Glossary entry (derived from question below)
German term or phrase:
Aktien
English translation:
stock or shares
German term
Aktien
My text is for an American audience and I have so far used stock. However, I have noticed that American newspapers do not always say stock for shares in European companies they say shares for European companies.
If I am describing to an American audience the shares in a German company ABC GmbH which are to be transferred to another German company XYZ GmbH as part of a takeover do I use the American term stock or stick with shares as I am talking about a German company??
| 4 +3 | stock or shares |
Ted Wozniak
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Jun 4, 2007 22:35: Marcus Malabad changed "Term asked" from "Aktien (here)" to "Aktien"
Jun 4, 2007 22:35: Marcus Malabad changed "Edited KOG entry" from "<a href="/profile/87183">Christine Andrews (X)'s</a> old entry - "Aktien (here)"" to ""stock or shares""
Jun 5, 2007 14:52: Steffen Walter changed "Field (specific)" from "Finance (general)" to "Investment / Securities"
Proposed translations
United States
Bridging the Language GAAP-
Native in: English (Variant: US) 
Works in: German to English
stock or shares
It has nothing to do with whether the company is American or European.
But they can often be used interchangeably. Either term is perfectly understandable to a US reader (BTW - I used to be a "stock" broker so I am more than familiar with the usage)
Best illustrated with examples
I own Dell stock. (not shares)
I own 100 shares of Dell stock
I sold my Dell stock
I sold my Dell shares
I sold half my shares in Dell
I sold half my Dell stock/shares.
Dell's share price fell 10% in heavy trading (share because "per" is implicit)
The price of Dell stock fell 10% in heavy trading
ABC AG will transfer all of its shares in XYZ in exchange for ... (I would tend to use shares here and not stock but stock is not "wrong")
ABC will buy back 5% of its stock for its new employee share/stock ownership program
Sorry if I can't give you a hard and fast rule, but that's English for you.
| agree |
Andras Malatinszky
: Right on. Stock is the collective noun and share is the unit. Since a company's stock is the collection of its shares, stock and shares are interchangeable in many contexts, kind of like 'leaves' and 'foliage'.
31 mins
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| agree |
John Farebrother
: yes, but it's not an exclusive collective, you can still say shares. its's not a criticism, just an observation. Stock can also mean a company's capital.
44 mins
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I never said it was exclusive. See my examples
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| agree |
Ann Marie Ackermann, JD
: I'm a former American lawyer and both terms are used in the US-American justice system. Ted has it right.
3 hrs
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| neutral |
Axel Seyler (X)
: Your answer is correct for the specific question asked. But the explanatio given, shows that we are dealing with the shares (Anteile) of a GmbH. They are somewhat like partnerhip shares -no certificate issued for them. "Share" is the usual translation.
4 hrs
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Discussion