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# principal — French to English

How French *principal* is translated into English in open, checked parallel texts: 6 translations with example sentences.

The Elamur Dictionary has no French section yet; the English translations below link to their meanings where it has them.

Sentence pairs counted, by form: principal (82 497), principale (44 205), principales (88 724), principals (44), principaux (128 598). By style: everyday 170 · literary 16 · biblical 95 · parliamentary 15 703 · legal and administrative 25 947 · UN documents 302 137.

## main

Used about 109 098 times in the texts (everyday ≈ 102 · literary ≈ 2 · parliamentary ≈ 7 648 · legal and administrative ≈ 13 919 · UN documents ≈ 87 427). Meaning: [main in the Elamur Dictionary](https://dictionary.elamur.ai/free/en/english/main/).

- Qui a le rôle **principal** ?
  Who has the **main** role?
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by Rockaround and sundown · checked, community translation · [\#6322894](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/6322894) [\#2812835](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/2812835))

- Toutefois il me paraît évident que nous n'occupions pas la cheminée **principale** du volcan, mais bien un conduit accessoire, où se faisait sentir un effet de contre-coup.
  At any rate it was clear that we were not in the **main** shaft of the volcano, but in a lateral gallery where there were felt recurrent tunes of reaction.
  ([Project Gutenberg books (Verne, Hugo, Maupassant and their translators)](https://www.gutenberg.org/) · Project Gutenberg, public domain · checked, professional translation · verne journey centre earth, row 3943)

- Tel est notre **principal** objectif.
  That is our **main** purpose.
  ([Europarl v8](https://www.statmt.org/europarl/) · Source: European Parliament proceedings, Europarl v8 (Koehn 2005) via OPUS (Tiedemann 2012) · checked, professional translation · segment 585700)

- Activité **principale** en mars
  **Main** activity in March
  ([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 5152824)

- **PRINCIPAUX** RISQUES ET ENJEUX
  **MAIN** RISKS AND CHALLENGES
  ([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 13499168)

## principal

Used about 94 009 times in the texts (everyday ≈ 10 · literary ≈ 13 · parliamentary ≈ 814 · legal and administrative ≈ 4 460 · UN documents ≈ 88 713). Forms: principal, principals. Meaning: [principal in the Elamur Dictionary](https://dictionary.elamur.ai/free/en/english/principal/).

- Il doit être le **principal**.
  He must be the **principal**.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by adlerq and CK · checked, community translation · [\#413023](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/413023) [\#1139315](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/1139315))

- Pour l'instant les cygnes nageaient, ce qui est leur talent **principal**, et ils étaient superbes.
  For the moment, the swans were swimming, which is their **principal** talent, and they were superb.
  ([Project Gutenberg books (Verne, Hugo, Maupassant and their translators)](https://www.gutenberg.org/) · Project Gutenberg, public domain · checked, professional translation · hugo les miserables, row 26516)

- Nous sommes le **principal** bloc de l'OMC et nous avons une responsabilité particulière.
  We are the **principal** bloc at the WTO and have a specific responsibility.
  ([Europarl v8](https://www.statmt.org/europarl/) · Source: European Parliament proceedings, Europarl v8 (Koehn 2005) via OPUS (Tiedemann 2012) · checked, professional translation · segment 994778)

- Code de l’activité **principale** au niveau à 4 chiffres de la NACE
  **Principal** activity code at NACE 4-digit level
  ([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 5246406)

- D. **Principaux** sujets de préoccupation
  D. **Principal** subjects of concern
  ([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 2901998)

## major

Used about 28 994 times in the texts (everyday ≈ 18 · parliamentary ≈ 895 · legal and administrative ≈ 1 081 · UN documents ≈ 26 999). Meaning: [major in the Elamur Dictionary](https://dictionary.elamur.ai/free/en/english/major/).

- Quel est ton domaine **principal** ?
  What's your **major** field?
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by sacredceltic and Dejo · checked, community translation · [\#17010](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/17010) [\#481535](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/481535))

- Les **principaux** émetteurs de CO2 sont les États-Unis, la Chine, l'Inde et le Brésil.
  The **major** producers of CO2 include the United States, China, India and Brazil.
  ([Europarl v8](https://www.statmt.org/europarl/) · Source: European Parliament proceedings, Europarl v8 (Koehn 2005) via OPUS (Tiedemann 2012) · checked, professional translation · segment 1289737)

- que par le rail ou par les routes **principales**, et
  via **major** roads or railways, and
  ([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 809857)

- e) Rôle des **principaux** groupes.
  (e) Roles of **major** groups.
  ([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 361896)

- Quel est votre domaine **principal** ?
  What's your **major** field?
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by sacredceltic and Dejo · checked, community translation · [\#17010](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/17010) [\#481533](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/481533))

## key

Used about 24 049 times in the texts (parliamentary ≈ 976 · legal and administrative ≈ 1 216 · UN documents ≈ 21 857). Meaning: [key in the Elamur Dictionary](https://dictionary.elamur.ai/free/en/english/key/).

