Ue202122 218 S1 PDF

DSGC
2021/2022
UE 218 Anglais des affaires
Getting ready
Cours 1/4
Soraya Belaroussi
UE
 218 Anglais des affaires COURS 1
L’auteur :
Soraya Belaroussi : professeure agrégée d’anglais, responsable des UE d’anglais
du cursus d’expertise comptable au Cnam-Intec.
https://lecnam.net
Document de travail réservé aux élèves de l’Intec – Toute reproduction sans autorisation est interdite
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Directeur de la publication : Olivier Faron, administrateur général du Cnam.
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Sommaire
Programme de l’UE d’Anglais des affaires 5
Présentation du cours 9
Méthodologie de l’épreuve d’Anglais des affaires 11
Plan annuel de l’UE 218 13
Objectifs du cours 1 19
Toolbox 1
Chapitre 1. Méthodologie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
I. La phonétique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
II. Comment s’améliorer ou progresser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
III. Le vocabulaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Chapitre 2. Facts you should know ........................................................................................ 26

I. Economic theories and concepts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
II. The media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Chapitre 3. Grammaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
I. Les temps : présent et passé . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
II. L’emploi de since, for et ago . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
III. Le passif . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
IV. Le futur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
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Topic 1 Finance 79
Chapitre 1. Money, money, money . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

I. Banking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
II. Funding the economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
III. Micro-credit and micro-finance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
IV. Fintech. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
V. Too big to fail. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
VI. Financial markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Chapitre 2. Press review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Chapitre 3. Translation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Chapitre 4. Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Annexes 125
Devoir 1 133
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Programme de l’UE d’Anglais

des affaires
Le cours de l’UE d’Anglais des affaires de l’Intec correspond au programme de l’UE 6 du DSCG
tel qu’énoncé dans le BO n° 25 du 20 juin 2019.
Nature de l’épreuve Durée de l’épreuve Coefficient ECTS

Présentation en anglais d’un
1 h 30
exposé structuré à partir d’une
(1 heure de préparation,
question sur un thème en relation 1 15
15 minutes d’exposé et
avec le document suivi d’un
15 minutes d’entretien)
entretien en anglais avec un jury.
Correspondance
cours Intec
Cette unité d’enseignement conduit à préparer une épreuve ayant pour but de montrer la capacité
du candidat à maîtriser l’anglais des affaires en présentant et défendant un point de vue à partir
d’un court document écrit en langue anglaise.
Pour permettre de tester de façon pertinente les aptitudes recherchées, le sujet proposé
au candidat sera tiré de l’un des thèmes précisés infra.

Les aptitudes évaluées sont les suivantes :
• dégager une problématique à partir d’un sujet donné ;
• construire un exposé structuré ;
• s’exprimer de façon rigoureuse en anglais ;
• défendre ses positions de façon argumentée ;
• mobiliser de façon pertinente un vocabulaire lié à l’anglais des affaires ;
• intégrer à bon escient dans le discours les faits d’actualité.
1 – Finance
Thèmes Notions visées
Banks and financial institutions, money supply, the subprime
Banking
crisis and the credit crunch, microfinance.
Venture capital Business plan, investing in start-ups.
Bonds Bonds, mortgage, investing in funds. Cours 1
Stocks and shares, hedge funds, financial report, investing
Stocks and shares
clients’ money.
Derivates Spread-betting, financial instruments.
International financial market The Foreign exchange Market, the international financial system.
Compulsory and voluntary disclosures (financial
Financial Disclosure
and non-financial information, environmental, social, etc.).
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2 – Accounting and auditing

National and international frameworks, accounting principles,
Standards
harmonization, users of accounting and financial information.
Presentation and interpretation of profit and loss account,
Financial statements balance sheet, notes, cash-flows statement for entities
and groups. Cours 2
Recording and assessment (knowledge, image, innovation,
Intangibles
goodwill, etc.).
Management control
• Management control, internal and external audit.
• Audit quality.
Management accounting Levels of control, measuring performances, dashboard,
systems balanced scorecard.
3 – Governance and corporate social responsibility
Stakeholders Internal and external stakeholders. Cours 2
Governance
• Governance modes (shareholders, family, partnership).
• Mechanisms and tools.
4 – Information systems and new technologies
Information systems (IS)

• What is information system?
• Hardware, software, ERP, databases, networks, procedures.
Digital devices Big data, cloud computing, mobile and web services. Cours 3
Security and quality of IS

• Risks.
• Controls of IS.
Management and information
and communication Structure 2.0, Interactive control system, teleworking.
technologies
5 – Management, Human Resources and Strategy
Management What is management? What makes a good manager?
Work and motivation Managers and motivation.
Big and small companies, new business model and peer
Company structure production, IT impact on company structure, non-profit Cours 3
organisation.
Managing across cultures Managers, authority, and cultural diversity.
Recruitment Job applications, filling a vacancy.
Communication Internal communication.
Construction and implementation of strategies, management
Strategy and business growth
of failure, coopetition, stakeholders and strategy.
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6 – Production
Capacity and inventory, purchasing and low-cost manufacturing,
Production
choosing suppliers.
Pull and push strategies, supply chain management/workflow,
Logistics Cours 4
environmental management system (EMS).
Quality Total quality management.
Innovation classification, research and development unit,
Innovations
selection of innovations process, product launches.
Capacity and inventory, purchasing and low-cost manufacturing,
Production
choosing suppliers.
7 – Marketing
Products Products and brands.
• The product life cycle, promoting a new product.
Marketing • Negotiation. Cours 4
• Loyalties.
Advertising and communication
• Advertising and viral marketing.
• External communication, sensorial marketing.
Marketing and information and Personal data and marketing, social network and institutional
communication technologies communication.
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Présentation du cours
Bienvenue dans le cours de l’UE 218 – Anglais des affaires de l’Intec !
I. L’UE d’Anglais des affaires

L’UE d’Anglais des affaires a pour vocation de vous familiariser avec des supports en langue
anglaise – articles de presse, images, vidéos – proposant des éléments factuels et/ou
exprimant des opinions d’experts ou de journalistes sur des questions qui touchent à des
domaines en rapport avec votre environnement professionnel actuel ou futur.
Ainsi, l’idée est de mettre à profit vos connaissances et votre expérience en comptabilité,
finance, management ou marketing qui seront des bases à des réflexions plus poussées. Les
sujets ont été choisis avec le souci de faire correspondre vos préoccupations profession-
nelles et les apprentissages des autres UE du cursus et des contenus en anglais, à des fins à
la fois linguistiques – améliorer son niveau et culturelles – et techniques – en savoir plus sur
ce qui se fait/se dit dans le monde.

L’oral permet des discussions plus souples, plus proches des réels échanges que vous serez
peut-être amenés à avoir dans le cadre professionnel avec des partenaires étrangers. Voyez
l’exercice comme une chance :
∙ les fautes de grammaire sont tolérées ;
∙ les hésitations sont naturelles ;
∙ vous pouvez vous reprendre, reformuler, rien n’est figé ;
∙ les émotions sont plus facilement et immédiatement véhiculées.
II. Les devoirs

Dans le cadre de son dispositif pédagogique, l’Intec vous offre la possibilité de vous entraîner
tout au long de l’année en soumettant à la correction le devoir se trouvant à la fin de chacun
des 4 cours de l’UE d’Anglais des affaires. Ces devoirs, numérotés de 1 à 4, sont à déposer sur
l’application Devoirs en ligne de l’Intec (Deli) à l’adresse suivante : deli.cnam.fr
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Le calendrier des dates limites de dépôt des devoirs à soumettre à la correction est à votre
disposition, dès votre inscription, depuis l’ENF du Cnam (https://lecnam.net) dans la
rubrique Votre scolarité au Cnam-Intec.
Un cinquième devoir, correspondant à un devoir de synthèse, vous est proposé à mi-
parcours entre le devoir 2 et le devoir 3 afin de vous préparer à l’examen de fin d’année.
Ce devoir est mis en ligne en milieu d’année universitaire selon le planning précisé dans
le guide de l’élève sur le site https://lecnam.net (rubrique Votre scolarité au Cnam-Intec).
Afin de bien vous préparer à l’examen final, il est vivement recommandé de faire ces devoirs
et de les soumettre à la correction. Les devoirs sont corrigés par des enseignants de l’Intec
pour un retour personnalisé sur votre travail.
Par ailleurs, les élèves qui auront soumis à la correction, dans les délais impartis, au moins 4
des 5 travaux (4 devoirs et 1 devoir de synthèse) et qui auront obtenu une moyenne égale
ou supérieure à 10/20 à 4 des travaux, bénéficieront d’1 point de bonification sur la note
de l’examen final de l’Intec.
III. Les webconférences

Selon la modalité de formation choisie, vous aurez accès à des webconférences depuis l’ENF
du Cnam.
Les webconférences sont des séances de cours d’un format de deux heures vous permettant
d’interagir en direct avec un enseignant. Elles peuvent également être visionnées en différé
autant de fois que vous le souhaitez.
Les supports utilisés sont mis à disposition et téléchargeables après la diffusion.
La progression suit celle des cours. Il s’agit de reprendre les notions fondamentales en les
mettant en perspective et de vérifier par des exercices simples que les notions sont assi-
milées. C’est le lieu privilégié pour ceux qui étudient seuls et à distance d’avoir un inter
locuteur, à condition que les questions soient courtes.
attention
Pour participer aux webconférences en direct ou les visionner en différé, il faut disposer
d’une connexion Internet (la lecture s’effectuant en streaming).
Les webconférences ne sont pas téléchargeables.
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Méthodologie de l’épreuve
d’Anglais des affaires
I. Déroulement de l’épreuve
L’épreuve d’Anglais des affaires en DSGC/DSCG est une épreuve orale qui comporte une pré-
paration d’une heure sans autres documents que ceux qui sont fournis avec le sujet. Les
documents sont en anglais. Dans un premier temps, le candidat doit présenter en anglais
l’exposé qu’il a préparé, structuré à partir d’une question sur un thème en relation avec le
document. Dans un second temps, un entretien, portant sur le sujet, est mené en anglais.
L’épreuve se déroule en deux temps :
∙ les candidats devront plancher sur un article de presse en anglais (presse anglo-saxonne) ;
ils montreront qu’ils en ont compris les grandes lignes, le ton, les enjeux. Une question
accompagnera le texte, elle constituera la base de leur commentaire ;
∙ les membres du jury poseront ensuite des questions portant sur le sujet ; l’entretien sera
mené en anglais.
Les directives de l’épreuve prévoient d’évaluer la capacité des étudiants à :

∙ dégager une problématique à partir du sujet posé ;
∙ construire un exposé structuré ;
∙ s’exprimer de façon rigoureuse en anglais, d’où la nécessité de revoir les points de
grammaire (dans chaque série) en plus de la maîtrise d’un vocabulaire de base et
technique ;
∙ défendre ses positions de façon argumentée ;
∙ intégrer des faits d’actualité.
Le support sera un extrait de presse traitant un aspect des thèmes du programme.
Très précisément, voici les consignes officielles :
∙ le ou la candidat(e) aura 1 heure de préparation pour présenter un résumé et un
commentaire à partir d’un document en anglais sans dictionnaire ;
∙ il ou elle disposera de 15 minutes en prise de parole seul(e) ;
∙ le ou la professeur(e) procédera ensuite à un entretien qui pourra durer 15 minutes.
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Les trois temps de l’oral se décomposent donc ainsi :

∙∙ le résumé des idées clés du texte ;
∙∙ le commentaire des points que vous aurez relevés avec l’aide de la question en démarrage ;
∙∙ l’entretien : le jury prend la parole.
Comme on le voit, les compétences testées lors de cette épreuve sont à la fois d’ordre métho-
dologique (savoir dégager une problématique, construire un exposé structuré, défendre des
positions de manière argumentée, mobiliser ses connaissances avec pertinence, intégrer des
éléments d’actualité…), axées par ailleurs sur des connaissances relatives aux grands thèmes
du programme, mais aussi sur des connaissances d’ordre linguistique (maîtrise de l’expres-
sion en anglais).
II. Modalités de préparation

Le cours qui vous est proposé a été conçu dans le souci de vous aider à préparer cette
épreuve qui suppose de votre part la maîtrise des trois compétences évoquées ci-avant :
savoir concevoir un exposé et vous exprimer, avoir un niveau de connaissances satisfaisant
sur l’ensemble des thèmes proposés, avoir la capacité de vous exprimer en anglais. Dans ce
souci, nous vous proposons la structure suivante pour chacun des quatre supports de cours :
∙∙ la première partie, de nature méthodologique, vous guidera dans les différentes phases
de l’épreuve : analyse du sujet, recherche des idées, élaboration d’une problématique,
construction du plan, expression, réponse aux questions, etc. ;
∙∙ la deuxième partie du cours traitera d’un thème (pour le premier cours) ou de deux
thèmes (pour les trois supports de cours suivants) constituant le programme de l’épreuve.
Les thèmes seront traités dans l’ordre où ils figurent dans le programme officiel présenté
ci-avant ;
∙∙ la troisième partie sera constituée d’une revue de presse, avec des articles apportant des
éléments d’actualité qui alimenteront votre réflexion. La partie « Practice » quant à elle
vous propose des textes avec des questions de type examen, tous accompagnés d’un
corrigé indicatif. Une dernière section vous entraînera à la traduction du français vers
l’anglais.
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Plan annuel de l’UE 218
COURS 1
TOOlBOX 1
Chapitre 1. Méthodologie
I. La phonétique
II. Comment s’améliorer ou progresser
III. Le vocabulaire
Chapitre 2. Facts you should know
I. Economic theories and concepts
II. The media
Chapitre 3. Grammaire
I. Les temps : présent et passé
II. L’emploi de since, for et ago

III. Le passif
IV. Le futur
TOPiC 1 FINANCE
Chapitre 1. Money, money, money
I. Banking
II. Funding the economy
III. Micro-credit and micro-finance
IV. Fintech
V. Too big to fail
VI. Financial markets
Chapitre 2. Press review
Chapitre 3. Translation
Chapitre 4. Practice
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COURS 2
TOOLBOX 2
I. Presenting the topic and the tone
II. Rephrasing ideas
III. Linkwords
I. L’article défini the
II. Les adjectifs
III. Les adverbes
TOPIC 2 ACCOUNTING AND AUDITING

Chapitre 1. Accounting
I. Standards
II. The financial statements
III. Intangibles
IV. Management control
Chapitre 2. Auditing
I. Definition
II. Internal and external audits
III. The Big Four
IV. Reforming the system
TOPIC 3 GOVERNANCE AND CORPORATE SOCIAL

RESPONSIBILITY
Chapitre 1. Governance
I. Definition
II. The board of directors
III. Theory of agency
IV. Other stakes
V. Other forms of governance
Chapitre 2. Stakeholders
I. Definition
II. A question of reciprocity
III. The Trade unions
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Chapitre 3. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

I. Definition
II. Benefits
III. ISO 26000
IV. Good and bad publicity
V. CSR and the Law
COURS 3
TOOLBOX 3
I. Décrypter le texte
II. Argumenter, commenter
III. Axes de problématisation
I. Rappel : les pronoms relatifs who, which, that
II. La préposition « que »
III. Les relatives plus « complexes »
IV. Du côté des verbes
TOPIC 4 INFORMATION SYSTEMS

AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES
Chapitre 1. Information systems
I. The predominance of information systems
II. Software
III. Artificial Intelligence
Chapitre 2. The Web and the GAFAM’s
I. The Web 2.0
II. The GAFAM’s
III. Teleworking
IV. Issues
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TOPIC 5 MANAGEMENT, HUMAN RESOURCES

AND STRATEGY
Chapitre 1. Management
I. Key department
II. Managing across cultures
Chapitre 2. Human resources
I. Recruitment
II. Skills
Chapitre 3. Internal and external communications
I. Emails
II. Other forms of communication
Chapitre 4. Company structure
I. Different sizes and types
II. The question of hierarchy
III. The non-profit sector
Chapitre 5. Strategy and Business growth
I. Business objectives and values
II. Strategies for growing
III. Regulation of operations
COURS 4
TOOLBOX 4
I. Pronunciation of UK and US english
II. Spelling (l’orthographe)
III. Differences in vocabulary
I. Le gérondif
II. Les quantifieurs
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TOPIC 6 PRODUCTION
Chapitre 1. Supply chain management
I. Creating products and value
II. The supply chain
III. Suppliers
Chapitre 2. Quality and innovation
I. Quality for people
II. Quality for nature
III. Innovation is key
TOPIC 7 MARKETING
Chapitre 1. Brands
I. Life cycle of products
II. Launching a new product or service
Chapitre 2. Marketing strategies
I. Branding and advertising
II. Types of advertising
III. Marketing communication
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Objectifs du cours 1
• Se familiariser avec la phonétique.

