Fitzwilliam College is launching its inaugural translation competitions in French and German.

We would like you to translate your chosen passage into English. Please also select and underline UP TO FIVE words, phrases or structures which presented interesting translation challenges.
For EACH underlined word, phrase or structure, write a brief comment in English on the challenges and how you resolved them. Relevant aspects might include, among others, style, syntax, grammar, vocabulary, register. The five brief comments should amount to roughly 100 words in total. 

There will be two competitions for each language using the same passage. There will be a Year 12 competition which is open to UK students who are not a native speaker of the competition language. There will also be a Year 10 competition which is open to UK students attending a State school who are not native speakers of the competition language. 

Competition Rules 

These competitions are for UK resident students. Students for the Year 10 competition must attend a UK state school. Students for any of the competitions must not be native speakers of the language being translated. 

Applicants will be required to enter their details online using the form linked on the translation competitions webpage, and to upload one PDF copy of their translation, formatted using the template provided, electronically or post a hard copy of the formatted essay to:

Schools Liaison Officer

Fitzwilliam College

Cambridge

CB3 0DG

by 6pm on Friday 28th of February 2025. If the PDF file is too large to submit to the online form, please email your submission to essaycompetitions@fitz.cam.ac.uk. Further submission information can be found on the translation competition website: https://www.fitz.cam.ac.uk/event/fitzwilliam-college-competitions

Your submission must be entirely your own work. When submitting your translation, you will need to provide contact information for one of your teachers and if necessary, we may contact them to verify that your submission is entirely your own work. Students are only permitted to enter one competition and may only submit one entry to their chosen competition. 

There is a strict limit of ten submissions per school for each Year 10 Competition and five submissions per school for each Year 12 Competition. If more than ten Year 10 students or five Year 12 students from the same school enter the same competition, a teacher from that school will be contacted and asked to select the ten Year 10 entries or the five Year 12 entries; failure to do so will result in all submissions from the school to that competition being disqualified.

Submission Guidance 

Please submit your entry using the online form

https://cambridge.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6SGcyal2guUq2eq

Submissions can be uploaded to the online form in a PDF format. If the file size is too big to upload to the form, please email your submission to essaycompetitions@fitz.cam.ac.uk. We can also accept entries by post. Please address postal submissions to: Schools Liaison Officer, Fitzwilliam College, Storey's Way, Cambridge, CB3 0DG

You must use the template below to submit your entry. Any submissions not using the template below will not be counted