- La **principale** question en jeu ici est la simplification législative.
  The **key** issue at stake here is legislative clarification.
  ([Europarl v8](https://www.statmt.org/europarl/) · Source: European Parliament proceedings, Europarl v8 (Koehn 2005) via OPUS (Tiedemann 2012) · checked, professional translation · segment 771138)

- Taux de réponse au niveau des **principaux** agrégats.
  Response rate at the level of the **key** aggregates;
  ([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 722347)

- Résumé des **principaux** problèmes
  Summary of **key** issues
  ([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 11995653)

- Elle est le **principal** marché des importations de peaux de phoques en provenance du Canada.
  It is the **key** market for seal skin imports from Canada.
  ([Europarl v8](https://www.statmt.org/europarl/) · Source: European Parliament proceedings, Europarl v8 (Koehn 2005) via OPUS (Tiedemann 2012) · checked, professional translation · segment 918468)

- **Principales** données financières de Varvaressos pour les exercices 2004-2009
  Varvaressos’s **key** financial data 2004-2009
  ([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 2266138)

## most

Used about 7 664 times in the texts (everyday ≈ 1 · parliamentary ≈ 1 709 · legal and administrative ≈ 811 · UN documents ≈ 5 143). Meaning: [most in the Elamur Dictionary](https://dictionary.elamur.ai/free/en/english/most/).

- Un des **principaux** produits de ce pays est le café.
  One of this country's **most** important products is coffee.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by Aiji and AlanF\_US · checked, community translation · [\#2536000](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/2536000) [\#15224](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/15224))

- Les Nations unies sont notre partenaire **principal**.
  The UN is our **most** important partner.
  ([Europarl v8](https://www.statmt.org/europarl/) · Source: European Parliament proceedings, Europarl v8 (Koehn 2005) via OPUS (Tiedemann 2012) · checked, professional translation · segment 171574)

- Date de dernier retour au recouvreur **principal**
  **Most** Recent Primary Servicer Return Date
  ([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 3569584)

- 44. En 2010, la **principale** question d &apos; actualité a été la sécurité de la circulation routière.
  44. Road Safety was the **most** topical issue in 2010.
  ([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 24610536)

- La question **principale** est celle du processus de paix.
  The **most** important question relates to the peace process.
  ([Europarl v8](https://www.statmt.org/europarl/) · Source: European Parliament proceedings, Europarl v8 (Koehn 2005) via OPUS (Tiedemann 2012) · checked, professional translation · segment 1865044)

## chief

Used about 4 092 times in the texts (everyday ≈ 3 · literary ≈ 1 · biblical ≈ 69 · parliamentary ≈ 163 · UN documents ≈ 3 857). Meaning: [chief in the Elamur Dictionary](https://dictionary.elamur.ai/free/en/english/chief/).

- Le riz est la **principale** culture de cette région.
  Rice is the **chief** crop in this area.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by nimfeo and CK · checked, community translation · [\#320204](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/320204) [\#372343](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/372343))

- Le Polonais expliqua comment quatre des **principaux** cafés de la ville consentaient à la lancer dans la circulation, et comment le Phare de la Côte et le Sémaphore havrais lui feraient de la réclame en échange de quelques produits pharmaceutiques mis à la disposition des rédacteurs.
  The Pole explained that four of the **chief** cafés in the town had agreed to have it on sale, and that two papers, the Northcoast Pharos and the Havre Semaphore, would advertise it, in return for certain chemical preparations to be supplied to the editors.
  ([Project Gutenberg books (Verne, Hugo, Maupassant and their translators)](https://www.gutenberg.org/) · Project Gutenberg, public domain · checked, professional translation · maupassant pierre jean, row 907)

- Les **principaux** sacrificateurs portaient contre lui plusieurs accusations.
  The **chief** priests accused him of many things.
  ([World English Bible and Louis Segond 1910](https://ebible.org/) · World English Bible; Louis Segond 1910; public domain, eBible.org · checked, professional translation · MAR 15:3)

- À mes yeux, en tant que **principal** rapporteur, mais également en tant que médecin, cette proposition de directive revêt un caractère capital.
  I personally consider this bill to be enormously important, not only as the **chief** rapporteur, but also as a doctor.
  ([Europarl v8](https://www.statmt.org/europarl/) · Source: European Parliament proceedings, Europarl v8 (Koehn 2005) via OPUS (Tiedemann 2012) · checked, professional translation · segment 1388125)

- Le nouveau Ministre **principal**, John Osborne, a pris ses fonctions en avril 2001.
  The new **Chief** Minister, John Osborne, took office in April 2001.
  ([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 8772503)

## More sentences

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

- Qui est le chanteur **principal** du groupe, cette année ?
  Who's the lead singer of the group this year?
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by sacredceltic and Gulliver · checked, community translation · [\#2320350](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/2320350) [\#2321847](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/2321847))

- Le maître **principal** agit en expert dans son domaine, qu’il s’agisse de navigation, d’armement ou de transmissions.
  The senior maître acts as an expert in his field, whether in navigation, weaponry, or communications.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by Igider and Igider · checked, community translation · [\#13362958](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/13362958) [\#13362957](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/13362957))

- Qui est leur professeur **principal** ?
  Who is their homeroom teacher?
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by sacredceltic and CK · checked, community translation · [\#305257](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/305257) [\#1349287](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/1349287))

## Grammar

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

## 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=fr-en&word=principal).


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.