• Comprendre et maîtriser des connaissances basiques sur la ﬁnance
et le fonctionnement des banques.
• Saisir les enjeux liés à ces questions.
• Acquérir le vocabulaire adapté.
• S’habituer à lire la presse en anglais.
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Chapitre 2. Facts you should know
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Toolbox 1
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COUrs 1 AnglAis des AffAires 218
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1. Méthodologie
I. La phonétique
L’épreuve de l’UE 218 étant à l’oral, il est impératif de travailler sa prononciation de l’an-
glais. Beaucoup d’étudiants (la majorité ?) se plaignent de ne pas avoir « un bon accent »
et cela en devient même une excuse pour ne pas se lancer à l’oral du tout. Pourtant, ce
n’est pas d’un problème d’accent dont ils devraient se soucier, il y en a des centaines dans
la langue anglaise : entre villes et régions de la Grande-Bretagne (le cockney du Sud-Est
de Londres sonne très différemment de l’écossais !) sans parler des accents selon les côtes
nord-américaines, États du Sud ou du Nord, ou encore l’accent australien ou néo-zélandais,
tous typiques et spécifiques, donc différents.
Ce qu’il vous faut certainement améliorer, c’est la prononciation et l’intonation, c’est-
à-dire appliquer la bonne accentuation sur le mot. L’accent tonique (word stress), c’est la
syllable qu’il faut accentuer dans le mot. C’est pourquoi, chaque fois que vous rechercherez
un mot dans le dictionnaire, il faudra aussi lire et mémoriser sa retranscription phonétique
entre crochets juste à côté. Les sites Internet de type wordreference ou reverso permettent
d’entendre le mot par un simple clic, ce qui a l’immense avantage de vous donner l’ac-
centuation. Plusieurs sites de « text to speech » proposent ce service (logiciel) comme
ttsreader.com ou ispeech.org/text.to.speech.
L’alphabet phonétique anglais n’est pas si difficile, beaucoup de symboles ressemblent à
notre alphabet.
source : From slideshare.net/lmartina/english-phonetics.
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EXERCISE 1
QUESTIONS
OVER TO YOU
Retranscrivez en toutes lettres ces sons (l’apostrophe devant la syllabe marque le stress) :
1. /ˈθruː/
2. /ˈeɪʒə/
3. /ˈhaɪə/
4. /ɔːlˈðəʊ/
5. /haɪəˈrɑːrkɪkəl/
6. /ˈdʒʌdʒmənt/
7. /ˈbaɪəst/
8. /ˈf3ːrm/
9. /ˈtʃaɪnə/
10. /ɪnˈdɛtɪd/
ANSWER KEY
1. Through; 2. Asia; 3. Higher; 4. Although; 5. Hierarchical; 6. Judgment; 7. Biased
(partial, subjectif); 8. Firm; 9. China; 10. Indebted (endetté).
II. Comment s’améliorer ou progresser
Pensez à écouter le plus d’anglais possible : podcasts, vidéos, séries télévisées… Votre oreille
s’habituera et vous reproduirez une phonologie de plus en plus correcte et authentique,
même si on n’attend pas de vous un bilinguisme parfait à l’examen !
Pour la lecture d’articles, vidéos, podcasts (sites conseillés) :
∙∙https://www.bbc.com/news
∙∙http://www.bbc.com/learningenglish
∙∙http://www.elllo.org/
∙∙https://www.theguardian.com/international
∙∙https://www.ted.com/#/ (conférences sur divers sujets, très intéressant !)
∙∙https://www.project-syndicate.org/ (plus difficile, articles d’experts)
Préparez-vous aux épreuves écrite et orale. Pour cela, vous pouvez trouver un « partenaire
d’échange linguistique ».
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Le principe est celui des sites de rencontres, mais là vous choisissez un ou plusieurs contacts
selon l’âge, le sexe, les hobbies et, surtout, le niveau d’anglais. De très nombreuses per-
sonnes – qui sont soit anglophones, soit très bonnes en anglais, comme des expatriés ou
des étudiants – cherchent à améliorer leur français en échange de discussions en anglais par
messages, webcam, rencontres au café, etc.
Pour trouver un(e) partenaire linguistique pour vous préparer à une épreuve orale ou
écrite (sites conseillés) :
∙∙ https://tandem-linguistique.org/
∙∙ https://polyglotclub.com/
III. Le vocabulaire
the method
Il n’y a pas de recette miracle pour acquérir du vocabulaire : il faut l’apprendre ! Au fur et
à mesure, réécrivez les nouveaux mots, nouvelles expressions sur un carnet type répertoire
alphabétique.
Cette UE requiert un lexique plus technique que celui auquel vous êtes sans doute habi-
tués, mais les mêmes mots sont employés sans cesse pour couvrir plusieurs thèmes – par
exemple, accountability signifie « responsabilité » dans un sens très général (devoir rendre
des comptes de ses actes), mais aussi dans le cadre plus pointu de la gouvernance, pour par-
ler de la transparence requise dans la parution des états financiers des entreprises.
Pour vous référer (sites incontournables) :
∙∙https://www.wordreference.com – avec un forum d’internautes et de professeurs qui
interviennent ;
∙∙https://context.reverso.net/traduction/ – avec remise en contexte, synonymes, etc.
Entraînez-vous à la traduction à la fin de chaque cours. Les tableaux Vocabulary in context ne
sont pas exhaustifs mais vous donnent une idée du type de lexique à maîtriser.
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2. Facts you should know
I. Economic theories and concepts

Afin de mieux appréhender les différents thèmes abordés dans l’année pour cette UE d’An-
glais des affaires, il serait judicieux de les rattacher à des théories économiques pour appor-
ter plus de matière à la réflexion et étoffer vos commentaires.
Nous vous proposons un résumé des « fondamentaux » en économie, organisés selon les
thématiques de l’UE et bien évidemment en anglais.
A. liberalism and free trade

This part will help you understand most of the issues related to:
∙ finance and the dominance of the shareholder value (valeur actionnariale);
∙ management;
∙ corporate strategy;
∙ the non-profit model (as an alternative to mainstream capitalism).
∙ 1. Adam Smith (1723-1790)
Adam Smith is said to be the “father of liberalism”; his principles shed a revolutionary
light on the economy–“revolutionary” also literally as his writings were published during
the Industrial Revolution in Britain–introducing capitalism to the developed world. Just
as technological progress introduced the steam engine and machines which radically
changed the relation to time and space and the way business was done within a country and
internationally.
In “The Wealth of Nations”, written in 1776, Smith described his (now famous) theory of the
“invisible hand”: the law of supply and demand creates a natural balance which should not
be interfered with. Man is led by an “invisible hand” when doing business and the state has
no role to play apart from guaranteeing education, justice and infrastructure.
The economy depends on the good running of exchanges while competition is key to its
dynamism. The whole mechanism works according to the notion of personal interest: by
making sure you look after your own interest (earning money, making profits) you work for
the general interest as your success will benefit everyone (suppliers, clients…). This view
goes against the vision of a state working for the collectivity (and later the planned econo-
mies of communist regimes like the USSR or China).
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The accumulation of capital (equipment and profits) is a vital part of the liberal process, and
must be understood as a direct consequence of individual initiative. The defense of capital
value and the dominance of the market over the state paint the picture of early capitalism,
an economic system which has been increasingly controversial in the 21st century.
Economic activity should be free of state regulation and particularly of taxes and tariffs.
Although he worked as a customs officer later in his career, Smith advocated the suppres-
sion of barriers. Hence the terms “liberal” or the expression “laissez faire” (coined by French
economist Vincent de Gournay who pioneered the ideas of liberalism).
A radically new vision of exchanges (exports and imports) emerged. They were made simpler
and smoother than before when the economic systems were based on mercantilism, i.e.
protectionism of national trade (“Colbertisme” in France).
You now understand the origins of free trade.
Word box
Supply and demand: l’offre et la demande
Controversial: polémique
Taxes and tariffs: droits de douane
A customs officer: douanier
Barriers: barrières à l’entrée
Smoother: plus fluide(s)
∙ 2. Friedrich Hayek (1899-1992)

Hayek was a British philosopher and economist born in Austria; he belongs to the liberal
school of economics with his defense of private property versus state control. His works
promoted the value of giving a price to goods and services, as only prices can adjust supply
and demand depending on their availability or their scarcity. Prices signal if a business is
making profits or losses.
Because the state isn’t good at managing or forecasting prices, it cannot create wealth in an
efficient way, said Hayek. Like Smith before, he promoted the superiority of the market and
free competition over the state in dealing with economic issues.
Word box
Scarcity: rareté
∙ 3. Milton Friedman (1919-2006)

Friedman was an American economist and a Professor at the university of Chicago. He is
often described as an “ultra liberal” whose ideas–tagged as “the school of Chicago”–inspired
many contemporary politicians like Ronald Reagan or Margaret Thatcher.
To summarise Friedman’s monetarism: The action of central banks must prevail over govern-
ments because they have the power to increase interest rates, and this is the best weapon
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against inflation (better than the usual state fiscal policies). Raising interest rates reduces
the amount of money supply.
Friedman was therefore against state intervention-considered as too slow to react and inef-
ficient–and fiercely opposed John Maynard Keynes’ ideas (read about Keynes below) which
had been promoted since the end of WWII in the USA. He advocated deregulation, meaning
that the state should not regulate many aspects of the economy and let the market economy
organise itself through privatisations. Of course in this vision, trade unions are seen as an
obstacle to liberal measures which included lowering the minimum wage for example.
Such views were adopted and implemented in the UK, the USA and other anglo-saxon econo-
mies throughout the 1980’s but have since been moderated with a gradual re-intervention
of the state, especially under President Obama’s administration and his stimulus measures
after the 2008 financial crisis.
Word box
Money supply: masse monétaire
Stimulus: relance
focus
Features of capitalism
∙ Seeking maximum profits
∙ Private property (of the means of production such as land or factory)
∙ Competition
∙ Technological progress
∙ Markets: the labour market, the market of goods and services and the financial market
∙ Innovation and risk taking
B. state intervention Document de travail réservé aux élèves de l’Intec – Toute reproduction sans autorisation est interdite
The one name you need to know when it comes to theories about the role of the state in the
economy is John Maynard Keynes!
Keynes (1883-1946) was a British economist whose ideas inspired the policies of the New
Deal in the 1930’s in the USA, in the wake of the 1929 Depression.
Keynesianism is about giving a central role to states when the economy needs recover-
ing. The recovery must be based on raising the money supply (by lowering interest rates),
allowing inflation to happen so that wages can increase. Public spending therefore needs to
be high to sustain such an economy as public investments are necessary.
The mechanism aims at boosting consumption (the demand) and consumers’ purchasing
power as jobs are created and social benefits are raised.
Whenever the state intervenes in the economy, the expression “Keynesian measures” is
used today.
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Word box
In the wake of: à la suite de
Recovery: reprise
Purchasing power: pouvoir d’achat
Social benefits: minima sociaux
focus
Inflation
Inflation refers to the situation when prices rise to such a point that a currency loses its
value. Inflation takes place when the demand exceeds the supply, causing scarcity
(rarity) and therefore a hike (an increase) in prices.
While this may be good news for those who own assets like property or stocks, it is bad
news for the economy as it results in a loss of purchasing power (the same sum cannot buy
the same product or service) and a weakening of the exchange rate.
The role of central banks is to guarantee price stability and limit inflation; the target rate is
of 2% for the European Central Bank as well as for the Federal Reserve in the USA.
Their actions include raising the interest rate to slow down the money supply (money cir-
culating having increased to keep up with prices) and forcing banks to increase the level of
their cash reserves, so they have to reduce the volume of their loans.
Word box
Stocks: actions
C. the organisation of work

This part will help you talk or write about the origins of theories on production, manage-
ment and corporate strategies.
∙ 1. Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915)

Frederick Taylor was an American mechanical engineer; he developed a scientific approach
on the organisation of labour. Using the findings of Adam Smith on the specialisation of
work, he studied how productivity could be raised with the division of tasks.
Taylorism is about setting distinct objectives to workers in an organisation: those who
supervise–managers, foremen–and those who operate, i.e. workers, themselves divided
into skilled and unskilled.
This organisation had huge impacts on other domains like accounting, management, wages
and the representation of hierarchy.
Such a vision of labour division was notoriously portrayed by Charlie Chaplin in his film
Modern Times (1936), where workers could be seen performing repetitive tasks along
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assembly lines. Taylorism undeniably introduced a certain form of dehumanisation of

labour, with workers simply obeying rules and the main objective of productivity; time can-
not be wasted, maximum efficiency is required, this was Taylor’s “one best way”.
Defenders of Taylorism argue that the method was also meant to relieve workers of stre
nuous work and fatigue and that it undeniably improved productivity and technological pro-
gress in the 20th century.
The race for productivity has always been controversial; it is seen as one of the main flaw of
capitalism, as it is criticised for being used to increase profits more than human well-being.
Definition
Productivity: it’s a ratio calculated from the quantity of goods produced,
or sales achieved relative to the time spent to create this output.
Word box
Foremen: contremaîtres
Skilled: spécialisé
Unskilled: non spécialisé
Assembly lines: travail à la chaîne
One best way: la meilleure façon d’opérer
To relieve: soulager
Flaw: défaut
∙ 2. Henry Ford (1863-1947)

Ford was a mechanical engineer before becoming the world-famous industrial tycoon
whose name has been associated to more than a car make as it has been synonymous with a
revolutionary process of production: Fordism.
In the assembly lines of his Ford Motor Company in Detroit, Ford used Taylor’s task defini-
tion to increase productivity with mass production. Fordism is also about introducing wage
motivation as a tool of management of workers; by paying them $5 a day (relatively high at
the time) Ford made sure workers stayed on the job despite its hardship and repetitiveness,
and they could even afford the cars they were making.
Today, Ford is still a very successful car maker: it ranks highly (sixth) in the list of world car
manufacturers, and has a head count of about 200 000 employees. But it is Fordism which
has marked the history of economics as a method of production; it has been adopted and
used since its creation to this day especially in the car industry. The advent of automation
and machines has replaced this dominant model.
However, Fordism can be found in services when the business model is based on group
work, such as call centres or dispatch and delivery platforms of the Amazon kind which
function along the principles of the division of labour.
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Word box
Industrial tycoon: magnat, grand capitaine d’industrie
Count: effectif
∙ 3. Lean manufacturing or Toyotism

In the 1960’s Taiichi Ohno, a Japanese engineer, devised a new method of production which
can be described as an improvement of Taylorism and Fordism. As it was implemented in
Toyota’s assembly lines, it is referred to Toyotism.
Toyotism (or Ohnism) introduced lean manufacturing to the car industry. Its principles can
be summarised by the “five zero” rule:
∙ zero stock: to avoid overproduction and surpluses;
∙ zero paper: reducing administrative paperwork;
∙ zero waste: to reduce costs;
∙ zero delay: thanks to “just-in-time” logistics;
∙ zero fault: avoiding after-sales services with the best quality of maintenance of parts.
Besides streamlining production to make it “lean”, Toyotism added elements of quality to
the objective of quantity (productivity) through the creation of “quality circles”; techni-
cians and supervisors meet up to discuss issues of quality, cost, price… It’s an improvement
to Taylor’s “vertical” vision of hierarchy. Ultimately, Toyotism can be seen as a method of
management encouraging corporate culture.
Word box
Lean manufacturing: production allégée ou à flux tendu
Maintenance of parts: pièces détachées
To streamline: rationaliser/« dégraisser »
D. Global Trade
∙ 1. David Ricardo (1772-1823)

Ricardo was a British economist who used and completed Adam Smith’s work on the ques-
tion of competition and international trade. In the context of the beginning of free trade,
Ricardo advocated an even more open view than Smith, and a clear breach from mercantism
which saw imports as a failure, a loss of sovereignty.
According to Ricardo, a country should no longer seek to sell its products where they are
best paid and buy from the cheapest offerers, it should not hesitate to import goods that it
cannot produce efficiently.
Ricardo’s theory of comparative advantage is based on the notion of productivity; if a
nation is highly productive in its creation of a particular good, it should specialise in it, and
import other goods for which it isn’t as productive. His philosophy introduced elements of
competitiveness which did not exist at the time.
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∙ 2. HOS theory
This theory bears the initials of the three economists who introduced it between 1919 and
1953: Heckscher, Ohlin and Samuelson. Based on Ricardo’s study of countries’ comparative
advantage, HOS confirm that to reach a balance in global trade, countries must export their
abundant production and import the products they are lacking.
The same logic should be used for labour: economies where the labourforce is cheap must
invest in labour-intensive industries. HOS advocates the benefits of international trade.
E. Global Finance
The free flow of capital around the world may be taken for granted today in the context of
globalisation and decades after the advent of the market economy. However, it is essential
to remember that finance was liberalised following the recommendations of economists like
Milton Friedman (for deregulation) and the works of Henri Bourguignat a few years later.
Bourguignat is a contemporary French economist; in the 1980’s his study of international
finance identified “3D’s” as the source of the phenomenon: de-compartmentalisation,
de-regulation and de-intermediation.
De-compartmentalisation describes the removal of the barrier separating deposit banks and
investment banks so that they have become retail banks.
De-regulation means the end of strict rules governing banking services, which resulted in
lower costs between banks which could trade with each other more freely.
De-intermediation signals the new way for firms to find funds, no longer only through bank
loans but through securities issued by financial institutions. It marked the advent of the
stock market as a major economic agent.
You need to bear in mind that theories on global trade and of deregulation of capital are
both crucial to understand. They account for the industrialisation of Western economies
and the take-off of emerging economies once they adopted the same models of growth such
as exports and opening up to free trade.
Today we have entered the digital age, and a new “D” has emerged: de-materialisation!
Word box
To take for granted: tenir pour acquis
Deposit bank: banque de dépôt
Retail bank: banque commerciale
Securities: titres, produits financiers
Stock market: Bourse
To account for: justifier, expliquer
The take-off: décollage
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F. technology and innovation
∙ 1. Joseph Schumpeter (1883-1950)

a. Creative destruction
The one name you need to know when it comes to discuss the importance of technologi-
cal progress is Joseph Schumpeter, a major British economist (and Professor at Harvard
University) of the 20th century.
Schumpeter determined the origins of economic cycles as stemming from innovation.
Technology is such a powerful and dynamic force that it rules the way the economy is run.
Schumpeter’s concept of innovation is summarised in the phrase “creative destruction”; it’s
the idea that every innovation provokes a creation (of jobs, of added value) at the same time
as it destroys the pre-existing model in use. This is the principle of disruption.
Innovations entail more innovations as firms want to imitate, improve or purchase competi-
tion’s innovative element, because the firm which introduces it earns a form of monopoly,
once it has the protection of a patent.
This ecosystem creates a dynamic process and leads to economic growth.
Word box
Disruption: changement radical
To entail: entraîner
A patent: un brevet
b. Types of innovation
He defined five types of innovations:
∙ New products
∙ New methods of production
∙ New raw material
∙ New work organisation
∙ New market
Here are examples:
∙ Fordism illustrates the case of a new method of production (mass production) which
resulted in a disruption of previous models and an economic boom;
∙ The digital age has been using a new raw material: data (and now “Big data”) the main
resource to power the new economy.
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focus
The different types of markets
1. A monopoly: It is the economic situation when one single seller dominates the whole
market. Examples include Microsoft (software), Google (search engines) or Monsanto
(seeds).
The firm acquires the largest market share thanks to its advance mostly in terms of tech-
nology as well as its patents. Sometimes monopolies are gained with the help of favourable
government legislation, which is the exact opposite of antitrust laws; for example when
a state favours the largest bidder during a public procurement or when it allows for tax
breaks or tax credits. Patents are granted by state agencies so it can also be seen as a form
of protectionism of these firms.
2. A duopoly: is very similar to a monopoly but involves two organisations owning all
or most of the market of a product or a service. This is the case for example with Boeing
and Airbus in aeronautics, or Amazon and Apple for e-books. Duopolies can have the same
power as a monopoly if they collude (agree) on production and prices, which is illegal
(anti-trust laws).
3. An oligopoly: The situation is that of a small number of sellers on the market, and
they reap all or most of the market share. They use their advance and the possibility they
are given to make economies of scale to grow, make profit margins and beat competition.
4. A monopsony: Case when there is only one buyer and many sellers or wholesalers.
This is mostly the case for the public sector where the state is the employer of agents
(teachers, policemen and women, nurses etc. sell their workforce) or in the case of public
procurements when the state provides contracts. Monopsonies can be found in agriculture
or industries like mining extraction too, one large firm buying from several smaller produc-
ers or workers.
Word box
Wholesaler: grossiste
c. Role of the entrepreneur

Schumpeter’s theory is also a landmark for management. He described the entrepreneur as
the central figure of the process of innovation.
Not all CEO’s are entrepreneurs according to Schumpeter’s definition, only those who take
risks, who have ideas about how to disrupt a market or create one. The word “venture”–a
synonym for “company”–initially means risk. This profile perfectly illustrates the difference
which is increasingly made between a manager and a “leader”.
Word box
Landmark: référence
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∙ 2. Endogenous growth
In the 1980’s a group of American economists–Paul Romer, Robert Barro and Robert Lucas–
examined the causes of growth and offered a whole new explanation from the traditional
school of thought.
Indeed, the reasoning until then to account for the boom of the economic situation in the
west after WWII was that it was all down to the factors of production, i.e. land, equipment
and capital. Technological progress was considered as an outside (exogenous) element.
The novelty consisted in determining other factors within the ecosystem (internal or endog-
enous). It became apparent that growth was stimulated first and foremost by technology.
Technology being brought about by investments in other forms of capital than just finance.
a. Technological capital
Innovation: it is crucial for an organisation to invest massively in innovation through a solid
R and D (Research and Development) department.
This part also concerns the importance of owning intangible assets such as patents to
secure a monopoly and raise the value of the firm’s portfolio.
b. Strategic capital
Firms need to acquire the right strategies to adopt and implement innovation.
c. Human capital
Having the best qualified staff is essential so it is fundamental to train them. It is the role of
education (state) and of firms through apprenticeship or other in-house programmes. This
is about building and upgrading a certain form of know-how.
d. Public capital
This is when the state steps in: through its indispensable investments in infrastructure–
including the key telecommunications industry–and education.
Word box
Intangible assets: actifs immatériels
To adopt and implement: mettre en place
focus
Externalities
Externalities in the economy are the consequences or secondary effects of the production
and consumption of goods and services on the well-being of everyone and on the environ-
ment. Externalities can be positive or negative, yet they happen to be mostly negative.
Here are some examples of positive externalities:
∙∙ When a producer opts for organic farming, the consequences are beneficial not only
for consumers but also for the environment as it means less pollution for the nearby riv-
ers or underground water levels.
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∙∙ Besides, if a beekeeper has his or her activities in the vicinity, the bees will be attracted
by the farmer’s crops and start pollinating them, so the benefits are reciprocal.
∙∙ Innovation brings about many benefits such as a better access to information, educa-
tion (Moocs), telecommuting…
∙∙ The state produces most of the positive externalities: through education for instance,
it funds the future skills which the private sector will be needing. Through healthcare
campaigns such as compulsory vaccination. Or when the state regulates the economy
and acts for the general interest (e.g. fight against tax evasion).
As for negative externalities:
∙∙ Pollution from industrial activity
∙∙ Tax evasion
∙∙ Stressful working conditions, layoffs…
∙∙ Cost for the community in terms of healthcare.
An effective way to make sure the private sector shares the costs of its negative externali-
ties is to make companies pay taxes (e.g. carbon tax).
Otherwise, through their commitment to CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) firms vow
to implement measures to limit their detrimental impacts.
Word box
Organic: bio
Crops: cultures
∙ 3. Economies of scale
Large firms can increase their production and lower costs because the costs are spread over a
great number of goods. The cost of every extra decreases as production increases.
This is easy to observe in the car industry where there are few manufacturers and a large
demand (type of market: oligopoly).
In the case of digital goods, the concept of economies of scale is different. Firms launching
an innovation have to support high fixed costs (servers, software development costs etc.)
but, because the intangible goods are easily replicated (copy-paste function) and distri
buted, the marginal cost is close to zero!
Think about entertainment (movies, series, music), the media, software, online content,
apps… There is hardly any cost for maintenance, except the occasional updates and the
operating costs are reduced to the strict minimum, for example wages as the firms’ head
count is very low.
Word box
Copy-paste: copier-coller
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II. The media

