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# formal — English to French

How English *formal* is translated into French in open, checked parallel texts: 1 translation with example sentences.

What it means: [formal in the Elamur Dictionary](https://dictionary.elamur.ai/free/en/english/formal/).

Sentence pairs counted, by form: formal (67 016). By style: everyday 21 · literary 2 · parliamentary 2 260 · legal and administrative 6 516 · UN documents 58 217.

## formelle

Used about 23 443 times in the texts (everyday ≈ 12 · parliamentary ≈ 895 · legal and administrative ≈ 4 344 · UN documents ≈ 18 193). Forms: formel, formelle.

- He disobeyed a **formal** instruction.
  Il a désobéi à un ordre **formel**.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by zogwarg and Aiji · checked, community translation · [\#14025035](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/14025035) [\#8718445](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/8718445))

- It is **formal**, conventional in appearance.
  Contenu d'apparence **formelle**, conventionnelle.
  ([Europarl v8](https://www.statmt.org/europarl/) · Source: European Parliament proceedings, Europarl v8 (Koehn 2005) via OPUS (Tiedemann 2012) · checked, professional translation · segment 1619883)

- GROUNDS FOR OPENING THE **FORMAL** INVESTIGATION
  MOTIFS DE L'OUVERTURE DE LA PROCÉDURE **FORMELLE** D'EXAMEN
  ([DGT-TM v2021](https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/language-technology-resources/dgt-translation-memory_en) · Source: European Commission, DGT-TM (Steinberger et al. 2012), re-used under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU; the Commission keeps ownership of the data · checked, professional translation · segment 5676594)

- The PSI has no **formal** structure, headquarters or chairperson.
  L &apos; Initiative n &apos; a ni structure **formelle**, ni siège, ni président.
  ([United Nations Parallel Corpus v1.0](https://conferences.unite.un.org/UNCorpus) · Source: United Nations, United Nations Parallel Corpus v1.0 (Ziemski, Junczys-Dowmunt and Pouliquen 2016) · checked, professional translation · segment 13410734)

- No **formal** training is required.
  Aucun entraînement **formel** n'est requis.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by CK and sacredceltic · checked, community translation · [\#5360748](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/5360748) [\#7871633](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/7871633))

## More sentences

Sentence pairs with the word where no single translation was found: it may be translated by a phrase, or left out.

- Using the **formal** "vous" is a form of respect.
  Le vouvoiement marque le respect.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by zogwarg and felix63 · checked, community translation · [\#13867709](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/13867709) [\#13867474](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/13867474))

- I want to lodge a **formal** complaint.
  Je veux faire enregistrer une plainte en bonne et due forme.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by CK and sacredceltic · checked, community translation · [\#2016897](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/2016897) [\#2437925](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/2437925))

- Don't be so **formal**, please!
  Ne faites pas de cérémonies, je vous prie !
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by belgavox and sacredceltic · checked, community translation · [\#1737635](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/1737635) [\#1143647](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/1143647))

## Grammar

Notes on grammar and translation on Mova: [English grammar](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/en/) · [French grammar](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/fr/) · [translating between English and French](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/translation/pairs/en-fr/) · [translating from English](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/translation/from-en/) · [translating into French](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/translation/into-fr/).

## About these examples

Translations are found by how often the two words stand in the same sentence pairs, and the highlighted words are matched automatically: both are approximate. Counts are estimated from a sample of each source. Every example names its source and licence. [Submit a better translation or example](https://md.translate.elamur.ai/free/en/submit/?pair=en-fr&word=formal).


Every example is quoted under its source's licence and credited with it; the rest of the site is open under the Elamur Cosmic License.