Glossary entry (derived from question below)
French term or phrase:
Mais qu’en est-il réellement ?
English translation:
But what's really going on? But is it really doing that? Bot do they?
French term
Spain
My passion is your project
Native in: English 
Works in: French to English, Spanish to English, English
Mais qu’en est-il réellement ?
"...fablabs, espaces de co-working, organisations agiles, plateformes technogiques… Ces façons d’organiser le travail auraient vocation à créer un effet de levier sur la créativité des salariés. Mais qu’en est-il réellement ? "
Thanks in advance for your suggestions!
| 3 +6 | But what's really going on? But is it really doing that? |
Tony M
|
| 4 +1 | But was is the reality of it? |
Daryo
|
| 3 | But how does it actually play out? |
Barbara Cochran, MFA
|
PRO (1): Daryo
Non-PRO (3): Rachel Fell, Victoria Britten, mchd
When entering new questions, KudoZ askers are given an opportunity* to classify the difficulty of their questions as 'easy' or 'pro'. If you feel a question marked 'easy' should actually be marked 'pro', and if you have earned more than 20 KudoZ points, you can click the "Vote PRO" button to recommend that change.
How to tell the difference between "easy" and "pro" questions:
An easy question is one that any bilingual person would be able to answer correctly. (Or in the case of monolingual questions, an easy question is one that any native speaker of the language would be able to answer correctly.)
A pro question is anything else... in other words, any question that requires knowledge or skills that are specialized (even slightly).
Another way to think of the difficulty levels is this: an easy question is one that deals with everyday conversation. A pro question is anything else.
When deciding between easy and pro, err on the side of pro. Most questions will be pro.
* Note: non-member askers are not given the option of entering 'pro' questions; the only way for their questions to be classified as 'pro' is for a ProZ.com member or members to re-classify it.
Proposed translations
But what's really going on? But is it really doing that?
"It's meant to... . But is it actually doing what it claims?" — that sort of thing; the use of the 'but...' makes me half suspect this is the tone of the piece.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 14 hrs (2019-01-07 11:57:31 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
In an informal context, one might say "...how it pans out..." [BE] — but as Nikki rightly points out, that sort of expression would be wholly inapprorpriate in this sort of register; I also think that while something specific and comparatively concrete might indeed be said to 'pan out', I feel this is perhaps less comfortable with a rather more abstract "situation" such as we see here.
| agree |
Melissa McMahon
: Yes, I think this register is better. "What is the real situation?"
5 mins
|
|
Thanks, Melissa! Exactly!
|
|
| agree |
writeaway
: everyday French, umpteen ways to express it. depends on the register of the rest of the text.
1 hr
|
|
Thanks, W/A! Indeed, and I think above all the overall tone of the artcile: critical, supportive, etc.
|
|
| agree |
Verginia Ophof
: "What's it all about, Alfie ?" :)
2 hrs
|
|
Thanks, Verginia! :-D
|
|
| neutral |
Nikki Scott-Despaigne
: An informal register could work well here, but the suggestions in the body of your post seem better suited to a research article context. Altho' journalistic turns of phrase are used in prof. magazines, it cannot be quite so informal in a research paper.
2 hrs
|
|
Thanks, Nikki! Yes, I think you're right; I was just trying to higlight the many different ways it could be expressed.
|
|
| agree |
philgoddard
: Nikki has a point - "what is".
6 hrs
|
|
Thanks, Phil! Indeed.
|
|
| neutral |
Barbara Cochran, MFA
: An overly generic interpretation./There is plenty of preliminary context!/"dnb'
t"? That doesn't exist in English, either!
11 hrs
|
|
I don't see how this can be qualified as "generic" — anything more specific isn't possible without the missing extra context. What we are missing is exactly how the article goes on to talk about these elements.
|
|
| agree |
Jennifer White
11 hrs
|
|
Thanks, Jennifer!
|
|
| agree |
Michele Fauble
23 hrs
|
|
Merci, Michele !
|
United States
Laudable Lady Linguist
Native in: English
Works in: Spanish to English, French to English, English to Spanish, and 3 more.
But how does it actually play out?
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 4 hrs (2019-01-07 01:22:14 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
A situation that takes place and develops.
| neutral |
Tony M
: As with Nikki's comment on my own suggestion, I don't really think "play out" is entirely appropriate for the fairly formal register here. History texts aren't in the same register as research documents; a battle is concrete enough to 'play out'.
5 hrs
|
|
One often sees the expression in history texts, which can have a very formal register, e.g., "the Battle of the Bulge was played out during the Second World War". Read history journal articles and wrote abstracts of them for almost 3 years, so I know.
|
But was is the reality of it?
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=“what is the reality of it...
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 day 3 hrs (2019-01-08 00:13:52 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
correction:
But what is the reality of it?
| agree |
Tony M
: I'd prefer something à little more "down-to-earth", but you've certainly captured the sense of it here. Anyone will realize you have just made a tiny typo there.
8 mins
|
|
Yes, I see it now. Thanks!
|
Discussion