Cette sous-partie a pour but de vous présenter les principaux titres de la presse écrite et
quelques autres médias anglo-saxons afin de vous familiariser avec leur histoire, leurs lignes
éditoriales et leur popularité.
En effet, les textes que vous aurez à lire et qui sont la base de toute réflexion sont tirés de ces
quotidiens ou mensuels et il est essentiel de connaître un minimum les spécificités de cha-
cun pour repérer le contexte, le style ou les partis pris avant de formuler tout commentaire.
L’objectif est également de vous encourager à la lecture de ces titres ou au visionnage de
chaînes d’information ou autres vidéos, afin que cela devienne un plaisir voire un réflexe
naturel dans votre recherche d’approfondissement de tel ou tel sujet.
À l’heure d’Internet et du haut débit, l’accès aux sites des médias devrait être facile – vous
trouverez les liens ci-après –, mais il faudra compter sur la barrière des paywalls qui limi-
teront vos lectures. À vous de voir si vous souhaitez ensuite passer à un abonnement (aux
versions papier ou numériques, souvent les deux sont associées) selon les goûts que vous
aurez développés au fil du temps.
Side note
∙ lesLa revue Courrier international est un excellent investissement : chaque semaine, elle offre
meilleurs articles des plus grands titres de presse mondiaux, tous traduits en français. Une
entrée en matière qui pourrait (devrait ?) vous donner envie de retrouver l’article dans sa ver-
sion originale sur Internet, en plus d’une source de sujets pour alimenter votre culture générale !
∙ Le site Ofup.fr propose des abonnements à une très grande quantité de magazines et mensuels
avec des réductions conséquentes (de 30 à 70 %) aux étudiants.
A. the press
∙ 1. Main British quality newspapers

a. The Economist
It was founded in England by James Wilson, a businessman. Its editorial policy has always
been pro-business and free trade, being historically against tariffs by defending the repeal
(abrogation) of the 1815 Corn Laws which taxed and restricted the imports of grain, making
bread too expensive. Following Adam Smith’s theory, the paper advocated minimum inter-
ference of the state in business.
It has a clear internationalist stance (position) and therefore laments the Brexit agenda.
The Economist is a world-famous weekly, acclaimed for the quality of its articles and the
acumen of its views in all matters ranging from the economy, finance, the arts and science.
It has a large, international circulation of over 1.6 million per issue, which break down as
867,733 for the print edition and 790,000 for the digital version.
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The level of English is relatively high, journalists often use literary expressions, metaphors
and other cultural allusions. Not the easiest for French students who struggle to understand
press articles, but ideal for study in class and for those of you who have a good command of
written English and want to improve their level.
However, like most (if not all) papers The Economist uses a “paywall”, i.e. a subscription fee is
required to have access to articles online. You are only entitled to a very limited number of
free articles per month otherwise.
Economist.com
Word box
Acumen: perspicacité
Arts: sciences humaines
b. The Guardian
This is a more “accessible” newspaper for English learners as it addresses more general issues
using less technical or literary vocabulary. The Guardian is a British daily newspaper which
was founded in 1821 to offer “modern, innovative (…) healthily sceptical but not cynical”
investigative journalism.
The newspaper sells approximately 187,000 issues daily, and on weekends it publishes the
Observer (a paper it acquired in 1993).
The Guardian’s readership tends to be younger than that of The Economist (average age: 44),
though just as educated. The editorial policy is also more to the left (“social democrat”).
Unsurprisingly, it has defended a pro-Europe stance.
Good news, it hasn’t been using a paywall but encourages readers to support it through
subscriptions and donations.
Theguardian.com/uk
c. The Times
This is a daily newspaper too; its circulation is bigger with over 400,00 issues published
and the weekend issue called The Sunday Times is very popular with a circulation of over
700,000. It is part of News Corp, the media group owned by media tycoon Rupert Murdoch.
The Times has a conservative editorial policy, yet it has a more internationalist view–it has
campaigned for the Remain vote (to stay in the EU) during the Brexit debate–than other
publications of the News Corp like The Sun (the number one British daily in terms of circula-
tion), which is openly eurosceptic (against the European Union). One of the covers of The
Times read “BeLeave in Britain” (note the pun!).
Thetimes.co.uk
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d. Financial Times
Easily recognisable with its pages in salmon-orange hue (teinte), the FT is a reference for the
business community, the paper to read for any update on stocks, shares, mergers, markets,
etc.
This is also a historical daily, it was founded in 1888; its circulation is of 1.6 million and its
editorial policy is labelled as “liberal”.
Ft.com
e. The Daily Telegraph

Founded in 1855, it is a favourite among British readers, with a daily circulation of 840 000!
The daily is openly eurosceptic and Atlantist (pro-US agenda); the Telegraph is its online
name, and it was the first newspaper to do digital in 1994.
Telegraph.co.uk
f. The Spectator and New Statesman

They are both major quality weeklies; the former has a circulation which is twice as large
(over 60,000) and is openly eurosceptic while the latter supports ideas from the “inde-
pendent Left” thinkers but offers a wide variety of opinions. New Statesman boasts about
4 million monthly visitors on its attractive website.
Spectator.co.uk and newstatesman.com

g. The Independent
This is a pure player (100% digital) daily newspaper. Despite its name, this daily is labelled
as “leftist” and Pro-European. The articles are of good quality and easily understandable for
learners, and the good news is that there is no paywall (so expect a lot of adverts too). So go
to the website to read the news from time to time!
Independent.co.uk
h. Tabloids
In the UK, the press is still very dynamic despite the digital revolution which has hurt the
paper media on a global scale. The British love their daily, weekly or Sunday papers!
In terms of circulation, the first three dailies happen to be tabloids, i.e. papers containing
shorter articles, with a lot of images, focusing on national news and gossips on celebri-
ties. The tone is usually sensationalist with a taste for scandals, and journalists offer very
biased comments full of cynicism–they hate “politically correct” speech–and scepticism
(Euroscepticism being the latest trend). These tabloids are: The Sun (over 1.4 million),
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The Daily Mail (1.2 million) and The Mirror (over 560,000, supports the Labour Party and is
pro-European).
The course you will be following will not present you with any of these tabloids, as we
favour quality journalism, but to understand a country’s society and culture, it is highly
recommended to go and browse the online pages of these tabloids!
The term “tabloid” may also refer to the size of the newspaper or magazine; it is smaller than
the traditional (but less and less used) broadsheet size: 280mm×430mm instead of the A1
paper size of the broadsheet. These larger papers are more common in the USA, though
The New York Times, The Washington Post or The Wall Street Journal have all trimmed down
their pages recently.
Word box
Biased: parti pris/partial/subjectif
∙ 2. American newspapers
a. The New York Times
This is the reference US daily paper! It was founded in 1851 and boasts an average of 3 million
readers, among whom 2.5 million for the digital version.
The quality of the NYT’s investigative articles is acknowledged internationally; it has earned
it 125 Pulitzer Prize awards so far. Its editorial line is “social democrat”, with a bias against
Donald Trump’s politics.
You can have access to only a small number of online articles because of the NYT’s paywall.
Nyt.com
b. Other dailies
∙∙on
The Wall Street Journal has 1.7 million subscribers and no less than 42 million visitors
its website! This makes it the number one digital quality newspaper globally. The WSJ
is now owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and has diversified its content, offering a
wider range of subjects than just business and finance.
It is still considered the “manifesto” for businessmen eager to keep updated on the
financial markets. It is a serious contender (competitor) for The New York Times, having
earned 37 Pulitzer Prize awards. The tone of many columns are very biased to create
controversy.
Wsj.com
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∙∙the
USA Today is a favourite among Americans, its circulation is of 1.7 million. It is dubbed
“CNN of written press” because it offers quality though short articles (free online
access) focusing on updated news and sometimes scoops ahead of other major media.
∙∙ Every big city has its daily and the ones which have a wider reach than just the state’s
borders are: the New York Post, The Washington Post, L.A Times, The Boston Globe…
c. Weekly magazines
The two flagship (phare) magazines used to be Time and Newsweek. But the digital era has
changed the deal.
Time has a global circulation of 6 million issues; its articles are of good quality and are
c haracterised by their length, turning them into short reports illustrated by photos.
Its legendary “Person of the Year” issue is much acclaimed and discussed every year.
Many free archives on its website.
Time.com
Newsweek used to be a contender but its circulation dropped sharply in the early 2000,
forcing it to turn to a digital only model, before returning to print in 2014. Good quality and
lengthy articles are its specificities.
Newsweek.com
Other magazines specialising in business and economics include Forbes–a bi-monthly glossy
magazine with liberal views and a high circulation (845,000); or Harvard Business Review,
a monthly published by the famous prestigious university with in-depth articles written by
experts in economics, finance, management and business like Michael Porter.
Forbes.com and Hbr.org
d. Pure players
∙∙The Christian Science Monitor is a non-profit media which can be found mostly in its
digital version, though it gets printed once a week too. Despite its name, no religious
bias can be noticed (it’s just a reference to the first source of its funding), and articles are
well written and investigated on a number of various national and international subjects.
Highly recommended especially as there are many free articles.
Csmonitor.com
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∙ economy,
Project Syndicate is also a non-profit publication. It is made of many sections–the
science, the environment, culture, etc.–written by international experts in
each field (Bill and Melinda Gates or Yanis Varoufakis) providing in-depth views and
commentaries. Go browse it for many free articles on Website.
Project-syndicate.org
∙ aSlate is another online only magazine (it actually belongs to The Washington Post) with
large readership. There is a French version too but of course you are advised to visit
the US version for long, investigated articles on many issues such as politics, society or
technology.
Slate.com
B. watching TV and videos
∙ 1. Videos
Nearly all of the above-mentioned newspapers offer a video section on their websites.
Check them out for an excellent source of mini-documentaries. You will practice your
understanding of oral English as well as develop your recognition of the various accents,
while piling up on the knowledge.
Apart from these major media, the internet has a fabulous range of other videos on the state
of the economy and business, including the one from the BBC. We highly recommend that
you become familiar with TED.com. Technology Entertainment and Design is a non-partisan
and non-profit website whose content is free of access.
bbc.com/news or bbc.co.uk (search the “Reel” section)
What makes TED unique is its format: experts, professionals and celebrities in many fields
are filmed during their presentation speech. It’s very entertaining and thought-provoking
and last but not least, you can choose the settings and opt for subtitles (in English), making
it easier to understand it all and you can then associate sound and spelling.
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∙ 2. News channels
With the variety of cable or internet TV on offer, there is no longer any excuse to switch on
to a major news channel to get an update in English.
Check out the number associated on your TV remote control for: BBC World, France 24 in
English, CNN (inventor of live coverage), MSNBC or Fox News which, unlike CNN, supports
President Trump, is extremely biased but worth watching if only to get a precise idea of what
a bias means!
Word box
Live coverage: informations en continu
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p i t re
ha
c
3. Grammaire
I. Les temps : présent et passé
A. le présent d’un verbe

L’anglais est extrêmement précis pour exprimer le temps d’une action. La spécificité, la
multiplicité et la complexité des règles font du temps présent probablement le plus difficile
à appliquer pour quelqu’un dont l’anglais n’est pas la langue maternelle.
∙ 1. Le présent des verbes be, can, must, have got

Commençons par quatre verbes dont le comportement est assez similaire en français : be
(être), can (pouvoir), must (devoir) et have got (avoir).
Dans le tableau ci-après, les expressions en gras correspondent aux formes contractées.
Forme affirmative Forme négative Forme interrogative Forme interronégative

I am/I’m I am not/I’m not am I? am I not?/aren’t I?
he is(1)/he’s he is not/he isn’t, he’s not is he? is he not?/isn’t he?
Be
we are(2)/we’re we are not/we aren’t, are we? are we not?/aren’t we?
we’re not
I can I cannot/I can’t can I? can I not?/can’t I?
Can (forme invariable à
toutes les personnes)
I must I must not/I mustn’t must I? must I not?/mustn’t I?
Must (forme invariable à
toutes les personnes)
I have got(2)/I’ve got I have not got/ have I got? have I not got?/
I haven’t got haven’t I got?
Have got
he has got(1)/he’s got he has not got/ has he got? has he not got?/
he hasn’t got hasn’t he got?
1. Formes identiques pour he, she et it.
2. Formes identiques pour we, you et they.
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a. Points à retenir sur la structure
➠➠ La forme affirmative
Le sujet précède toujours le verbe.
Examples
∙∙The documents are ready.
∙∙ I must obtain the authorisation from the accountant (comptable).
La forme contractée est préférable pour la langue écrite aussi bien que parlée. La forme non
contractée est appropriée lorsque l’on veut insister sur le sens, et aussi pour les documents
formels tels que des contrats.
➠➠ La forme interrogative
Pour be, can et must, la forme interrogative se construit en inversant les positions relatives
du sujet et du verbe.
Examples
∙∙Are the documents ready?
∙∙Must I obtain the authorisation from the accountant?
Can you transfer (virer) the money into my account (compte)?
∙∙
Pour have got, seulement have et has sont inversés avec le sujet et got reste à sa position
initiale (après le sujet).
Examples
∙∙Have you got the data (données)?
∙∙ Has the secretary got the file (dossier)?
Dans une question, la position du sujet est fixe, que ce soit un nom ou un pronom. Le sujet
n’est jamais le premier élément d’une question ; il est toujours placé après am, is, are, can,
must, have, et has :
Examples
∙∙IsIs Microsoft a computer company? (et non : Microsoft, is it a computer company?)
∙∙Has it got a large staff (effectif)?
it a computer company?
∙∙Must the employees work hard?
∙∙
➠➠ La forme interronégative
Remarquez la différence entre les formes contractées et non contractées dans la tournure
interronégative.
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Examples
Formes contractées Formes non contractées
Aren’t the calculations right (juste/exact)? Are the calculations not right?
Can’t she attend (assister)? Can she not attend?
Mustn’t we respond quickly? Must we not respond quickly?
Haven’t I got everything? Have I not got everything?
À noter également cette forme particulière : Am I not? lorsqu’elle est contractée

devient Aren’t I?
b. Utilisations spéciales de to be
Dans certains cas, l’anglais utilise to be là où le français emploie « faire » ou « avoir ». Voici
les plus importants à retenir :
To be remplace « faire » :
It’s nice out → Il fait beau
It’s dark out → Il fait nuit
It’s light out → Il fait jour
To be remplace « avoir » :
I’m thirty years old → J’ai trente ans
I’m hungry/thirsty/sleepy → J’ai faim/soif/sommeil
I’m right/wrong → J’ai raison/tort
Remarquez les traductions du mot right selon les sujets employés :
∙∙pour les choses : It’s right → C’est exact/juste
∙∙pour les personnes : We’re right → Nous avons raison
« Il y a » est traduit par there is au singulier et, au pluriel par there are :
There is one document → Il y a un document
There are many documents → Il y a beaucoup de documents
To be remplace « aller » :
How are you? → Comment allez-vous ? ; Comment vas-tu ?
I’m fine, thanks. → Je vais bien, merci.
How is business? → Comment vont les affaires ?
To be able to est fréquemment une façon d’exprimer le verbe « pouvoir » :
I am able to = I can
She (he/it) is able to = She (he/it) can
You (we/they) are able to = You (we/they) can
Examples
∙∙I’m now able to estimate the costs (coûts/frais/charges).
∙∙They aren’t able to do it.
Is he able to come?
∙∙Aren’t you able to help us?
∙∙
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remember
On emploie la préposition to après les formes de be able, mais jamais après can: I’m able
to do it ou I can do it (je peux le faire).
To be supposed to remplace le verbe « devoir ».

Must est la traduction de « devoir » au sens d’obligation ou de nécessité. To be supposed
to signifie littéralement « être supposé » et est employé pour « devoir » dans le sens d’une
probabilité ou d’un événement planifié qui « doit » se produire plutôt que d’une nécessité. Il
ne peut donc avoir le même sens que must.
Examples
∙∙The bus is supposed to come now. → Le bus doit arriver maintenant. (et non :
The bus must come now.)
∙∙que…
He’s supposed to see them today. → Il doit les voir aujourd’hui ; il est prévu
To be supposed to peut également signifier « être censé » au sens d’une conformité à une
règle, à des instructions ou à un rôle.
Examples
∙∙Accountants are supposed to prepare the accounts.
∙∙ They aren’t supposed to give an opinion on the accounts.
remember
On emploie to avec les formes de supposed to, mais jamais avec must :
• She must leave (= obligation) → Elle doit partir.
• She is supposed to leave (= c’est prévu) → Il est prévu qu’elle parte.
∙ 2. Le présent de tous les autres verbes

a. Le présent simple
➠➠ La structure du présent simple

Pour tous les autres verbes (c’est-à-dire tous les verbes sauf be, can, must, have got), il existe
deux formes possibles du présent. Le premier est le « présent simple ». Cette forme du
présent se construit comme suit (dans le tableau ci-après, les expressions en gras corres-
pondent aux formes contractées).
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Example
To work (travailler, marcher/fonctionner)
Forme affirmative Forme interrogative Forme négative Forme interronégative

I work(1) Do I work? I do not work Do I not work?
I don’t work Don’t I work?
He works(2) Does he work? He does not work Does he not work?
He doesn’t work Doesn’t he work?
1. Formes identiques pour we, you, they et I.
➠➠ Les points à retenir

La forme affirmative
Il faut mettre un « s » à la fin du verbe pour indiquer la 3e personne du singulier (he, she, it,
this, that).
Les formes interrogatives et négatives

La forme interrogative est construite avec l’addition de do (pour les sujets I, you, we, they,
these, those) et does (pour he, she, it, this, that) devant le sujet. La forme négative utilise
don’t ou doesn’t (pour la 3e personne du singulier) devant le verbe. L’utilisation de does ou
doesn’t supprime le « s » à la fin du verbe !

