treatment outcomes to be inferred.
A short term-plus-gloss formulation lets expert readers recognise the concept and other readers follow the argument. Use it once, then choose a stable short label. Constantly replacing the same concept with near-synonyms can create false distinctions.