French I: Menu Headings and Allergen Wording for a School Cafeteria
A school district in Lyon is translating a 40-item cafeteria menu into English for an international parents' evening. The menu has four sections: 'Entrées', 'Plats', 'Fromages', and 'Desserts'. A parent volunteer has translated 'Entrées' as 'Entrances' and 'Plats' as 'Plates'. Two dishes contain 'noix' (walnuts), and one contains 'arachides' (peanuts). The English menu must fit on one A4 page in three columns and include allergen notes. Two hundred parents are expected, and the district has 12 language communities. The deadline is three days. A catering manager says the French menu is legally controlled for allergen labeling, but the English version is only informational. You must correct the section headings and decide how to word the allergen notes so that peanut and tree-nut risks are not merged.
1. What are the correct English headings for 'Entrées' and 'Plats', and why are 'Entrances' and 'Plates' wrong?
Read the worked answer
'Entrées' should be Starters or Appetizers; 'Plats' should be Main courses or Mains. 'Entrances' is a false friend: English 'entrance' means a doorway or arrival, while French 'entrée' in a menu is the first course. 'Plates' is also wrong because a plate is the object, not the course; French 'plat' can mean a dish or the main course. The menu structure confirms the reading: Entrées, Plats, Fromages, Desserts is a standard French meal order. The translation must preserve the course sequence for parents who need to know what their child will eat first, not describe physical objects or building parts.
2. How should 'noix' and 'arachides' be translated in the allergen notes, and why does the distinction matter?
Read the worked answer
Translate 'noix' as walnuts and 'arachides' as peanuts. Do not merge them under 'nuts'. Peanut allergy and tree-nut allergy are distinct: peanuts are legumes, walnuts are tree nuts, and a child may be allergic to one but not the other. The English note should say 'Contains walnuts' for the two walnut dishes and 'Contains peanuts' for the peanut dish. If a dish contains both, list both explicitly. Because the English menu is informational rather than legally controlled, the wording should still be unambiguous and should not invite a parent to assume that 'nuts' covers only one category. The catering manager's legal point affects liability, not the need for clear allergen language.
3. What layout constraint affects the wording, and how should you handle it?
Read the worked answer
Three columns on one A4 page with 40 items leaves little horizontal space, so long explanations will either shrink the font or force awkward wrapping. Use short headings and short allergen tags: 'Starters', 'Mains', 'Contains: walnuts', 'Contains: peanuts'. Put a brief allergen key at the bottom only if it fits; otherwise repeat the short tag next to each affected dish. Avoid abbreviating 'walnuts' to 'nuts', because that destroys the distinction. The two-line or narrow-column constraint should push you toward consistent labels, not toward vague ones. If the page still overflows, reduce descriptive adjectives before reducing allergen clarity.