He works Does he work? He doesn’t work Doesn’t he work?
You work Do you work? You don’t work Don’t you work?
Remarquez là aussi les différences dans la position des mots entre les formes contractées et
non contractées :
Doesn’t this machine work? ou Does this machine not work?
Tous les verbes, excepté be, can, must et have got, doivent être utilisés avec do/don’t et
does/doesn’t :
∙∙ What types of films do you like?
∙∙ When do they prepare the budget?
∙∙ Where does the company have its headquarters (siège social)?
Comparez les formes interrogatives et négatives au présent pour be, can, must, have got
avec les formes pour tous les autres verbes :
Formes interrogatives Formes négatives

Is he competent? He isn’t competent.
Can he do the job? He can’t do the job.
Must he do the job? He mustn’t do the job.
Has he got the skills? He hasn’t got the skills (compétences).
Does he work well? He doesn’t work well.
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➠➠ Le verbe to do
Le verbe to do fonctionne comme les autres verbes en utilisant les auxiliaires do et does :

We do Do we do? We don’t do Don’t we do?
(Do we not do?)
She does Does she do? She doesn’t do Doesn’t she do?
(Does she not do?)
Examples
∙∙What do you do for a living? → Que faites-vous dans la vie ?
∙∙ How do you do this procedure?
➠➠ Les verbes have got et have

Ces deux verbes ont exactement le même sens : avoir ou posséder.
Leur seule différence réside dans la construction de leurs formes négative et interrogative.

We have got Have we got? We haven’t got Haven’t we got?
We have Do we have? We don’t have Don’t we have?
∙∙The company has one subsidiary (filiale) = The company has got one subsidiary.
∙∙I don’t have the time to speak now = I haven’t got the time to speak now.
Parfois, les deux formes sont utilisées dans la même phrase :
∙∙ We don’t have the money, and we haven’t got the infrastructure.
➠➠ Les verbes must, have got to, have to

Ces trois verbes veulent dire « devoir » dans le sens d’obligation et de nécessité. Là encore, la
seule différence réside dans leurs structures :
∙∙ Must we amortize (amortir) it?
∙∙ Do we have to amortize it?
∙∙ Have we got to amortize it?
➠➠ Le sens du présent simple

Le présent simple exprime l’idée de l’habitude, de la permanence, de la régularité des actions
et des situations.
Examples
∙∙ItMost
snows in winter.
∙∙Peter people (la plupart des gens) work from Monday to Friday.
∙∙ always takes the bus to his office. He never goes by car (en voiture).
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Quand on emploie un verbe au présent simple, il est accompagné de mots ou expressions

exprimant les idées de permanence, de régularité et de répétition, tels :
∙∙ always
∙∙
every month
∙∙ usually
∙∙
every year
∙∙ often
∙∙
annually
∙∙ repeatedly
∙∙
every quarter (trimestre)
∙∙ frequently
∙∙
every half-year (semestre)
∙∙ sometimes
∙∙
every decade (décennie)
∙∙ rarely
∙∙
every century (siècle)
∙∙ hardly ever (presque jamais)
∙∙
in winter
∙∙ never
∙∙
in summer
∙∙ every morning
∙∙
during the week
∙∙ every day
∙∙
on weekends
∙∙ every week
De tels mots sont les « partenaires » du présent simple. Ils sont explicites le plus souvent,
mais peuvent parfois être sous-entendus. Vous trouverez ci-après leurs positions dans la
phrase.
Les compléments de temps

Un complément de temps exprime quand une action se déroule. Les compléments de temps
se placent toujours au début ou à la fin d’une phrase :
∙∙Every morning, I read the Herald Tribune.
∙∙Every month, the accountant prepares the balance sheet (le bilan).
Ou bien :
∙∙
The accountant prepares the balance sheet every month.
∙∙I read the Herald Tribune every morning.
Les synonymes de ces expressions étant aussi des compléments de temps, ils se placent au
début ou à la fin d’une phrase :
∙∙ every Monday = on Mondays
∙∙ every week = weekly = on a weekly basis
∙∙ every quarter = quarterly = on a quarterly basis
∙∙ every half-year = half-yearly = on a half-yearly basis
∙∙ every year = yearly = on a yearly basis = annually = on an annual basis
Examples
∙∙The Accounting Department (service comptabilité) has a meeting (réunion) on
Mondays.
∙∙The accountant prepares the balance sheet on a monthly basis.
∙∙ On weekends, I play tennis if it’s nice out.
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Les adverbes de temps

Un adverbe de temps exprime la fréquence d’une action, tels always, never, habitually,
rarely… Ces mots se placent juste après am, is, are, can, must et entre have/has et got :
∙∙ He is always early (en avance). He’s never late (en retard).
∙∙ Paula can sometimes come to the meetings.
∙∙ I have never got much time for sports.
Dans une question, avec l’inversion de la position du sujet, ces adverbes sont situés après le
sujet :
∙∙ Are you frequently absent?
∙∙ Must you often consult with the lawyer?
En revanche, un adverbe de temps se place toujours avant tous les autres verbes : work, do,
etc. :
∙∙ They never call me.
∙∙ I always listen to the radio every morning.
∙∙ I sometimes read The Wall Street Journal.
∙∙ Do you often read the Financial Times?
« J’ai l’habitude de »

Cette expression est normalement traduite en anglais par le « présent simple » précédé par
usually (qui veut dire « habituellement ») :
∙∙ He usually verifies the figures several times. → Il a l’habitude de vérifier les chiffres
plusieurs fois.
b. Le présent en be + ‑ing (aussi appelé présent progressif)

➠➠ La structure du présent en be + ‑ing

La deuxième forme du présent est le « présent en be + ‑ing ». Il se construit avec am, is ou
are, suivi du participe présent du verbe que l’on veut utiliser, c’est-à-dire qu’on lui ajoute à
la fin le suffixe « ‑ing ». (Les règles pour to be sont celles qui ont déjà été exposées. Le parti-
cipe présent du verbe qui exprime l’action se place en dernière position.)
Forme affirmative Forme négative Forme interrogative Forme interronégative

You’re reading You aren’t reading Are you reading? Aren’t you reading?
➠➠ Le sens du présent en be + ‑ing

Le présent dit progressif est utilisé dans trois cas :
Pour signifier que l’action est en train de se dérouler
Example
At the moment, they are constituting their new company.
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Cette forme de présent est employée en combinaison avec des compléments de temps qui
expriment l’idée de « à cet instant ; maintenant ». De telles expressions « partenaires » sont :
now, right now, just now, at the moment, at this moment.
Quand l’action intervient uniquement dans une période présente définie
Example
Today I’m working on my English lesson and I’m not working on accounting.
Dans ce cas, le présent progressif ne signifie pas nécessairement que le sujet agit pendant
toute la période. Today I’m working on my English lesson ne veut pas dire que je travaille ma
leçon d’anglais pendant que je prends mes repas. La traduction française est « Aujourd’hui,
je travaille ma leçon d’anglais… ». Le présent progressif est alors employé avec des complé-
ments de temps tels que : today, this morning, this week, this month, this year.
Pour indiquer une nouvelle tendance ou un changement d’actualité
Examples
∙∙The climate is changing. → Le climat change.
∙∙ They are starting to make a profit. → Ils commencent à faire un bénéfice.
➠➠ L’ordre des mots pour le présent progressif

Ces mots « partenaires » du présent progressif, précisant quand l’action se déroule, sont des
compléments de temps. Ces expressions, se placent donc en début ou en fin de phrase :
(Today) I’m studying (today).
Les expressions avec now peuvent se placer en trois positions : en début ou en fin, et aussi
comme un adverbe de temps, c’est-à-dire après am, is, are et devant le verbe principal :
(Now) You are (now) reading this explanation (now).
c. Présent simple ou présent en be + ‑ing ?

Ces deux formes de présent correspondent à des positions différentes, voire opposées, de
l’action par rapport au temps.
Le contraste se vérifie au niveau des « partenaires » respectifs, exprimés ou sous-entendus :
∙∙ avec le présent simple : every day, habitually, usually, permanently ;
∙∙ avec le présent en be + ‑ing : today, now, exceptionally, temporarily.
Examples
Every week the company accountant works on many tasks (tâches). Today the
accountant is working on the balance sheet.
→ Chaque semaine, le comptable de l’entreprise travaille sur beaucoup de
tâches. Aujourd’hui, il travaille sur le bilan.
Comme vous pouvez le voir, la traduction des deux formes du présent est la même en
français !
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d. Les verbes qui n’ont qu’une seule forme du présent

La grande majorité des verbes sont des verbes d’action (work, do, dance, write, read, study,
say…). Tous ces verbes sont soumis à la règle anglaise qui impose de distinguer le présent
simple (actions habituelles ou permanentes) du présent progressif (les actions limitées à
ce moment).
Mais une minorité de verbes sont ce qu’on appelle en anglais les non-action verbs. Ils expri-
ment un état d’être, une capacité ou un sentiment. Si vous dites : I have a car ou I know the
Financial Director, vous n’êtes pas vraiment en train de faire quelque chose.
Pour ces verbes, on ne fait pas la distinction entre présent simple et présent progressif. Il
n’y a qu’une forme du présent pour cette catégorie des verbes et elle est le présent simple.
L’anglais considère les verbes des catégories suivantes comme non-action verbs :
∙ les verbes d’état : be, exist ;
∙ les verbes de possession, de besoin et de nécessité : need (avoir besoin de), have, have
got, possess (posséder), own (posséder), belong to (appartenir à), must, be supposed to,
have to, have got to ;
∙ les verbes de capacité : can, be able to, understand, see, hear ;
∙ les verbes cognitifs : know, believe, mean, recognize, seem ;
∙ les verbes de désir, de sentiment et de préférence : want, desire, like, love, appreciate,
hate, prefer, wish, hope.
remember
Ces verbes sont toujours employés avec le présent simple et avec toutes « les expressions
partenaires » :
• I always understand what you mean and I understand what you mean now.
• This car belongs to the company.
B. le prétérit
À l’instar du temps du présent, le temps du passé peut être difficile à maîtriser pour un
Français. Cependant, lorsque l’on a complètement assimilé ces deux temps, le reste de la
grammaire anglaise est facile. Nous avons vu que les formes du présent sont plus complexes
et variées en anglais qu’en français. Le passé est difficile pour la raison opposée : sa simpli-
cité « réductrice ». De même, les catégories conceptuelles pour diviser la notion de temps
diffèrent entre les deux langues.
Le prétérit, appelé simple past ou past simple en anglais, est la forme la plus importante car
la plus utilisée. Le prétérit a une forme de base plus deux variations :
∙ le prétérit simple ;
∙ le prétérit en be + -ing ;
∙ la forme used to.
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∙ 1. Le prétérit simple
Commençons avec le prétérit simple qui est la forme de base du prétérit, et qui est utilisée
pour les actions passées, datées et terminées.
C’est donc la forme du récit littéraire ou historique.
On la retrouve aussi bien sûr dans les articles de presse pour évoquer des événements ponc-
tuels (the agreement was signed last week).
a. Le prétérit des verbes be et can

➠➠ Be

I was(1) Was I? I was not Was I not?
I wasn’t Wasn’t I?
You were(2) Were you? You were not Were you not?
You weren’t Weren’t you?
1. Formes identiques pour I, he, she et it.
2. Formes identiques pour you, we et they.
➠➠ Can (formes invariables à toutes les personnes)

I could Could I? I could not/I couldn’t Could I not?/Couldn’t I?
➠➠ Utilisations spéciales de to be
« Naître » est traduit par to be born
Les formes was born et were born correspondent au passé composé français.
Examples
∙∙Where were you born? → Où êtes-vous né(e) ?/Où es-tu né(e) ?
∙∙ I was born in Sydney → Je suis né(e) à Sydney.
Comme nous l’avons déjà vu dans la première partie, to be peut, dans certaines expres-
sions, remplacer d’autres verbes français. Ainsi, au prétérit :
Faire
∙∙ItIt was nice out. → Il faisait beau.

∙∙It was dark out. → Il faisait nuit.
∙∙ was light out. → Il faisait jour.
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Avoir et il y a
∙∙He was 25 years old. → Il avait 25 ans.

∙∙IShewaswashungry/thirsty/sleepy. → J’avais faim/soif/sommeil.
∙∙There wasright/wrong. → Elle avait raison/tort.
∙∙personnes. one person. There were two people. → Il y avait/Il y eut une personne/deux
Aller
∙∙How were they? They were fine. → Comment allaient-ils ? Ils allaient bien.
∙∙How is business? → Comment vont les affaires ?
Pouvoir
Was able to et were able to sont des formes alternatives de could.
∙∙Jane and Phillip were able to attend (assister à) the meeting but I wasn’t able to be present.
Devoir
Was supposed to et were supposed to sont les prétérits de « devoir » dans les contextes de
prévision ou dans le sens d’être « supposé faire » ou « censé faire ».
∙∙ The bus was supposed to come 5 minutes ago. → Le bus devait arriver…
∙∙ You weren’t supposed to do that! → Vous n’étiez pas censé…
b. Tous les autres verbes

Les autres verbes – c’est-à-dire tous les verbes sauf be et can – se divisent en deux catégo-
ries : les verbes dits « réguliers » et les verbes dits « irréguliers ».
➠➠ Les verbes « réguliers »

Pour les verbes réguliers (qui sont majoritaires), le prétérit se forme en ajoutant « -ed » aux
verbes se terminant par une consonne ou par « -y » (et, dans ce dernier cas, normalement,
le « y » se change en « i » devant « ed »).
∙∙ work → worked
∙∙ carry → carried
… et en ajoutant « -d » aux verbes se terminant par « e » :
∙∙ change → changed
Did? et didn’t sont utilisés pour les formes interrogatives et négatives. Dans ces cas, on
n’ajoute pas « -ed » ou « -d » à la fin du verbe.
Les formes sont invariables : toutes les personnes se conjuguent de la même manière : I, we,
you, he…
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Example
To work

I worked Did I work? I did not work Did I not work?
I didn’t work Didn’t I work?
He worked Did he work? He did not work Did he not work?
He didn’t work Didn’t he work?
➠➠ Les verbes « irréguliers »

Pour les verbes « irréguliers », un mot spécial est utilisé pour la forme affirmative du prété-
rit au lieu du verbe avec les terminaisons « -ed » ou « -d ». Mais les formes interrogatives et
négatives se construisent comme dans les exemples ci-avant.
Example
To speak

We spoke Did we speak? We did not speak Did we not speak?
We didn’t speak Didn’t we speak ?
She spoke Did she speak? She did not speak Did she not speak?
She didn’t speak Didn’t she speak?
➠➠ Le verbe to do suit ces mêmes règles
I did Did I do? I did not do Did I not do?
I didn’t do Didn’t I do?
➠➠ Le verbe to die (mourir, décéder) est un verbe régulier

He died Did he die? He did not die Did he not die?
He didn’t die Didn’t he die?
c. Les verbes have, have got et must

Have est un verbe irrégulier dont le prétérit est had pour la forme affirmative.
Au prétérit, have got perd le got et se conjugue exactement comme have.
Ainsi, les prétérits de have et have got sont identiques :

They had Did they have? They did not have Did they not have?
They didn’t have Didn’t they have?
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Must (devoir, dans le sens de nécessité et obligation) devient, au prétérit, had to et se

conjugue comme have plus to :

They had to Did they have to? They did not have to Did they not have to?
They didn’t have to Didn’t they have to?
remember
• Tous les verbes au prétérit simple ont une forme invariable pour toutes les personnes,
sauf le verbe be avec ses deux formes was et were.
• On emploie did et didn’t pour les formes interrogatives et négatives au prétérit simple
de tous les verbes sauf be et can.
d. Le sens du prétérit
L’idée du prétérit est simple et implique les conditions suivantes :
∙∙ l’action est terminée ;
∙∙ la période pendant laquelle elle a eu lieu est finie, autrement dit, le début et la fin de
l’action se situent au passé ;
∙∙ rien dans l’action ne se réfère au présent.
Les conditions pour le prétérit simple sont assez larges et générales. Par conséquent, trois formes
françaises du passé peuvent presque toujours se traduire par le prétérit simple en anglais :
∙∙ le passé simple français ;
∙∙ le passé composé ;
∙∙ l’imparfait.
Ainsi, ces trois formes du français ont normalement la même traduction en anglais :
Français Anglais Français Anglais

Je travaillai I worked Je fus I was
J’ai travaillé I worked J’ai été I was
Je travaillais I worked J’étais I was
Que l’action soit courte ou longue, récente ou ancienne, unique ou répétitive, cela ne modi-
fie pas cette forme du passé. Les distinctions exprimées en français par différentes formes
du passé ne se retrouvent pas en anglais dans lequel la forme de base, le prétérit, signifie
seulement que l’action et la période où elle se situait sont terminées.
Il faut noter que le prétérit est aussi utilisé pour traduire le plus-que-parfait en anglais
quand l’antériorité d’une action par rapport à une autre action est claire (c’est surtout la
tendance de l’anglais américain).
Examples
∙∙The company announced that it had good results for the fiscal year. → La société
a annoncé qu’elle avait eu de bons résultats pour l’exercice.
∙∙It said that its profits rose. → Il a annoncé que ses bénéfices avaient augmenté.
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Lorsque vous traduisez le passé composé français en anglais, soyez vigilant, de ne pas tra-
duire les auxiliaires « avoir » et « être »…
Examples
∙∙J’ai été → I was
∙∙J’ai étudié → I studied (et non I have studied)
J’ai pu → I could
∙∙J’ai fait → I did
∙∙J’ai eu → I had
∙∙Je suis resté → I stayed (et non I am stayed)
∙∙Je suis allé → I went
∙∙
… et non plus avec les formes interrogatives et négatives où l’auxiliaire est toujours did
(sauf pour be et can qui n’ont pas d’auxiliaire).
Examples
∙∙was I?/I wasn’t
∙∙did I study?/I didn’t study
could I?/I couldn’t
∙∙did I do?/I didn’t do
∙∙did I have?/I didn’t have
∙∙did I stay?/I didn’t stay
∙∙did I go?/I didn’t go
∙∙
e. Les expressions « partenaires » du prétérit simple
Les mots « partenaires » du prétérit sont des expressions qui indiquent une période située
totalement au passé. Ces expressions peuvent être explicites ou implicites.
Examples
Anglais Français
In 2001 En 2001
In the 1960’s Dans les années 1960
One second ago Il y a 1 seconde
10,000 years ago Il y a 10 000 ans
For two years Pendant deux ans
For twenty years Pendant vingt ans
Last year L’année dernière
Last week La semaine dernière
This morning… Ce matin
At 10 a.m. last Monday À 10 heures du matin lundi dernier
From 1980 to 1990 De 1980 à 1990
When I was in Scotland Quand j’étais en Écosse
During the Roman Empire Pendant (sous) l’Empire romain
Yesterday Hier
The day before yesterday Avant-hier
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Comme nous l’avons vu pour le présent, les compléments de temps (qui expriment quand
ou pendant combien de temps l’action s’est déroulée) se placent en début ou en fin de
phrase :
∙∙ Last year I went to London. I stayed there for three months.
∙∙ What did you do yesterday?
∙∙ During our last vacation (vacances), I played tennis and Jim went sailing (a fait du bateau
à voile).
Un adverbe de temps (qui exprime la fréquence d’une action) tel que, par exemple, always,
never, rarely et often, se place après was, were et could :
∙∙ We were always keen (enthousiaste) to participate.
∙∙ They could never make a decision (prendre une décision).
Pour tous les autres verbes, had to y compris, un adverbe de temps se place devant le
verbe :
∙∙ He never made a mistake (faire une erreur).
∙∙ He always had good judgement.
f. La traduction de « il y a » au prétérit

