Glossary entry

German term or phrase:

befreundete Unternehmen

English translation:

cooperating companies /partner companies

Added to glossary by Z.E. Ball
Dec 1, 2008 12:59
15 yrs ago
2 viewers *
German term

befreundete Unternehmen

German to English Marketing Internet, e-Commerce
Diese Links verweisen auf langjährige Partner, befreundete Unternehmen oder einfach auf interessante Web-Sites.

This sentence is from the website of a marketing agency.

Can anyone help me make this sentence sound 'normal' in English?

Discussion

Z.E. Ball (asker) Dec 1, 2008:
partners and partne companies The word partner exists in the sentence already which is why I posed the question. I can't bring myself to use: "longstanding partners, partner companies...."

Proposed translations

+2
8 mins
Selected

cooperating companies

Some companies offer links to cooperating companies.
Peer comment(s):

agree palilula (X)
5 mins
agree Rebecca Garber : avoids the repetition and the legal ramifications implied in partner and affiliated
2 hrs
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thanks...this will help avoid the double reference to partner."
+2
14 mins

partners/partner companies/ partnerships

:-)

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Note added at 17 mins (2008-12-01 13:16:21 GMT)
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or commercial partnerships

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Note added at 1 hr (2008-12-01 14:14:24 GMT)
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Otherwise if, as correctly suggested by Trudy and Paul, you wish to avoid such a repetition (although repetitions are definitely more tolerated in English in comparison to other languages), you could talk about :

"associate/affiliate companies".


Which, of course, has the shortcoming of hinting at some kind of underlying official agreement between the parties.
Note from asker:
Thanks for all the effort and if I didn't have to use partner in the first part of the sentence, I would have selected your answer.
Peer comment(s):

agree Edith Kelly : partner companies
2 mins
thanks, Edith!
neutral Trudy Peters : partner companies are already in the asker's text
11 mins
Yup. You're right.
neutral Paul Merriam : The source text is making a distinction between "befreundete Unternehmen" and "Partner". If the distinction weren't being made, I'd talk about partners as well.
12 mins
You're right as well.
agree Birgit Mann
26 mins
thanks, Birgit!
Something went wrong...
1 hr

associate/affiliate companies

see the comment to my previous answer

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Note added at 1 hr (2008-12-01 14:21:00 GMT)
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another option:

"cooperating companies"

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Note added at 1 hr (2008-12-01 14:22:50 GMT)
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:-))))))

oooopppsss!

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Note added at 1 hr (2008-12-01 14:24:53 GMT)
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How do you delete previous comments? Too late, I guess! :-)))))
Peer comment(s):

neutral sylvie malich (X) : but these aren't associates or affiliates at all, they are just some companies they know and want to include on their website
7 mins
Yup. That's what I made clear in my previous comment.
neutral Ulrike Kraemer : Sylvie is right. Associate or affiliate companies are verbundene Unternehmen, not befreundete Unternehmen. And there was no need to post this as a separate answer ...
1 hr
Well, it seems like not everybody reads the comments. That's why.
neutral Detlef Mahne (X) : There is a "Hide answer" option below this answer in case you want to get rid of this suggestion!
12 hrs
Thanks, Detlef.
Something went wrong...
2 hrs

recommended companies

You may feel this moves too far away from the original German, but it does seem to capture the sense. An example:

http://www.purplepenguinmedia.co.uk/partners.html

The phrase "partners and friends" even appears to be quite common, especially in North America. See, e.g.:

http://www.northernoutdoors.com/site/about_us/preferred_part...
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4 hrs

friends of the firm

... is the conventional (sufficiently vague, inclusive) term in this context, and would be appropriate for an organization the size of an agency.
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