Glossary entry (derived from question below)
French term or phrase:
charbon le plus mauvais
English translation:
lowest grade coal
French term
Translation is depth of the passion
Native in: English 
Works in: French to English, English to French, Portuguese to English
charbon le plus mauvais
Cinq (5) broyeurs seront fournis (5*25%)
Quatre (4) broyeurs seront en opération pour le charbon le plus mauvais de la gamme des charbons prévus , pour atteindre 100%PMC
| 3 +6 | lowest grade coal |
Rowena Fuller (X)
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| 4 +3 | lowest rank coal |
Guy Bray
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| 4 | poorest grade of coal |
kashew
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| 3 | (the) worst kind of coal |
Charles Ferguson
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| Coal grades |
Tony M
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Proposed translations
lowest grade coal
| Thank you |
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Salih YILDIRIM
2 mins
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Thank you :-)
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| agree |
Samantha Squiggle
6 mins
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Thank you :-)
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Tony M
: Yes, we talk about 'grades' for coal. / Ah dear me, the S. Wales mining valleys... nostalgic childhood holiday memories!
24 mins
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Thanks Tony, perhaps I should confess to having grown up in the mining village of Aberdare in South Wales. The mines are no longer there, but then, nor am I :-)
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Daryo
: the grading is maybe more about how much calories you can get out of 1 tonne of coal - from not much - (Lignite) - to quit a lot (Anthracite) .
35 mins
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Thank you :-) That could well be the case, all I remember is that the lowest grade was reserved for the miners, and was delivered free (in great huge lumps) outside their houses. As it was the softest, dirtiest coal that would tie in with your theory as
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Jocelyne Cuenin
: Just to have the opportunity to tell you I spent one of the best years in my life in Llanelli and that I still have friends in the Rhondda. Lovely people, great landscape!!//But I'm sure Guy is right, too!
4 hrs
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Couldn't agree more :-)
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Nikki Scott-Despaigne
: Note the rotten French : "le plus mauvais" should read "le pire".// "Le plus mauvais" used increasingly, as is "moins pire", sometime for fun, but not always. I would say not non-native, just sloppy grammar.
5 hrs
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yes, almost as if it were written by a non-native speaker?
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United Kingdom
C J S FERGUSON
Native in: English (Variant: British)
Works in: Spanish to English, French to English, Italian to English, and 1 more.
(the) worst kind of coal
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Tony M
: I think this rather expresses a judgemental tone that doesn't really fit with the register of this document.
36 mins
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Yes, point taken. Besides, the way I have put it, the impression is too conversational. The other translation is far better and has a technical feel about it. Thanks.
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lowest rank coal
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Note added at 1 day2 hrs (2012-08-18 15:25:54 GMT)
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I have no objection to "grade", it depends on the context, and the questioner provided very little; "quality" could be OK too. I'm just telling you what the technical term for grade is. I first learned it, incidentally, at college in England.
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Yolanda Broad
: I just checked, and learned something! (It takes an expert in the field to know this, though...)
9 hrs
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| agree |
Nikki Scott-Despaigne
: Well I never! http://energy.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=energy&cd... bts=1&zu=http%3A//www.astm.org/Standards/D388.htm and automatically leads to a correction of the bad French, "lowest" is the obvious solution.
16 hrs
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| agree |
Tony M
: OK, but 'grade' also gets a lot of hits from the UK (none? from US)
17 hrs
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a quick Google search (coal rank + UK) returns a list of British references
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poorest grade of coal
Reference comments
Coal grades
http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/classification-coal-d_164....
Discussion
BMCR:BOILER MAXIMUM CONTINUOUS RATING
By the way, what is the signification of BMCR?
Please note, the more context you deliver, the better and more reliable the anwers are.
My little neighbour used to make us laugh when he 'invented' the expression « C'est plus mieux ! »
mauvais (bad), pire (worse), le pire (the worst)
Many of those who have read the original in-house would probably not have thought twice about it.
Finally, although "worst" would be the correct rendering of "le pire", in context, noone would honestly say "worst" grade, at a push, "poorest" grade but with "rank", then "lowest" is the obvious solution. The original is sloppy indeed. It is a mistake which non-native speakers would probably not make, rather native speakers with sloppy French!
For what purpose?