There was (singulier) et there were (pluriel) sont le prétérit de there is/there are. There
was/there were sont les traductions de « il y a eu », « il y eut » et « il y avait » qui indiquent
l’existence d’objets ou de situations dans le passé.
Example
In the 1990’s, there was a trend (tendance) for companies to consolidate. As a
result, there were many mergers (fusions) between big firms.
Ago est le complément de temps qui correspond à « il y a » appliqué au temps et s’utilise
pour indiquer quand une action terminée a eu lieu dans le passé. En anglais, on met la
période de temps avant le mot ago. L’ordre des mots est donc le contraire de l’ordre français.
Comme tout complément de temps, une expression avec ago se place au début ou à la fin
de la phrase.
Examples
∙∙IThree
met him five months ago. → Je l’ai rencontré il y a cinq mois.
∙∙ years ago, the company created a new subsidiary (filiale).
« Il y a » appliqué au temps est traduit seulement par le mot ago. Il est incorrect d’utiliser
there is.
Correct Incorrect
10 days ago There is 10 days ago
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g. Les traductions de « pendant » au prétérit

« Pendant » se traduit par les deux mots during et for, mais dans des sens différents :
∙∙During est suivi par un nom et répond à la question « quand ? » :
‒‒ John: When did you meet her?
‒‒ Pamela: I met her during my visit to London.
∙∙For est utilisé pour indiquer la durée d’une action ou d’une situation. Il est suivi par un
chiffre ou un mot qui remplace un chiffre (comme many) avec une expression évoquant
une durée. Il répond à la question : pendant combien de temps ?
‒‒ Personnel manager: For how long did you work in New Zealand?
‒‒ Candidate: I worked there for 6 years.
‒‒ Personnel manager: For how many years did you live there?
‒‒ Candidate: I lived there for many years, for almost a decade (presque une décennie).
La question « pendant combien de temps » peut être traduite de plusieurs façons :
∙∙ For how long?
∙∙ For how much time?
∙∙ For how many years (days, hours, minutes, etc.)?
Cependant, for how long est le plus utilisé. En anglais contemporain, for est placé fréquem-
ment à la fin de la phrase ou simplement implicite bien que les trois formes soient correctes :
∙∙
For how long did you work there?
∙∙
How long did you work there for?
∙∙
∙
How long did you work there?
2. Les autres formes du prétérit

Nous avons vu que trois formes du passé français deviennent le prétérit simple en anglais.
Voici quelques précisions supplémentaires :
∙∙
le passé simple devient le prétérit simple à 100 % ;
∙∙ le passé composé devient le prétérit simple à plus de 90 % ;
∙∙ l’imparfait devient soit le prétérit simple soit les variations du prétérit :
‒‒ la forme en be + ‑ing du prétérit ;
‒‒ la forme was going to ;
‒‒ la forme used to.
a. La forme en be + ‑ing du prétérit (aussi appelée prétérit progressif)
La première, et la plus importante variante du prétérit, est sa forme en be + ‑ing : was doing/
were doing.
Elle est la traduction de l’imparfait la plus utilisée. Comme toute forme du prétérit, elle cor-
respond à une action terminée qui s’est passée pendant une période entièrement passée.
La forme was/were doing peut être considérée comme le raccourci de was in the middle of
doing qui correspond exactement à « était en train de faire » en français. Des partenaires de
cette forme sont at that moment et at that time :
∙∙ Patricia: What were you doing at 5 p.m.? → Que faisais-tu/faisiez-vous à 17 heures ?
∙∙ David: At that time, I was driving home from work. → À ce moment-là, j’étais en train de
rentrer chez moi en voiture.
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When et while (en même temps que/pendant que) sont aussi des partenaires typiques :
∙∙James: What were you doing when they were discussing the problem?
∙∙Jennifer: I was reading while they were discussing the problem.
C’est-à-dire que la forme en be + ‑ing du prétérit est employée pour décrire des actions qui
étaient en train de se passer simultanément à un certain moment précis :
∙∙ At that moment, I was reading and they were discussing the problem.
Comme nous l’avons vu pour le présent, seuls les verbes « d’action » peuvent se terminer
avec « -ing ». Les verbes de « non-action » doivent utiliser le prétérit simple :
∙∙ What did you understand when he was explaining the problem to you? (et non Were you
understanding?)
La forme en be + ‑ing du prétérit est aussi fréquemment utilisée comme contexte passé
dans le cadre duquel une action ou un événement sont intervenus :
∙∙ What were you doing (le contexte) when the accident happened? (l’événement)
→ Que faisais-tu/faisiez-vous quand l’accident est survenu ?
→ Qu’étais-tu/étiez-vous en train de faire quand l’accident est survenu ?
Ici, l’action qui est intervenue dans ce contexte est ponctuelle. Elle n’est pas à la forme pro-
gressive mais plutôt au prétérit simple. Cette construction correspond en français à l’utilisa-
tion de l’imparfait (le contexte) avec le passé composé (l’action intervenante) :
∙∙ John was taking a shower (le contexte), when the phone rang (l’événement).
→ John prenait une douche quand le téléphone a sonné.
remember
« Pendant » peut avoir trois traductions : during + nom, for + durée et while
(pendant que).
b. Was going to : une variante de la forme progressive du prétérit

Des variantes de la forme en be + ‑ing du prétérit sont : was going to do/were going to do.
Ces formes correspondent à l’imparfait français : « allais/allait/allions/alliez/allaient faire ».
Comme en français, on les utilise en anglais pour exprimer qu’on avait l’intention ou qu’on
était sur le point de faire quelque chose, qu’on allait faire quelque chose.
Examples
∙∙Icould
was going to send them an e-mail, but they called on the phone just before I
send it. → J’allais leur envoyer un e-mail…
∙∙and instead we bought a DVD player. → Nous allions acheter un nouvel écran
We were going to buy a new flat-screen television, but we changed our minds
plat mais nous avons changé d’avis et, à la place, nous avons acheté un lecteur
DVD.
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c. La forme used to
Voici la troisième exception où l’on n’utilise pas le prétérit simple pour traduire l’imparfait
français. Quand on veut préciser le fait qu’une situation passée durait pendant une longue
période ou qu’une action dans le passé était habituelle pendant longtemps, on a la possibi-
lité d’utiliser used to devant le verbe :
∙∙ I used to live in San Francisco. → Je vivais à San Francisco (autrefois).
∙∙ They used to play tennis every day. → Ils jouaient au tennis chaque jour (auparavant).
Cette forme correspond au concept français de l’imparfait en association avec l’idée d’un
autrefois qui n’est plus.
Used to, qui est considéré en anglais comme une forme du prétérit, s’emploie avec did et
didn’t pour les questions et les négations :
∙∙ I used to speak Spanish, but that was a long time ago.
∙∙ Where did you use to live before coming to Paris?
∙∙ You didn’t use to smoke before. When did you begin?
∙∙ I never used to go to the gym, but now I go every day.
Pourtant, l’anglais considère cette forme comme facultative, plutôt comme une manière
« économique » de dire une phrase au prétérit qui est beaucoup plus longue. Par exemple, la
phrase : They played tennis on a regular basis in the past but now they don’t play anymore
(ne plus) peut être remplacée par : They used to play tennis.
remember
L’imparfait français a trois traductions possibles. Tout dépend du temps dans lequel l’action
s’est déroulée et de l’expression « partenaire » associée qui exprime cette notion de temps :
1. Le prétérit simple
• I worked hard when I was in New York. → Je travaillais dur quand j’étais à
New York.
2. La forme en be + ‑ing du prétérit, la traduction la plus fréquente de l’imparfait
français :
• I was working hard at 5 p.m. on Saturday. → J’étais en train de travailler dur à 17 heures
samedi.
• I was working hard while they were watching television. → Je travaillais dur pendant
qu’ils regardaient la télé.
• I was working hard when the doorbell rang. → Je travaillais (j’étais en train de
travailler) dur au moment où la sonnette a retenti.
… et sa variante avec « allais (allait, etc.) + faire » :
• I was going to work hard but my schedule changed. → J’allais travailler dur mais
mon planning a changé.
3. La forme used to pour exprimer la notion d’un « autrefois » de longue et
régulière durée qui n’est plus (forme facultative utilisée pour être plus précis à la
place du 1. ci-avant) :
I used to work hard, but I don’t work hard anymore. → Autrefois, je travaillais
dur mais je ne travaille plus autant.
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C. le present perfect : l’autre traduction

du passé composé
Ce temps est composé de l’auxiliaire have et du participe passé du verbe. Pour les formes
des participes passés, référez-vous à la liste des verbes irréguliers en annexe de ce cours.
Dans les tableaux ci-après, les expressions en gras correspondent aux formes contractées.
Les verbes réguliers (exemple : to talk)

We have talked(1) Have we talked? We have not talked Have we not talked?
We haven’t talked Haven’t we talked?
She has talked(2) Has she talked? She has not talked Has she not talked?
She hasn’t talked Hasn’t she talked?
1. Formes identiques pour I, we, you et they.
Les verbes irréguliers (exemple : to see)

We have seen Have we seen? We have not seen Have we not seen?
We haven’t seen Haven’t we seen?
She has seen Has she seen? She has not seen Has she not seen?
She hasn’t seen Hasn’t she seen?
∙ 1. Les points à retenir

⇒ Pour les verbes réguliers, le participe passé a la même forme que le prétérit affirmatif :
Example
To talk → talked (prétérit), talked (participe passé)
⇒ Pour certains verbes irréguliers, le participe a la même forme que le prétérit :
Example
To bring → brought (prétérit), brought (participe passé)
⇒ Pour d’autres verbes irréguliers, le participe a une forme différente du prétérit :
Example
To see → saw (prétérit), seen (participe passé)
À la différence du prétérit, dans le present perfect, l’auxiliaire have ou has est employé pour
la forme affirmative et la forme du verbe ne se modifie pas pour les questions et les néga-
tions. Comparons les conjugaisons du present perfect et du prétérit :
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Exemple d’un verbe régulier :
Present perfect Prétérit

I have worked I worked
Have I worked? Did I work?
I haven’t worked I didn’t work
Haven’t I worked? Didn’t I work?
Exemple d’un verbe irrégulier où le participe passé a la même forme que le prétérit :

We have sold We sold
Have we sold? Did we sell?
We haven’t sold We didn’t sell
Haven’t we sold? Didn’t we sell?
Exemple d’un verbe irrégulier où le participe passé a une forme différente du prétérit :

She has spoken She spoke
Has she spoken? Did she speak?
She hasn’t spoken She didn’t speak
Hasn’t she spoken? Didn’t she speak?
⇒ L’auxiliaire du present perfect est toujours le verbe « avoir », même pour les verbes fran-
çais où pour le passé composé l’auxiliaire serait le verbe « être » :
Examples
I have arrived. → je suis arrivé ; they have come → ils sont venus ;
he has gone → il est allé ; she has left → elle est partie.
⇒ Pour le present perfect du verbe « avoir », on utilise have ou has comme auxiliaire avec le
participe passé had :

you have had have you had? you haven’t had haven’t you had?
he has had has he had? he hasn’t had hasn’t he had?
⇒ Les formes de « pouvoir » au present perfect sont : have been able to et has been able to
⇒ Les formes de « devoir » au present perfect sont : have had to et has had to
⇒ Pour le verbe to get (recevoir, obtenir, devenir), il y a deux formes du present perfect qui
sont la forme américaine et la forme britannique :
∙∙ la forme américaine : have gotten/has gotten ;
∙∙ la forme britannique : have got/has got.
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∙ 2. Le sens du present perfect

Nous avons vu que le prétérit est la traduction principale du passé composé français.
Nous vous rappelons les conditions de l’emploi du prétérit :
∙∙l’action est finie ;
∙∙le temps dans lequel l’action s’est déroulée est terminé.
⇒ Le present perfect est employé au lieu du prétérit lorsqu’une action finie ou un événe-
ment terminé se sont passés dans une période considérée comme non terminée ou parce
qu’il y a un lien avec le présent.
C’est donc la forme adaptée aux constats, aux bilans, ce que font les articles de presse !
Par conséquent, c’est la forme à privilégier pour votre expression orale !
Examples
∙∙The
now).
government has taken many measures (and I’m going to talk about them
∙∙The company has hired (embauché) a hundred new people this year.
Dans les exemples ci-avant, les actions sont terminées, mais les périodes ne le
sont pas – on est toujours « aujourd’hui » ou « cette année ».
⇒ Le present perfect est aussi employé quand le point de repère du temps de l’action est
« maintenant ». Ainsi, il est utilisé dans des expressions telles que until now (jusqu’à main-
tenant), until today (jusqu’à aujourd’hui), already (déjà) et not yet (pas encore) :
∙∙ We have received many favorable responses until now.
∙∙ Jason has already called but Francine hasn’t called yet.
Remarquez les différences entre already (affirmatif), yet? (interrogatif) et not yet (négatif) :
∙∙
Have you received the documents yet? (interrogatif)

∙∙No, I haven’t received them yet. (négatif)
∙∙Yes, I have already received them. (affirmatif)
D’autres mots partenaires du present perfect sont des synonymes des mots indiqués plus
haut :
∙∙ So far et thus far sont synonymes de until now (jusqu’à présent) :
Three people have responded to the survey (enquête) so far.
∙∙Still… not (toujours pas, pas encore) est aussi assimilé au concept de « jusqu’à présent » :
I still haven’t heard from Sara.
∙∙aussi
Les expressions This is the first time (that)…, This is the second time (that), etc., font
référence au moment présent et sont employées en association avec le present
perfect :
This is the first time in my life (that) I have ever done this.
This is the fourth time (that) I have visited San Francisco.
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∙∙Les mots partenaires recently et ses synonymes lately et of late évoquent des instants
très proches du présent et par conséquent sont assimilés au concept de now :
We have recently spoken together.
The cost of living (le coût de la vie) has gone up (monté) lately.
∙∙« viens
De la même manière, just évoque un instant dont la référence est le présent. L’expression
(venons, etc.) de faire » est traduite par just + le present perfect :
∙
They have just come back from Canada. → Ils viennent de rentrer du Canada.
3. Les mots partenaires du present perfect et leurs positions dans la phrase

Voici les mots partenaires du present perfect :
∙∙ already
∙∙
not yet
∙∙yet?
∙∙before now ∙∙before ∙∙ever?
∙∙until now ∙∙so far ∙∙thus far
∙∙recently ∙∙lately ∙∙of late
∙∙just ∙∙still not ∙∙this is the first (second, etc.) time in my
life that…
Les partenaires du present perfect sont normalement placés ainsi :

∙∙ à la fin de la phrase : yet?, before now, before
‒‒ Have you finished the accounts yet?
‒‒ He has never met her before.
∙∙ au début ou à la fin de la phrase : until now, so far, thus far
‒‒ So far, we haven’t heard from them.
‒‒ They haven’t made a decision thus far.
‒‒ Until now, she has said nothing to me about the problem.
∙∙ entre l’auxiliaire et le verbe ou au début ou en fin de phrase : recently, lately
‒‒ They have recently decided to merge (fusionner).
‒‒ Recently, they have decided to merge.
‒‒ We haven’t seen them recently.
∙∙ entre l’auxiliaire et le verbe ou en fin de phrase : already, not… yet
‒‒ I have already finished the assignment (mission).
‒‒ I have finished it already.
‒‒ I haven’t seen them yet.
‒‒ I haven’t yet seen them.
∙∙ avant le verbe : just, ever
‒‒ She has just left.
‒‒ Have you ever met them?
∙∙ avant l’auxiliaire : still
‒‒ They still haven’t sent the documents.
Les mots partenaires du prétérit se rapportent à des périodes entièrement passées. Ces
périodes sont toujours des moments spécifiques achevés dans le passé.
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Pour le present perfect, les mots partenaires évoquent à la fois le passé et le présent,
c’est-à-dire des périodes qui ont commencé dans le passé et qui se prolongent jusqu’à (ou
incluent) aujourd’hui ou maintenant.
On reconnaît à la structure du verbe que le prétérit concerne seulement le passé : la termi-
naison « -ed » du verbe (ou une forme irrégulière) indique la notion de passé. Quand on voit
ou entend une phrase au prétérit, seul le passé est évoqué :
∙ The client phoned one hour ago.
∙ The company’s results went up last year.
Que le present perfect concerne le passé et le présent est indiqué également par la struc-
ture du verbe : le présent du verbe have (ou has) suivi du participe passé. Ainsi, nous voyons
ou entendons le présent et le passé :
∙ The client has phoned this morning.
∙ The company’s results have gone up this year.
⇒ Lorsque nous voyons un verbe au prétérit sans mot partenaire, nous savons seulement
que l’action et sa période sont passées sans pouvoir dire quand cela s’est passé. Nous ne
savons pas si l’action s’est passée il y a longtemps, ou récemment :
She went to San Francisco peut vouloir dire aussi bien en 1980 qu’hier.
⇒ Quand nous voyons un verbe au present perfect sans mot partenaire :
She has gone to San Francisco, nous comprenons que cela s’est passé à un moment en rela-
tion avec le présent comme « récemment » ou « déjà » ou « déjà dans sa vie jusqu’à mainte-
nant ». C’est pourquoi le mot recently est aussi un mot partenaire du present perfect.
D. le past perfect : la traduction

du plus-que-parfait
Le past perfect anglais est l’équivalent exact du plus-que-parfait français. Le past perfect est
composé du participe passé précédé par had (le passé du verbe « avoir ») pour toutes les
personnes. Il est invariable ; il n’y a qu’une conjugaison quel que soit le sujet.

We had been(1) Had we been? We had not been Had we not been?
We hadn’t been Hadn’t we been?
1. Formes identiques à tous les pronoms personnels.
Examples
∙ She had tried to contact him.
∙ Had they ever used that software program (logiciel) before?
I hadn’t been able to see her.
∙
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∙ 1. Points à retenir
bear in mind!
• Le verbe « avoir » au past perfect : had had.
• Le verbe « devoir » donne : had had to.
• Le verbe « pouvoir » au past perfect : had been able to.
• L’auxiliaire est toujours had même pour les verbes de mouvement :
–– We had already entered the meeting room.
–– He still hadn’t arrived.
∙ 2. Le sens du past perfect

En fait, le past perfect est comme le present perfect, mais mis au passé. Le present perfect
relie une action terminée au moment présent tandis que le past perfect relie une action
terminée à un moment dans le passé qui lui a succédé. C’est pour cela que la structure du
past perfect est composée de deux formes passées (had + le participe passé).
Le past perfect utilise les mêmes mots partenaires que le present perfect et aux mêmes
positions dans la phrase, mais par rapport à des moments différents :
Relation avec maintenant Relation avec un moment dans le passé

He has met her before. (= before now) He had met her before. (= before then)
They have recently decided to merge. They had recently decided to merge.
Haven’t you finished the survey yet? Hadn’t you finished the survey yet?
L’action au past perfect était antérieure au moment passé qui sert de point de référence :
∙∙ He had already left before 5 p.m. → Il était déjà parti avant 17 heures.
Dans une phrase avec deux verbes – l’un au past perfect et l’autre au prétérit – il est clair que
l’action au past perfect a été antérieure à l’action au prétérit :
∙∙ He had already left when I called at 5 p.m.
Le past perfect sert ainsi à clarifier la succession des événements passés. Pourtant, quand on
énumère une séquence d’actions dans l’ordre de la première jusqu’à la dernière, une clari-
fication n’est pas nécessaire. On peut utiliser le prétérit en anglais pour toutes les actions,
comme en français on utilise le passé composé :
∙∙ I woke up, then I took a shower, got dressed and ate my breakfast. → Je me suis réveillé,
puis j’ai pris ma douche, je me suis habillé et j’ai pris mon petit-déjeuner.
Mais dans la phrase suivante, l’ordre des actions n’est pas respecté et une clarification est
nécessaire, d’où l’utilisation du past perfect :
∙∙Before I ate my breakfast, I had taken a shower and had got dressed.
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Side note
Précision sur le present perfect et le past perfect
Les Américains ont une tendance réductionniste qui les amène à favoriser l’utilisation du prétérit.
Ainsi, dans un texte écrit par un journaliste américain, on peut trouver un partenaire du present
perfect employé avec un prétérit : He just resigned.
Un journaliste britannique n’écrirait jamais cela. Il insisterait sur l’utilisation du present perfect :
He has just resigned.
Beaucoup d’écrivains utilisent parfois le prétérit au lieu du past perfect quand la chronologie dans
la phrase ne risque pas d’entraîner de malentendu.
Nous vous encourageons à faire comme les Britanniques et à n’utiliser les
temps qu’avec leurs propres partenaires.
II. L’emploi de since, for et ago

On peut retrouver for et since à tous les temps du passé : prétérit, present perfect et past
perfect.
Since ne peut se combiner avec du prétérit car on fait un bilan (depuis) soit dans le présent
(present perfect), soit dans le passé (past perfect)
Examples
∙∙IThey
worked for this firm for 2 years.
∙∙It hadhave been waiting for too long/since the shop opened.
∙∙ not happened for years/since 2000.
« Depuis » a plusieurs traductions.

