Swiss French translator

The written standard is close, but the French of Romandie differs on fixed points. The numerals are septante (70), huitante (80) and nonante (90) instead of soixante-dix, quatre-vingts and quatre-vingt-dix. Alongside them sit Helvetisms (natel for mobile phone, déjeuner for breakfast, action for a special offer), and the Swiss cantons and the federal government use their own administrative and legal terminology. An unchanged France translation therefore reads quickly as an import in Romandie.

A Swiss French translation agency takes the coordination off your hands. We select a translator who knows the French of Romandie and the Swiss terminology, match numerals and Helvetisms to your target market and have the work checked by a second reviewer. You keep one point of contact for variant, terminology, 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 texts aimed at Romandie we use the Swiss numerals septante (70), huitante (80) and nonante (90). Note that this also differs from Belgium, which uses septante and nonante but keeps quatre-vingts for 80. We confirm the chosen variant in the quote so that amounts, dates and contracts read correctly for your target country.

Yes, where an authority requires it. The UK has no sworn-translator institute, so for official acceptance here we provide certified translation: a signed and dated statement of accuracy from the translator or agency. Where a body asks for more, this 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 documents submitted in Switzerland, authentication runs at cantonal level and, for cross-border use, through an apostille (Switzerland is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention 1961). We assess the route per document and receiving authority. See [get a document legalised](https://www.gov.uk/get-document-legalised).

Common requests are employment and commercial contracts for Geneva and Lausanne, annual reports and bank documents for the Romandie financial sector, websites and marketing for consumers in Romandie, and personal documents (diplomas, birth certificates, police certificates) for migration to a Swiss canton. We confirm the approach and any certification per document type 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 rather than promised as a fixed turnaround.