Canadian French translator

Canadian (Québécois) French differs from European French in vocabulary, terminology and how anglicisms are handled. In Québec, for example, courriel is used instead of e-mail, magasinage instead of shopping and stationnement instead of parking. The OQLF standards also apply to commercial, legal and public texts. A France-facing translation is therefore not directly interchangeable for the Canadian market, which is why we assign a native Canadian French translator from the outset.

A Canadian French translation agency takes the coordination off your hands. We select a native Canadian French translator who knows the OQLF standards and Canadian terminology, match the variant to your target market and have the work checked by a second reviewer. You keep one point of contact for terminology, OQLF alignment, scheduling and delivery, all under a single quote. A skilled freelance translator does excellent work too; the difference an agency adds is bringing those moving parts together so you are not managing them separately.

Yes. For commercial, legal and public texts aimed at Québec we match the translation to the OQLF standards and the Charter of the French Language (Bill 101, tightened by Bill 96 in 2022). We follow Canadian terminology sources such as Le grand dictionnaire terminologique and Termium Plus, so your texts fit the Québec context rather than a European French convention.

Where an authority requires certification, we arrange it. In the UK there is no sworn-translator institute, so we provide certified translation: a signed and dated statement of accuracy, which can be escalated to notarisation by a solicitor or notary public, or to an apostille or legalisation through the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). For official translations submitted in Canada, the certification routes are province-specific (in Québec, for instance, through a certified translator (traducteur agréé) of the OTTIAQ). We assess the route per document and per receiving authority, and confirm it in the quote. See [getting a document legalised](https://www.gov.uk/get-document-legalised).

Common requests are OQLF-aligned websites and packaging, commercial contracts for Québec, bilingual technical documentation and personal documents (diplomas, birth certificates, police certificates) for immigration through IRCC. For each document type we confirm the approach and any certification in the quote.

On working days you receive a quote within 1 hour. The lead time for the translation itself depends on document type, volume, language pair and any required certification, and is confirmed in the quote. For tight deadlines we confirm a workable rush schedule up front rather than promising a fixed turnaround.