Dans les phrases affirmatives et négatives « depuis » se traduit ainsi :
∙∙Since + le moment du démarrage de l’action :
Since 1998 (depuis 1998)
∙∙For + la durée de l’action mesurée en années, mois, etc. :

For several years (depuis plusieurs années)
Dans les questions :
∙∙Since when? (depuis quand ?)
∙∙For how long? (depuis combien de temps ?)
∙∙For how many years (months, etc.)? (depuis combien d’années, de mois ? etc.)
« Depuis 3 ans », par exemple, peut se dire de plusieurs façons :
∙∙ She has been living in Chicago for three years.
∙∙ She has been living in Chicago for the past three years.
∙∙ She has been living in Chicago since 2016.
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Since… ago est aussi possible :

∙∙ She’s been living in Chicago since 2016.
∙∙ She’s been living in Chicago since 3 years ago.
Dans cet exemple, since 3 years ago équivaut à since 2016.
Action terminée ou action non terminée ?

Il ne faut surtout pas confondre le prétérit + for (des actions terminées) avec le present
perfect + for (ou since) (des actions non terminées) :
∙∙ They worked for two years. → Ils ont travaillé pendant deux ans.
∙∙ They have worked for two years. → Ils travaillent depuis deux ans.
Pour éviter cette confusion, faites bien attention aux deux points suivants :
∙∙
le mot for peut se traduire différemment selon le temps du verbe :
‒‒ soit par « pendant » (avec le prétérit pour les actions terminées),
‒‒ soit par « depuis » (avec le present perfect pour les actions non terminées) ;
∙∙
la structure même du verbe indique le concept du temps :
‒‒ le prétérit est composé du passé seulement : l’action a été entièrement située dans le
passé et ne relève que du passé,
‒‒ le present perfect est composé du présent et du passé : l’action concerne le passé (le
début de l’action) et le présent (l’action continue dans le présent).
remember
• Le present perfect avec for ou since est utilisé pour les actions non terminées.
Il est la traduction du présent + « depuis ».
• Le present perfect sans for ou since indique des actions terminées. Il est la
deuxième traduction du passé composé (alternative au prétérit quand une action
terminée s’est située dans une période de temps qui n’est pas termi-
née ou qui a « maintenant » comme point de repère).
III. Le passif
Le passif n’est pas un temps, c’est une voix : on a le choix entre la voix active – the
company manufactures components – et la voix passive – components are manufactured
by the company.
Composition : auxiliaire be au temps et à la forme voulus et participe passé régulier ou
irrégulier.
Examples
∙∙The company was acquired last year. → La société a été acquise l’an dernier.
∙∙d’administration sera prise lors de la prochaine réunion.
The Board’s decision will be taken at the next meeting. → La décision du conseil
∙∙The building is being renovated. → Le bâtiment est en train d’être rénové (est
en cours de rénovation).
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A. le cas de certains verbes pronominaux

français rendus par un passif
Se vendre, se faire, se dire, se porter, se manger…
∙ Turning up late to a meeting is not done!
∙ All the items were sold within an hour.
Attention toutefois au cas de sell qui appartient aux « pseudo-passifs », c’est-à-dire qu’on
peut l’employer à l’actif pour un sens passif, le sujet ne faisant pas l’action.
∙ The new shoes are selling extremely well.
Autres cas : read (it reads easily)/eat (this dish eats well in the winter)/measure (the room
measures 3 feet), etc.
B. les tournures de l’opinion
∙ French employees are said to work fewer hours than their European counterparts.
∙ This manager is known for being very strict with staff.
∙ The supplier was believed to have gone bankrupt.
On remarque que l’on ne peut pas traduire mot à mot ; on a recours alors au pronom « on » :
on pense que, on dit que.
C. la traduction de « on » quand l’agent

n’est pas indiqué
∙ Members of the committe were sent the reports yesterday.

∙ Young interns are taught the rules of the company on day one.
We were told that the market was glutted. → On nous a dit que le marché était saturé.
∙
IV. Le futur
A. le futur de base
La plus grande différence entre les formes du futur des deux langues est le positionnement
de l’indication du futur. En français, l’indicateur du futur s’attache à la fin du verbe. En
anglais, l’indicateur précède le verbe. Normalement, cet indicateur est le mot will ou sa
négation contractée, won’t.
∙ 1. La forme de base
La forme de base du futur se construit avec l’auxiliaire will (affirmatif) et won’t (négatif)
devant le verbe. La conjugaison est la même pour toutes les personnes. Dans le tableau ci-
après, les expressions en gras correspondent aux formes contractées.
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They will be(1) Will they be? They will not be Will they not be?
They’ll be They won’t be Won’t they be?
Examples
∙∙Tomorrow, they will begin the assignment (mission).
∙∙When will I have an answer?
The company will reach (atteindre) its sales objectives.
∙∙You won’t have a response before next month.
∙∙
a. Le futur de « pouvoir »
« Pouvoir » a deux formes au futur qui ont exactement le même sens : can (identique aux
formes du présent) et will be able to. Ces deux formes sont invariables pour toutes les per-
sonnes. Comparons les formes du futur avec celles du présent :
Présent Futur
can(1) can(1)
am/is/are able to will be able to
Examples
∙∙When
We will be able to do the job next week. = We can do the job next week.
∙∙public?will they be able to go public (entrer en Bourse)? = When can they go
remember
Can n’est jamais suivi par to.
b. Le futur de « devoir »
Comme nous l’avons vu, « devoir » peut avoir deux sens différents.
➠➠ Obligation et nécessité
Dans ce cas, comme pour « pouvoir », il y a deux formes : must (identique aux formes du
présent) et will have to. Les deux sont invariables pour toutes les personnes. Comparons le
futur avec le présent :
Présent Futur
Must(1) Must(1)
Have to/has to Will have to
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Examples
∙∙→I willI must
have to call my stockbroker (agent de change, courtier en Bourse) later.
call my stockbroker later.
∙∙→ How much money must you invest?
How much money will you have to invest?
remember
Must n’est jamais suivi par to.
➠➠ Événements prévus et rôles ou comportements attendus

Dans ce cas, la forme invariable will be supposed to est utilisée :
Présent Futur
am/is/are supposed to will be supposed to(1)
Examples
In your new job as financial analyst, you will be supposed to (devrez) analyse
the possible future changes in a company’s investment risk. You will be supposed
to understand the mechanisms of the stock market.
À cause de sa longueur, will be supposed to est parfois remplacé par will have to :
∙∙ You will have to analyse…/You will have to understand…
… ou parfois par am/is/are supposed to :
∙∙The interest rate (taux d’intérêt) is supposed to rise (monter) next month.
∙
2. Les utilisations de shall et may

a. L’utilisation de shall avec la première personne pour remplacer will
Pour I et we, on peut utiliser également l’auxiliaire shall à la place de will.
La forme négative correspondante est shan’t, mais elle n’est presque plus jamais utilisée
(beaucoup d’Américains, par exemple, n’ont probablement jamais entendu ce mot !). Il est
donc préférable de toujours utiliser won’t pour la forme négative :

I shall go Shall I go? I shall not go Shall I not go?
I’ll go(1) I won’t go Won’t I go?
1. Formes identiques pour : we.
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Dans la forme interrogative, Shall I? et Shall we? ont souvent le sens de « Voulez-vous que
je… ? » et « Voulez-vous que nous… ? » :
∙∙ Shall I take care of the problem? → Voulez-vous que je m’occupe du problème ?
∙∙ Shall we begin the meeting? → Voulez-vous que nous commencions la réunion ?/
On commence la réunion ?
b. L’utilisation de shall pour les autres personnes
Il importe de vous rappeler que shall ne doit être utilisé pour exprimer le futur qu’avec
I et we. Si vous l’utilisez aux autres personnes, il a alors le sens particulier d’un ordre ou
d’un commandement, c’est-à-dire de l’imposition de votre volonté à une autre personne
avec ou sans son consentement, comme, par exemple, dans le cas d’un parent parlant à son
enfant désobéissant ou d’un roi parlant à ses sujets :
∙∙ You shall do your homework! → Tu vas faire tes devoirs !
Shall est donc fréquemment employé pour stipuler les engagements et les termes d’un
contrat :
∙∙ The XYZ-Company shall pay $10 million. → L’entreprise XYZ devra payer 10 millions de
dollars.
∙∙ The contract shall go into effect on January 1st. → Le contrat prendra effet le 1er janvier.
c. L’emploi de may à la place de can
En français, le verbe « pouvoir » signifie parfois qu’il existe une possibilité. Il se traduit alors
par may, d’où l’expression maybe (peut-être) :
∙∙ He may call today. → Il se peut qu’il appelle aujourd’hui.
∙∙ The client may say “yes”, but it’s still not certain.
May peut avoir encore un autre sens au futur ainsi qu’au présent qui se traduira également
par « pouvoir », celui d’« avoir la permission de » :
∙∙May I come in?
∙∙May I help you?
Remarquez la différence entre cet emploi de may et de shall dans un contrat :
∙∙
Company X shall (devra) pay Company Y within three months of the effective date of this
contract. It may (aura la permission de) choose the manner (manière, modalité) of payment.
∙ 3. Les partenaires du futur

Les « partenaires » du futur sont des expressions telles que :
∙∙tomorrow ∙∙the day after tomorrow (après-demain)

∙∙next week ∙∙this coming Saturday
∙∙in two days ∙∙three months from now (d’ici trois mois)
∙∙soon (bientôt, dans peu de temps) ∙∙by 5 p.m. (avant 17 heures au plus tard)
∙∙until (jusqu’à) ∙∙not until/not before
∙∙the next day (le lendemain) ∙∙the following day (le lendemain)
∙∙the day after next (le surlendemain) ∙∙the week after next (la semaine d’après)
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Les expressions courantes pour lesquelles l’adjectif « prochain » est placé après le nom, on
n’utilise pas the. Ainsi, il ne faut pas utiliser the dans les traductions de « la semaine pro-
chaine », « le mois prochain », « l’année prochaine », « avril prochain », etc. : next week, next
month, next year, next April, etc.
Until (jusqu’à) quand on l’utilise à la forme négative change de sens. Not until se traduit par
« pas avant » :
∙∙ He will stay in Amsterdam until Friday, so he won’t be back in the office until Monday.
→ Il restera à Amsterdam jusqu’à vendredi, ainsi il ne sera pas de retour au bureau avant
lundi.
By veut dire « avant au plus tard » et ainsi donne une nuance d’une exigence impérative qui
est plus forte que celle communiquée par at (pour l’heure), on (pour le jour) ou in (pour le
mois) ou par before tout seul :
∙∙ We will have to finish at 6 p.m. (à 18 heures)
∙∙ We will have to finish before 6 p.m. (avant 18 heures)
∙∙ We will have to finish by 6 p.m. (avant 18 heures au plus tard/pour 18 heures)
Un partenaire fréquent du futur est le verbe « promettre ». L’auxiliaire will communique
souvent la force d’une promesse :
∙∙ I promise that I will inform you just as soon as possible.
∙∙ I will do it. You can count on me.
⇒ Le futur est utilisé pour les projections dans l’avenir et les prévisions. Ainsi, il est sou-
vent utilisé après des verbes d’anticipation tels que :
∙∙to estimate ∙∙to imagine

∙∙to anticipate ∙∙to expect (s’attendre à)
∙∙to hope ∙∙to suppose
∙∙to plan (planifier, prévoir) ∙∙to project

∙∙to forecast (prévoir) ∙∙to predict (prédire)
Examples
∙∙We forecast that earnings will go up next year.
∙∙ They anticipate that the other company will agree.
Également, la possibilité et la probabilité entraînent souvent l’emploi du futur :
∙∙ It is probable that turnover (chiffre d’affaires) will go down (baisser).
∙∙ It is likely (probable, vraisemblable) that the merger will take place in a short time.
∙∙ In all likelihood (en toute probabilité), the company’s shareholders will be happy with the deal.
⇒ La forme progressive du futur – will be + verbe + ‑ing – est fréquemment utilisée avec
les partenaires at that time, at that moment, at + une heure précise pour communiquer la
notion de « en train de/en plein milieu de/en cours de » :
∙∙ Next week, at this time, I’ll be flying to Sydney.
→ La semaine prochaine, à cette heure, je serai en train de voler vers Sydney.
∙∙ At 10 a.m. tomorrow, I’ll be taking (passer) my exam.
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B. les autres formes du futur

L’anglais considère que les deux formes suivantes sont, comme en français, des formes du
futur bien qu’elles utilisent des formes du présent.
∙ 1. To be going to do
Cette forme correspond exactement au français « je vais faire », « il va faire », etc. Elle est
utilisée pour exprimer une intention ou une prévision :

I’m going to do Am I going to do? I’m not going to do Aren’t I going to do?
Examples
∙ They ’re going to sell off (céder) the division.
∙ It’s going to rain this afternoon.
∙ 2. To be doing pour le futur

Nous avons vu ci-avant que la forme progressive du présent I am working signifie « je tra-
vaille » (à cet instant). Cependant, si cette forme est utilisée avec un partenaire de futur,
elle a le sens du futur prévu :
∙ They’re leaving in five minutes.
∙ I’m working next Saturday.
On peut comprendre They’re leaving et I’m working comme des raccourcis pour dire :
∙ They’re going to leave.
∙
I’m going to work.
L’emploi de cette forme est généralement limité à des contextes d’organisation person-
nelle : horaires, plannings, réunions, voyages…
∙ Director 1: Will you be free for a meeting next week?
∙ Director 2: Let me look at my diary (agenda). I won’t be able to meet you before Wednesday
because I’m travelling to Stockholm on Monday and I’m meeting the director of the new
subsidiary on Tuesday.
∙ 3. To be to
Cette syntaxe permet d’exprimer qu’un événement est prévu prochainement, que tout porte
à croire que cela va se produire au vu de la situation présente.
∙ Sales of meat are to slump following the recent beef scandal.
Ou parce que cela a été préparé minutieusement :
∙ The president is to visit the startup.
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Il faut connaître cette forme même si elle est moins courante que be going to, car elle se
retrouve le plus souvent sous sa forme abrégée dans les titres d’articles de presse :
∙∙ President to visit new startup.
Vous remarquez que le verbe be est omis (ainsi que l’article the).
∙
On pourra traduire par « visite prévue de la start-up par le président ».
4. L’emploi de for
Soyez vigilant avec les expressions avec for . il faut rappeler que for n’indique pas le moment
d’une action mais sa durée. De plus, sa traduction en français change selon le temps du
verbe.
a. Avec le futur et avec le présent utilisé pour le futur, for se traduit par « pen-
dant » et « pour »
∙∙I’ll be in New York for three days. → Je serai à New York pendant trois jours.
∙∙jours.
I’m (= will be/am going to be) in New York for three days. → Je suis à New York pour trois
b. Avec le prétérit, pour les actions terminées, for se traduit par « pendant » et

« pour »
∙∙York
I was in New York for three days. → J’étais à New York pour trois jours ou J’ai été à New
pendant trois jours.
c. Avec le present perfect, pour les actions non terminées, for se traduit par
« depuis »
∙∙I have been in New York for three days. → Je suis à New York depuis trois jours.
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218
Topic 1
Finance
Chapitre 1. Money, money, money
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p i t re
ha
c
1. Money, money, money
I. Banking
A. what are banks for?
∙ 1. Basically
We use banks to deposit and withdraw money. We borrow from them to purchase small–
kitchen appliances for example–and large items–a car, a house.
∙
Banks are financial institutions.
2. Different types
a. Retail/commercial banks make loans and receive deposits and provide financial services
to individual and businesses. They may issue mortgaged loans/mortgage, auto loans, busi-
ness and personal loans for consumer goods. They may specialise in just one type of loan.
To differentiate an online company from a traditional one, one uses the term “brick-and-mor-
tar” company. Brick-and-mortar banks have now usually launched their own version of online
banking. With internet banking have access to your account 24 hours a day and you can:
∙ Check your balance whenever you want;
∙
Pay bills without writing cheques or queuing at the bank;

∙ Transfer money between your current account and your savings account;
∙ Print a statement any time;
∙ Set up, change and delete your standing orders;
∙ View and cancel direct debits;
∙ Apply for a loan;
∙ Apply for a new, increased overdraft;
∙ Order foreign currency or traveller’s cheques.
b. Investment banks arrange mergers, give financial advice to companies at the beginning
of their operations or to raise capital. They help issue shares or bonds after assessing the
price which can be set, and they arrange or fight takeover bids.
c. Central banks: all major economies have a central bank. The European Union’s European
Central Bank coordinates the central banks of all member states of the Eurozone (read the
focus section). A central bank controls the monetary system and supervises all of the national
banks existing on the territory. It monitors the issuance of bank notes and coins and regu-
lates the flow of money circulating so as to avoid inflation. To do so, it can intervene to raise
or lower interest rates. Central banks can lend money to banks but only as “the last resort”.
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In short, central banks guarantee the financial stability of banking systems. The banque de
France is also in charge with dealing with cases of households’ debt burden.
d. Credit agencies and organisms: Cetelem, Cofinoga, Cofidis–for consumer goods loans.
e. Insurance companies: Axa, Groupama… also offer consumer goods loans.
f. Brokers and Wealth management firms also act as intermediaries to arrange mortgages
and loans.
g. Retailers: TescoBank, Carrefour, Casino.
h. Telecoms: Orange Bank, Free.
i. Tech apps: Paypal, GooglePay, ApplePay, WeChat (China), Ali Baba…. Rising trend of tech
platforms acting as banks following the advent of e-commerce.
Word box
Retail banks: banques de détail
Mortgage: crédit immobilier
Bricks-and-mortar: en dur
Standing orders: ordres de virement permanent
To apply for a loan: faire une demande de prêt
Overdraft: découvert bancaire
Issuance: émission
Household debt burden: endettement des ménages
Brokers: courtiers
∙ 3. Lending money
a. To consumers or households
Banks always review consumers’ credit profile: how much debt you have outstanding. They
calculate your percentage of indebtedness from all your other debts (your credit record/
for businesses = “debt-to-income ratio”) + how well you’ve paid your bills (credit cards, car
credit etc.) and come up with a score sometimes in the form of a percentage.
focus
Bank accounts
Households in their vast majority hold current accounts, so as to deposit their
revenues. A current account pays no interest rates (or very rarely) and allows for a lot of
flexibility: you can deposit and withdraw money in the form of cash or cheques at any time.
If an amount withdrawn exceeds the value of the account, the account is said to be over-
drawn. You may obtain authorisations for overdrafts, provided you pay a certain fee, other-
wise the bank charges can be very high.
Households also hold savings account, i.e. bank accounts for the money they have put
aside for future use. Savings accounts offer interest rates to encourage people to deposit as
much money as they can.
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b. To businesses
Small and Medium-sized entities (SME’s) vastly depend on the loans which banks may grant
them. That’s why they must have very convincing, well-prepared business plans to present
when they apply for a loan.
Whether it is for a start-up or an existing company the business plan is a critical document to
prepare and to own. It is usually meant for applying for bank loans, or to inform and attract
investors; yet it is also used as a strategic plan to keep and update regularly, in order to assess
which of the company goals have been achieved (benchmarking). Studies have shown that
businesses that use plans to manage their activity grow 30% faster than those which don’t.
c. Elements of a business plan

There are many parts in a business plan including:
∙∙Company presentation: location, history, legal structure and mission statement.
∙∙Products and services: description of what is on offer including any intellectual property
such as licences or patents.
∙∙Team: management and staff.
∙∙Market trends: marketing analysis of existing results and potential opportunities to grow
in the future, facts about competition, segments that the company targets.
∙∙Financial plan: cashflow statement, profit and loss statement, balance sheet and sales
forecast.
∙∙Strengths of the company, opportunities to seize and challenges to overcome.
Word box
Households: les ménages
Outstanding: impayé
Bank charges: agios

Savings: les économies, l’épargne
Benchmarking: études comparatives
Patents: brevets
Cashflow statements: états de trésorerie
Balance sheet: bilan
Sales forecast: prévison des ventes
∙ 4. Funding the larger firms

a. Disintermediation
Ltd–Limited firms (SA, SAS, SNC) issue shares and bonds. This is called “disintermediation”,
most of the time, they don’t use the intermediation of banks. Some larger firms will raise
capital by going public after an IPO (Initial Public Offering)/floating on the stock market/
selling bonds/raising capital from venture capital firms.
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Public companies (PLC), meaning a company whose shares are traded on a stock exchange
are required to produce quarterly and semi-annual reports.
Also called quoted/listed companies (listed on the SEC).
Beware, in French “entreprises publiques” are state-owned companies!
b. Why do larger firms prefer not to borrow from banks?

