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How would you translate the word "track"

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Tue, 11/08/2011 - 13:37
larienna
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I am currently translating the rules of my game and there happens to be a lot of tracks in my game: production track, scoring track, victory track, priority track, etc.

A literal english to french translation would be the word "piste". But the first connotation of this word is "Racing Track" and that is the first idea that comes to my mind.

I tried using the word "ligne" which means "line". So it makes: production line, scoring line, victory line, priority line, etc. As you can see, sometimes it looks well and sometimes it looks weird.

So I am searching for other suggestions, if you have any ideas let me know. You could suggest words in english that are similar to "track" too. I'll translate them afterward.

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Tue, 11/08/2011 - 15:08
#1
ilta
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Off the top of my head I

Off the top of my head I thought "chemin" (as in "chemin de fer" -- iron track; ie a railroad) but it's been a while since I took French and in any case, it's a highly colloquial use which we certainly didn't cover in school.

There are a number of Eurogames with scoring tracks and multi-language rulebooks. Ticket to Ride comes to mind, probably because I'm already thinking railroads, as does Power Grid. Why not see what they do?

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Tue, 11/08/2011 - 23:09
#2
larienna
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I am trying to find rule

I am trying to find rule translation of commercial games. Leonardo da vinci and ticket to ride does not have anything good so far. I'll take a look at a few other games.

So far the best idea is "Ladder" (ex: production ladder, scoring ladder, etc), suggested on BGG from a rule translation of another game. The word "ladder" does not look too odd.

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Wed, 11/09/2011 - 02:05
#3
ilta
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I'm not sure you'll find one

I'm not sure you'll find one word that covers all of these senses of the English word "track." I don't see why they can't be different words in other languages.

We always got a kick out of different idioms in language classes; making a hairdryer "go" was funny. Ah, high school.

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Wed, 11/09/2011 - 02:26
#4
PierreNZ
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.

In so much as my opinion as a French expat can count, the translation for ladder (echelle) doesn't feel right but YMMV. Unless it makes some thematic sense?
I play/design all my games in English so I'm drawing a blank for a satisfactory translation of track. Piste or Ligne don't seem to fit either. But I'm sure somebody will jump out and say that they like them. So take my post with a grain of salt ;-)
Had a look around:
"compteur de points" from TTR sounds ok
"circuit" (also related to race track but also electronic circuit) conveys a sense of looping around.
Might pay to look at synonyms of road (route): chemin, voie, etc (might work with the theme)

Maybe the best option is to move away from a too literal translation and rephrase each concept differently? e.g. production line becomes "chaine de montage" while scoring track becomes "compteur de points"

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Wed, 11/09/2011 - 02:32
#5
PierreNZ
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Also you might have to check out http://www.ludism.fr/regles/ for some inspiration

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Wed, 11/09/2011 - 12:26
#6
le_renard
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I think I would go for

I think I would go for something like "échelle" or "compteur", depending on the context...

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Wed, 11/09/2011 - 16:34
#7
irdesigns510
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Sports uses "Standings" and "Record"

Sports uses words like Standings and Records to determine where someone is figuratively, could be useful here.

Standings (or rankings) would be "Classement"

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