First and foremost because it’s too expensive! The collateral prerequisite is a huge obstacle
to many smaller companies.
Besides, bank deadlines of repayment are rigid; if you’re late you have to pay penalties or
interests whereas there’s more freedom with investors’ many bonds/stocks. Companies can
do whatever they like with their stock or bonds proceeds (raise salaries, invest in equip-
ment, save for their retained benefits …) and can pay later, at a date they choose, announ
cing dividends with the amounts they see fit.
Word box
Ltd (Limited): SARL
PLC (Public): SA
Collateral: le nantissement
∙ 5. The business model of banks

Banks make money by earning interest income from loans they provide. Basically banks lend
money at a higher rate than the rate of interest they pay on deposits; the difference is called
“spread”.
When the interest rates are very low, banks make money by billing bank fees for the finan-
cial services they provide, such as cash dispensing machines (Automated Teller Machines),
overdraft protection and other types of insurance.
Word box
Spread: marge
ATM (Automated Teller Machine): distributeur de billets
focus
Focus on The European Central Bank (ECB)
It is headquartered in Frankfurt and its President is Mrs Christine Lagarde who was
appointed as the new chair of the ECB in July in 2019. The ECB has been operating since
1999 with the introduction of the single currency, the euro, for member countries of the
Eurozone. This powerful financial institution is in charge of the Eurozone’s monetary policy.
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Its priority is to keep the price stability (limiting inflation to under or near
2%) so as to preserve the purchasing power of the euro, encourage economic growth and
job creation.
The ECB establishes the guidelines for implementing decisions including key interest
rates. Through its Single Supervisory Mechanism, the ECB ensures the supervision of over
120 central banks and commercial banks. It controls the level of their reserves and
the amount of money supply. The ECB lends money to central banks for their refinan-
cing, and in 2017 many banks could benefit from a negative interest rate (loans amount-
ing to €233.5bn).
Between 2015 and 2016, the ECB launched an unusual campaign of quantitative
easing to buy back public (states) and private (banks) debts within the Eurozone for an
amount of €1,140bn.
Among the criticisms of the ECB, there is the idea that it increasingly mingles in nations’
budgetary decisions when its role should remain to provide monetary instruments. It is
also criticised for its generous loans to banks, whereas it can be ruthless (cruel) to countries
in need of bailout. Its treatment of Greece’s recession can indeed hardly be considered
generous: it refused to give it access to its bailout fund, closed its commercial banks and
ruled that the country’s bank had to refinance themselves up to €14.4bn. Greece has had
to adopt hash measures of austerity to control its public spending and is still under
strict scrutiny and control of the ECB and the IMF. The ECB has bought Greek Treasury
bonds (representing €30bn), debts whose interest rates have earned the ECB €7.8bn so far.
Word box
To implement: mettre en application
Quantitative easing: assouplissement monétaire
Bailout: renflouement
B. money and currency
∙
∙ Paper
1. Money comes in various types
money/coins/bank notes: all are issued by the central banks of countries.
∙ Scriptural money (non-cash money).
∙ Currency.
Digital money.
∙ Sovereign currency, legal tender (the official national currency).
∙ Nominal value.
∙ Virtual currency (see below).
∙ Crypto currency (see below).
∙ Futures contract on currencies.
∙
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A virtual currency or virtual money has been defined in 2012 by the European Central Bank
as a type of unregulated, digital money, which is used and accepted among the members of
a specific virtual community such as a social network.
A crypto currency is a medium of exchange using cryptography to secure the transactions
and to control the creation of new units. Bitcoin became the first decentralized crypto
currency in 2009.
Bitcoins are created as a reward for payment processing work in which users offer their
computing power to verify and record payments into a public ledger. This activity is called
mining and miners are rewarded with transaction fees and newly created bit-coins. Besides
being obtained by mining, bitcoins can be exchanged for other currencies, products, and
services. Read the “Fintec” section fr more.
A futures contract is a bet on what a currency will be worth at a determined period in the
future, for instance in a month from now. More generally, a futures contract is a legal agree-
ment to buy or sell a particular commodity or asset at a predetermined price at a specified
time in the future.
Word box
A currency: une monnaie
A reward: une récompense
Public ledger: grand livre comptable
Mining: exploitation, exploration
Futures contract: marché à terme
∙ 2. Strong and weak currency
a. With a strong currency
∙∙ItThere
is harder to export for the country with a strong currency.
∙∙Cheaperareimports
fewer overseas sales (as is the case today for the Euro).
∙∙Competitors’ goodsespecially Cheaper raw materials.
∙∙Foreign countries are cheaper for the tourists with a strong currency.
are more cost-competitive
∙∙
b. With a weak currency
∙∙ItThere
is easier to export.
∙∙Importsareandmorerawoverseas sales.
∙∙Competitors’ goods are more expensive.
materials are dearer.
∙∙Foreign countries are costly destinations for the tourists with a weak currency.
∙∙
However, note that the price of imports and exports may be modulated through the set-up
of tariffs; tariffs being the tax or duty to be paid on a particular class of imports or exports.
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Word box
Cost-competitive: meilleur marché
∙ 3. Manipulating the value of a currency

A devaluation is when a state decides to voluntarily reduce the value of its currency com-
pared to other states. Devaluation reduces the cost of the country’s exports and can help
shrink trade deficits. It is more difficult to achieve when the currencies are freely traded on
the financial markets; however, fiscal and monetary policies can have the same effect.
There has been a “currency war” between China and the U.S. over the valuation of the Yuan.
On August 5, 2019, the People’s Bank of China set the Yuan’s daily reference rate below 7
per dollar for the first time in over a decade. This, in response to new tariffs of 10% on $300
billion worth of Chinese imports imposed by the Trump administration in September 2019.
∙ 4. Interest rates
a. When interest rates increase
∙∙Loans cost more.

∙∙People borrow less.
∙∙Sales and profits decrease.
People buy less.
∙∙
b. When they decrease
∙∙Loans cost less.

∙∙People borrow more.
∙∙Profits increase.
Sales increase.
∙∙Risks of inflation (too much money circulating).
∙∙
focus
What is inflation?
Inflation is the situation when the general price level of goods and services increases over
a long period of time.
High rates of inflation occur when the money supply circulating in a country is too
high. Inflation reduces the real value of money over time. The only way to deflate the high
volume of money supply is by increasing the base interest rate (role of the Central Bank).
Word box
Money supply: masse monétaire
A base rate: taux directeur
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II. Funding the economy
A. online banking vs traditional banking
∙ 1. A history of Internet banking
∙
source : From The FinancialBrand.com.
2. Advantages
Facts first: in the developed world, over 85% of customer transactions are now done via
digital channels:
∙ ATM (Automated Teller Machines);
∙ Computer (Paypal);
∙ Mobile devices (phones and tablets).
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Because they are digital-native clients, the Millennials (youngsters born between 1980
and 2000) are the obvious targets of online banking. A recent study has shown that 33%
of this generation (also called generation Y) believe they won’t need a bank in the future,
while 73% would rather receive financial services from digital startups (than the traditional
branches)!
In emerging countries Internet and mobile banking penetration is booming and is higher
than traditional banking penetration (read paragraph on microfinance).
Online banks don’t suffer from the poor image which banks have inherited after the 2007
financial crisis.
Let’s look at the practical aspects now:
Using banking online services means having access to one’s account(s) 24 hours a day,
7 days a week, wherever and whenever one wishes, simply with an internet connection. One
can pay one’s bills by simple transfer, no need to open the cheque book and send payment
by post. It’s a child’s game to manage one’s accounts without having to phone the bank and
speak to an officer: you can make sure you avoid any overdraft by transferring money from
your savings account to your current account any time. Accounts can be fed by standing
orders too.
You can ask questions via email and some banks offer free customer services via the phone
until late, which is a major benefit compared to bricks-and-mortar banks which tend to
close by 5 pm. Ordering foreign currency is another plus. You can print any banking docu-
ment: account statement or bank details. Applying for a bank loan can be done online with
a quick reply.
The real competitive advantage is definitely the reduced fees (compared to traditional
banks): Owning a visa or debit card is free most of the time! Besides, online banks offer
a higher level of profitability in terms of interest rates for savings accounts, life insurance
products or stock market operations.

In France, 793.4 million online banking e-payments were made last year according to the
European Central Bank, up from 586.2 million in 2014.
Ernst & Young predicts that the number of customers going online to open an account in
France will be multiplied by six to reach 17 million users in the next ten years.
∙ 3. Limits
However, the rise of the dematerialised bank comes with some drawbacks; the lack of
human contact is often cited as the main worry for consumers. Yet, some bigger online
banks do make sure you always get the same person advising you over the phone and argue
that you don’t actually meet up with your bank adviser that often.
Some online banks require that their clients earn a certain minimum level of salary before
being admitted (Fortuneo has set the limit at €1,500). Also, it may take longer for them to
cash a cheque and it’s more difficult, sometimes impossible, to deposit cash. Finally, online
banks tend to boast fewer credit offers.
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All in all, online banking is definitely here to stay and its prospects in an era of intangible
services are enormous. Many bricks-and-mortar banks are aware of this and have chosen the
hybrid way: being present both on the main street and online (ELcl fo LCL, La Net Agence for
BNP Paribas, BforBank for Crédit Agricole).
Word box
Drawbacks: des inconvénients
To boast: se vanter, se targuer de
B. who else can lend money?
∙ 1. Newcomers from the retail sector

Since the late 1980’s, retailers have been offering banking services too! Their loyalty cards
double up as Mastercard or Visa debit or credit cards. Individuals and companies can apply to
have one. The biggest brands have opened their own bank: Edel for Leclerc, Banque Casino,
Carrefour Banque, Oney (Auchan) or Facet (Conforama) and Tesco Bank in the UK.
All of them offer the same services as a traditional bank: cash deposit, credit, savings account,
car or home or life insurance. Retailers in the UK and Germany introduced the “cashback”
option years ago: customers can withdraw cash directly at the cashier after their shopping
by using their loyalty card. France will soon adopt the practice.
∙ 2. And telecoms
Telecommunications operators are another source of banking today: Orange Bank was
launched in the UK in 2017. The trend is only just starting in Europe, but it is already very
much settled on the African sub-Saharan continent: between 2014 and 2017, the share
of adults owning a financial institution account remained flat (and low, the low wages
restricting the possibility to save money) whereas the share of those owning a mobile
money account nearly doubled. The flagship (emblem) of such a phenomenon is M-Pesa in
Kenya, a service launched by British Vodafone and the local operator (read the section on
microcredit).
Telecoms providers have a larger share of customers than retail banks. The convergence
between banks and telecommunication operators (especially the wireless firms) will
become more and more dynamic everywhere, not just in countries with the many unbanked
customers.
∙ 3. The IMF
The International Monetary Fund is headquartered in Washington, DC, it was created in
1944 during the Bretton Woods Conference. Today 189 member countries are represented
proportionately to their financial contribution, meaning that the most powerful countries
get a larger voting power.
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The aim of the IMF is primarily to secure global financial stability using the system of floa-
ting exchange rates, meaning that market forces determine the value of currencies relative
to one another.
Its other, less known, missions are to facilitate international trade, reduce poverty and
promote sustainable growth. The institution collects huge amounts of data on national
economies which help it provide technical assistance and advice as well as set up specific
programmes to improve situations.
However, there are conditions to receive such aid and loans in cases when it is stepping in
as the last resort (as an alternative to reluctant financial markets): countries in need must
implement economic reforms to be allowed to get the approval of IMF’s executive board.
The IMF’s intervention was required in the 1980’s with loans to African countries (Uganda,
Zimbabwe or Ghana) and Latin American countries like Mexico. A decade later, the Asian finan-
cial crisis forced Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines to call for its financial res-
cue. The crisis was so severe it affected Russia and Brazil too, both recipients of IMF’s loans too.
More recently, Greece and Portugal were hit by a recession due to the unsustainable levels
of their sovereign debts and received €60bn for the former, €26bn for the latter. Both econ-
omies have had to introduce austerity measures following that intervention: increase their
taxes, privatise national assets or raise the age of retirement for example.
∙ 4. The World Bank

The World Bank is also an institution set up by the Bretton Woods Agreements. The main dif-
ference with the IMF is first and foremost that it is an investment bank, not a common fund,
so its activity consists in being the intermediary between investors and recipients (benefi-
ciaries) of funds which can be any of the 180 member countries. The WB borrows and lends
the money gained from the issue of bonds and the membership fees.
It is three times as large as the IMF too, with many associated organisms attached to it such
as the International Development Association. On top of releasing regular reports on many
economic issues such as poverty levels, working conditions or the digital revolution, the
objectives of the WB is to promote economic and social progress around the world through
various programmes.
C. the advent of the startup
∙ 1. Profile
A start-up is a newly created company which is usually in a high-tech sector. This sector
is often called the “New Economy” and includes companies in the fields of Information
Technology or IT, telecommunications, and e-business. New Economy companies can be
quoted on the traditional stock markets like the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) and the
FTSE (Financial Times Stock Exchange) in London (read the section on “the stockmarket” on
the following pages). But more frequently, they are listed on the newer Over-the-Counter
(OTC) markets like the NASDAQ. When a company becomes a public company, its financial
statements must be audited by an external, independent auditor, called a statutory auditor.
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Features of the start-up (or startup) include the emblematic open space structure of its
offices: no walls separate desks. The idea is to convey an image of fluidity in the volumes
and of free circulation of ideas which is synonymous with creativity. This architecture also
reflects a new hierarchical order: the flat organization, which means that the definitions of
the status of each employee are a little blurred, the “boss” works among the rest of the staff,
nearly unnoticed.
Beyond the image of “cool”, the startup requires discipline and personal investment: the
hours staff put can be time-consuming! Make no mistake, if the premises are cosy it’s
mostly so that productivity can be boosted by making workers feel at home (and so don’t
think so much about going back home precisely…) Management will make sure the perks
are generous: free food, free rental of bikes, hammocks for naps etc… in the same spirit of
creating a family atmosphere as well as securing staff’s entire loyalty and dedication.
Word box
Fields: métiers, filières
Listed: coté
OTC markets: marchés hors cote
A statutory auditor: un commissaire aux comptes
To convey: transmettre
Blurred: flou
The perks: avantages en nature
∙ 2. A dynamic sector
The traditional or “old” economy was dominated by big industrial or manufacturing compa-
nies. The best-performing stocks achieved their success because of the profits they made.
Companies like General Electric and IBM are called blue-chip companies because their
earnings have always been reliable and sure.
In the New Economy, company valuations have been based more on the possibility of future
earnings. Investors bet on the likelihood of future profits. Investor behavior is often fueled
or driven by optimism or pessimism. A bull market is a strong and dynamic market which
gives investors confidence in the possibility of profits. A bear market is the opposite: market
conditions are difficult and investors are afraid that they will lose money if they invest.
Rumors and speculation about possible mergers, acquisitions, takeovers, and joint ven-
tures between companies can make companies attractive to investors. Investors count on a
resulting increase in market share and market domination from these synergies. These com-
panies’ stock prices or share prices go up as a result. An entire sector can rally or rebound
based on optimistic rumors. A rally or rebound is when stock prices rise after a previous
period of investor pessimism and low share prices. At the end of the year 2000, tech stocks
plunged due to many bankruptcies among start-ups. Since then, investors have been
requiring profits from New Economy companies, and not just the promise of profits. In the
future, investors will judge both New and Old economy companies on the same standards of
real financial performance.
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Word box
Blue chip companies: entreprises stables et fiables
Likelihood: probabilité
To fuel/to drive: pousser
A bull market: un marché porteur
Joint ventures: partenariats (GIE : groupement d’intérêt économique)
A rally/a rebound: une reprise, une amélioration
III. Micro-credit and micro-finance
A. a brief history
The origins of micro-credit date back to centuries ago: men and women have always sought
to have some financial help provided they pay an interest in return. This was a form of infor-
mal lending.
The more modern version of it–micro (meaning small) credit–refers to the same practice
but this time the cause is traditional banks refusing to lend a certain category people (low-
income earners) any money. So as an alternative for these consumers and entrepreneurs
who are excluded from the banking system and networks, micro-credit has been spreading
everywhere.
The modern face of micro-credit started in the 1970’s in Bangladesh, with a man, Dr. Muhamad
Yunus, a professor of economics. The country was undergoing a terrible episode of famine
when he visited many villages. He met a group of artisans–42 women–who made bamboo
stools for a living. The living was meagre as these workers were heavily indebted: they were
paying a lot for the raw materials from local traders and could barely turn a profit from the
sales. Yunus realised that all they needed was a $27 loan to break out of the debt cycle.
What followed was the creation of the Grameen Bank (“grameen” means “village”) specia-
lized in this form of lending for no or very low interest rates. Today 6 million workers turn
to the Grameen Bank for financial help. Yunus and the Grameen Bank were awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. On top of lifting people out of poverty, Yunus’s work contributed
immensely to women’s empowerment.
Word box
Empowerment: émancipation
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B. from micro-credit to micro-financing

Micro-financing, or micro-funding, is the larger, more sophisticated application of micro-
credit with services such as savings accounts and insurance policies. It started to grow as
from the 1980s.
Today the Micro-Financing Institutions (MFIs) which grant credits and provide subsidies
include NGOs (Non-governmental Organisations), the World Bank and the European
Commission, while most of the larger international banks have opened their micro-credit
branches (Crédit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Citigroup…) as well as non-profit organisations
like cooperatives.
The average repayment rate from borrowers is of 80%, which means they can be relied on
even without any collateral. This truth makes micro-financing a potentially very profitable
activity, and the 2 billion adults without a bank can be seen as a juicy market.
Interest rates of 25 to 50% are much higher with MFIs than in traditional banking because
of administrative costs such as working in rural areas with no proper infrastructure. Another
reason is that foreign funders expect a higher return when they invest in what they con-
sider “a risky” venture. The percentage return on investment is actually higher for micro-
enterprises than for larger enterprises.
Non-profit organisations and NGOs insist to say that micro-funding should not be seen as
a profitable activity but as the social mission of fighting poverty, and they have pointed out
the high risk of private indebtedness when MFIs impose high interest rates, pushing poor
people into worse economic situations, despair and even suicide. Muhamad Yunus himself
was accused of tax fraud and embezzlement from his Grameen Bank in 2011, and he had to
quit the presidency of the bank. A further inquiry cleared him of these charges. Still, many
associations (e.g. ATTAC) fear that micro-credit and micro-financing are nothing else than
tools for imposing capitalism (and its worst aspects) in poor countries.
Word box
Indebtedness: endettement
Embezzlement: détournement de fonds
C. innovations and prospects

Micro-financing is a booming sector attracting more and more investors. One of the main
innovations which has stemmed from this trend is the rise of the mobile banking industry:
users can receive and send money at the touch of a button from their smartphone. This has
initiated a revolution for the rural parts of India or some African countries, all lacking in
infrastructure, and where the nearest bank is hundreds of kilometres away.
Loans are more sophisticated too as they are tailored to people’s needs especially in agri-
culture: cattle fattening loans, machinery loans…
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Poorer people have now access to micro-insurance and micro-savings schemes. P2P (Peer-
to-Peer) micro-credit websites have been launched so that the public too can financially
support micro-enterprises.
These innovations are crucial for encouraging entrepreneurship in developing countries.
Millions of people work in the “informal” sector of the economy: street or market vendors,
farmers, fishermen, artisans, transport drivers…Whether they are individuals or families,
these workers are entrepreneurs who literally depend on financing. Today 150 million of
these micro-entrepreneurs benefit from MFIs. With demographic forecasts of a booming
youth (in the billions), micro-financing will definitely be a key driver for the development
of poor economies.
IV. Fintech
A. defining the new sector

The term Fintech is the combination of “financial” and “technology”. It is the application
of technology in financial services through tools such as platforms or apps (applications).
Crowdfunding and microfinancing platforms are examples of this innovation which aims at
being disruptive, i.e. challenge the traditional banking services.
B. a case in point
The Kenyan startup M-Pesa is a pioneer and a model in the field of social innovation. The
platform is a mobile-phone based payments network serving millions of unbanked Kenyans

(who hold no bank accounts). Note that there are also unbanked consumers in the developed
world: 4% of UK households don’t have access to the banking industry.
Fintech startups also offer cheaper platforms for remittances (sending money overseas) or
include initiatives such as rounding up customers’ purchase price at the till (cashier) to
donate to charity.
C. bitcoin
Bitcoin is now the poster child (= the emblem) for fintech’s growth.
The platform was created in 2008 by an unknown engineer using the pseudonym of Satoshi
Nakamoto for financial transactions without the centralisation of a banking institution. This
is banking in a decentralised and intangible form, with added security and privacy.
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source : From Europeanpaymentscouncil.eu.
More and more shops accept payment in the cryptocurrency, as well as online names such
as Amazon or Paypal. Bitcoins can be exchanged for real currency and for buying securities
(shares and bonds). Today, 3 million people regularly use the (free) Bitcoin platform. The
volume of trading has been multiplied by five in five years.
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However, because the whole system relies on an invisible currency whose value depends
on the principle of supply and demand, it has a high volatility and its speculative poten-
tial causes a lot of concern (cryptospeculation). In 2017 the value of the Bitcoin grew by
1,000% to reach an unprecedented amount of over $19,500! This rate crashed in the follow-
ing weeks, plunging to half this value. It is now valued around $8,000. What happened was
that the bubble predictably burst.
Definition
A bubble is when an asset acquires a value which is much higher than its
real value.
The other downsides of Bitcoin are first its huge energy consumption (each transaction con-
sumes 50 times more than a Visa transaction) and the mining process (when “miners” crack
the code of the algorithm to earn more bitcoins, see the chart) is extremely energy-hungry.
Besides this cryptocurrency is notoriously used by criminal gangs for money laundering for
example, and it’s a favourite for financial exchanges in the Darknet.
D. Facebook enters the market

In June 2019, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, announced that the social network would
launch its own digital currency within a year, using the Blockchain system. Zuckerberg has
said that “it should be as easy to send to someone as it is to send a photo”.
Transfers will require no bank account, no fees and will cross the barriers of frontiers.
Libra will be the name of this virtual currency and cash transfers will be possible through
Facebook’s apps: Messenger and Whatsapp, and later through Facebook itself.
The prospects for development are gigantic: if each of the 2.4 billion Facebook user converted
their savings into Libras, it could become a real currency, not just a cryptocurrency. Transactions
will be able to treat 1,000 transactions per second (compared to 7 transactions for Bitcoin).
Facebook is targeting the developing countries in particular: this is where millions of peo-
ple are unbanked. These populations (India is the main target) are also the recipients of
remittances from family having emigrated to richer destinations.
However, success is not guaranteed for this venture: Facebook now suffers from a damaged
reputation following the various scandals like the lack of security for users’ data or the cir-
culation of fake news. Consumers may be reluctant to put their savings in the hands of the
social network giant.
Facebook’s new coin system will be very closely scrutinised by bank regulators eager to avoid
the risk of money laundering which is persistent with Bitcoin.
The digital currency will need to be backed by established currencies, like the dollar, to avoid
volatility (again, like Bitcoin) and transfers might be capped.
Besides, competition is fierce: China’s Wechat offers the same services, and other apps are
planning to enter the new market (Telegraph and Signal).
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Word box
Money laundering: blanchiment d’argent
V. Too big to fail
A. a brief history of the 2008 financial crisis

The phrase (or expression) “Too Big to Fail” has become famous and is often shortened to
“TBTF”. It refers to the idea that banks are vital to a global economic system–capitalism–
based on the free circulation of capital; there is no way it could ever be sacrificed in case
of crisis, everything must be done to repair the damage and recapitalise them so they can
continue to function. Even if the crisis started because of abusive practices within the very
banking sector...
Step 1
The dotcom bubble burst in 2000 (the value of many tech companies collapsed–read sec-
tion “the stockmarket”) followed by the terrorist attack of September 11 2001 have led
the American Central Bank (called the Fed, for Federal Reserve) to restart the economy by
boosting the circulation of liquidity through a reduction of interest rates.
Investors seized this opportunity to launch into riskier investments so as to have higher
returns. That’s the context of the creation of a new financial instrument: the mortgage-
backed securities.
Step 2
Because interest rates were low, buying a house was suddenly an affordable project for mil-
lions of Americans. Banks and credit agencies felt there was a formidable market with the
low-income households who were normally refused a loan because of their poor credit
records. So they were offered a new type of loans, the subprime mortgage, “sub” meaning
that the conditions were less favourable than other types of credits: borrowers could have
access to mortgages yet the interest rates were variable not fixed.
Besides, these clients were encouraged to sign such contracts as there was no downpayment
required.
As a result, demand boomed, which led to a housing bubble. To cool off the price inflation
the Fed raised interest rates many times. In 2006 the housing bubble burst leading to suc-
cessive disasters.
Step 3
Housing prices began to decline steadily.
For subprime borrowers it was a catastrophe: the increase in the interest rates of their mort-
gage made it impossible for them to repay their monthly credit. But they couldn’t sell their
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house at a higher price and banks were unwilling to refinance them because their home’s
value was lower than the mortgage. So they defaulted massively, being insolvent. Their
homes were foreclosed; these private bankruptcies show they were the first victims.
Step 4
The financial sphere was next.
Banks and hedge funds had created mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and covered these
instruments with credit default swaps: the mechanism shifts the risks of defaulting onto an
insurance company in exchange for a high sum from banks.
The MBS were repackaged into bonds which were exchanged on global financial markets.
With the housing crisis, banks and other lending institutions could no longer sell these
securities and started to default too.
Next was the stockmarket where the worthless mortgage bonds contaminated the
exchanges.
By then it was the turn of corporations, investment banks, hedge funds, pension funds,
mutual funds and individual shareholders to suffer record losses. This was the beginning of
the worst economic recession since the 1929 crisis.
Step 5
In 2007, the FED stepped in to act as a lender of last resort. For the US government, the
question was then to decide who could be helped financially and receive bailouts because it
was “too big to fail”and who could not be bailed out.
Step 6
Lehman Brothers, a major investment bank which held too many of the “junk bonds”, went
bankrupt in 2008.
The US government through its Treasury Department proceeded to massive injections of
money to save the industries that had been directly hit.
Among the “too big to fail” groups were:
∙∙ Car manufacturers General Motors and Chrysler
∙∙ Insurance companies such as AIG
∙∙ Investment banks such as Merrill Lynch or Citigroup
∙∙ Mortgage lenders like Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac
The banking sector received no less than $700 billion ($128 billion went to the car indus-
try) in bailout funds. The government also stepped in to retake full control of some institu-
tions (Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac) or facilitated acquisitions (Chrysler sold to Fiat) and
mergers: Merrill Lynch and Bank of America, or Bear Stearns bought by JP Morgan Chase.
This has resulted in unprecedented bank concentration: today the 5 largest US banks own
45% of all banking assets.
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In Britain some banks were nationalized such as Northern Rock. France, Belgium and
Luxemburg agreed to bail out the Dexia bank which has had to be dismantled and could cost
over €45bn by the end of its restructuration.
Word box
A downpayment: un apport
To default: ne pas payer (faire défaut)
To foreclose: saisir (un bien)
To bail out: renflouer
Junk bonds: obligations toxiques
B. who is to blame?
What started as a “simple” housing crisis turned out to be an earthquake shaking virtually all
sectors of the economy all over the world within only a few weeks.
The consequences were a credit crisis with a credit crunch: banks no longer lending to each
other, nor helping to relaunch consumption with credits to consumers.
The stock and bond markets were contaminated through the derivatives called Collateral
Debts Obligations created from the mortgage-backed securities.
As a consequence, the direct culprits of such disasters are obviously banks, hedge funds
and mortgage lenders who sought to make more profits with uncalculated risk taking and
dangerous speculation.
The lack of regulation and control of the states is another major issue. In the USA, private banks
and mortgage lenders were given incentives to lower credit standards and to turn their mort-
gage into securities. These banking institutions had received abundant financing, in particular
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac which had the status of Government-Sponsored Enterprises.
Finally, the Rating Agencies played a role too: They had given favourable ratings to Lehman
Brothers and Standard and Poor’s gave triple AAA ratings to toxic mortgages! They were
sued by the Federal Department of Justice and fined $1.37bn, which they paid but refused
to acknowledge that they had been aware of the risks.
Eurozone countries have encouraged financial firms and other companies to do their own
credit assessments, instead of relying on the big three rating agencies.
Word box
A culprit: un coupable
An incentive: une incitation
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focus
Rating agencies
They are companies which assess the financial strengths of companies and of
governments. They determine their ability to meet principal and interest payments on
their debts.
95% of the market is held by the Big Three: Moody’s, Standard and Poor’s and
Fitch.
The ratings they give (in letters) reflects the low or high level of risk of their bonds or
securities. Investors rely on these letters so when Greece, Portugal and Ireland received
downgraded ratings, it only worsened the European sovereign debt crisis. These countries
were considered too unstable to invest in.
The ratings help governments from emerging and developing countries to issue bonds to
domestic and international investors.
Ratings are also used by banks to determine the price to be charged for risk premiums for
loans and bonds destined to their customers.
The main criticism against rating agencies is the risk of conflict of interest: they are
paid by the issuers of securities so it may be hard to downgrade a company which has hired
you. (Lehman Brothers).
An oversized sector?
The idea of a “financialisation” of the economy comes from contemporary American
economist Gerald Epstein who defined it as “the increasing role of financial motives, finan-
cial markets, financial actors and financial institutions in the operation of the domestic and
international economies”.
Word box
The issuer: l’émetteur
C. regulating the banking sector
∙ 1. The Glass-Steagall Act

A Banking Act was passed in 1933, in the wake of the 1929 Great Depression which was
caused by the failure of the banking system; banks had been involved in too many risky
investments.
To reform the sector, the Glass-Steagall Act promulgated the clear separation of investment
and commercial activities: banks could no longer use their assets (meaning their clients’
accounts) to engage in brokerage deals. The new law also provided a guarantee on deposits
for up to a certain limit, so as to regain consumers’ confidence.
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Glass-Steagall was repealed in 1999, under Bill Clinton’s administration, so as to allow for
the creation of Citigroup, a new mega-bank. Many agree that this contributed to the 2008
financial crisis.
Word box
Brokerage: courtage
To repeal: abroger
∙ 2. The Dodd-Frank Act

The Dodd-Frank Reform was passed in 2010, under President Obama’s administration.
Its objective was to better control and regulate the financial and banking sectors to avoid a
new crash and protect consumers looking for credit options and advice.
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (its full name) requires
that banks:
∙ stop using their own (clients’) accounts for speculative trading. This is the Volcker Rule
which President Trump has promised to repeal;
∙ hold a minimum of 20% of equity in cash reserves at the Fed.
The law has set up an Oversight Council to make sure banks are not too large, with plans to
break them up into smaller entities, while identifying those that are “too big to fail”.
It also provides funds for the liquidations of firms and banks that cannot be saved (to save
taxpayers’ money).
Stress tests must be reformed too to be more frequent and more efficient.
Definition
Stress tests: were put in place in the 1990’s to test the stability of banks’
balance sheets. They consist in various simulations of situations to deter-
mine banks’ ability to respond to market events such as “what happens
when oil prices rise by X%?”.
VI. Financial markets
A. securities
∙ 1. Stocks and shares

Stocks and shares are the most famous types of securities. “Stock” is the more general term
and “share” is the term used when you refer to shares in a specific company.
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Stocks are issued by companies so that they can raise capital and grow. Stocks compose the
company’s equity.
A share gives the shareholders voting rights at shareholder meetings and they receive divi-
dends, which is the revenue paid from the company’s profits.
Larger shareholders can control the company if they acquire all of its shares. This is called a
takeover bid.
∙ 2. Bonds
Companies can raise money through borrowing with loans or bonds.
It is a form of debt security, the issuer owes the holder a debt. It is a form of I.O.U (I owe
you) contract. Bonds details include the end date or maturity date when the principal of the
loan is due to be paid to the bond owner.
Bondholders are creditors to the company; they are entitled to the payment of interest at
fixed intervals and to the repayment of the principal at maturity date.
The average return of bonds is higher than that of shares but it is a more risky investment.
Governments can also issue bonds to finance public projects and operations.
Bonds can be traded by investment banks, mutual funds, on the stock market or on the
OTC–Over-the-Counter–market.
Rating agencies provide an independent analysis of the creditworthiness of these corporate
or governmental debts.
Word box
Maturity date: date d’échéance
To be entitled to: avoir droit à
An average return: un rendement

Creditworthiness: solvabilité
∙ 3. Difference between shares and bonds

A bond is a loan made by an investor to a corporate or governmental borrower. Bonds are
used by companies, cities and states to finance projects. Corporations will borrow to under-
take new projects, to expand their operations. Owners of bonds are debt-holders.
Shares are units of ownership in a corporation. The shareholder is entitled to a profit dis-
tribution in the form of dividends. The stock/share holder may lose or gain money when
selling his/her share.
Bonds are “debt-based” whereas shares are “equity-based”.
∙ 4. Derivatives
Derivatives are contracts between 2 or more parties based on the fluctuation of underlying
assets like stocks, foreign currencies or interest rates. They are mostly traded on the OTC
market. Swaps–read the section on mortgage lending–is a form of derivative.
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Other investments use derivative strategy:

∙ Spread betting (spread betting): an investment based on speculation. It consists in
taking a bet on the price movement of an underlying security (foreign currency, shares,
index etc). Investors bet on the possibility that the security will be higher or lower than
the offer (spread meaning the difference between the prices).
∙ Hedge funds: This is another risky investment using derivatives. These investments are
based on leverage, i.e. the money invested was borrowed. The returns are disconnected
from market performance and so there is less control and regulation from financial
authorities (read the SEC section). It’s only open to qualified and wealthy investors.
Word box
A derivative: un produit dérivé financier
B. the Stock Market
∙ 1. Activities on stock exchanges

The stock market is the more general term used to refer to the financial institution while
the Stock Exchange is the word for a particular financial market such as the New York Stock
Exchange (NYSE).
There are 60 major stock exchanges all over the world, of various sizes and importance. The
NYSE is the world’s largest in terms of market capitalisation, followed by NASDAQ, Tokyo
and London.
Forex is the world’s foreign exchange market. There is not a specific place for this market,
transactions take place anywhere through central banks, banks, commercial businesses and
brokers. Over $5 trillion are traded daily.
On the stock market, shares and bonds and other securities are sold and bought at prices
which fluctuate according to the performance of a company, as well as its reputation as any
bad publicity can make the share price plummet. Conversely, the rumour of good sales to
come can provoke a massive rise in the share price. No less than €60 trillion are traded in all
stock exchanges every year.
Investors and brokers keep close scrutiny over the trends of shares as exchanges are
extremely fast and the value of stocks may fluctuate enormously within hours. When the
price of securities fall, pessimism spreads all over the market and investors start selling as a
precaution. If the value goes down by 20% over a two-month period of time the market is
said to be a “bear market”. When it’s the contrary, and security prices have been rising for a
long time, it’s said to be a “bull market”.
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∙ 2. Stock index
A stock index measures the trends observed on prices of selected stocks exchanged on the
stock market. The index calculates an average from the selected stocks (40 for the CAC 40
in Paris for example), or from the market capitalisation of each of these stocks.
This is a crucial tool for investors seeking information about a firm’s performance.
An index regroups the largest firms in terms of their market value, volume of available secu-
rities (equity) and sector. The NASDAQ index regroups the largest firms in the high tech
sector for example.
Every stock market has its own index:
∙∙ Dow Jones: at the NYSE, based on 30 companies (from the industrial sector).
∙∙ S&P 500: At the NYSE, based on the 500 largest firms, which total 80% of all market
capitalization.
∙∙ Nikkei 225 for Tokyo.
∙∙ FTSE 100 (Financial Times Stock Exchange) in the City in London.
∙∙ Dax 30 for Frankfurt.
∙ 3. Going public
A company goes public when it chooses to issue and sell its shares to the public through
an operation called Initial Public Offering or IPO. It is also referred to (in British English)
as “flo(a)ting”, the “flo(a)tation” of a company is the process of becoming public, instead of
staying private and selling share to its investors on the primary market.
A successful IPO can raise huge sums of money; Ali Baba’s floatation in 2014 raised over
$20bn. Facebook raised $16bn. The amount raised on day one of an IPO is different from
the firms’ capital values which can reach staggering heights: Facebook’s market value was
of $500bn in 2017! This of course shouldn’t be regarded as the tech giant’s real value, which
explains the risk of bubbles on many tech securities (traded at the NASDAQ).
The process is done through an investment bank which gets (very well) paid for its
underwriting.
There are conditions to be listed: only firms with a certain annual income and a long-term
business plan are eligible. They must have a specific number of shares to sell and must afford
the listing fee (it’s over $100,000).
Going public makes acquisitions and other projects of expansion much easier. Firms can
diversify their portfolio.
It increases the prestige and attractiveness of a firm on top of earning it heaps of cash.
However, it is a strategy that requires a lot of thinking before:
∙∙ It is a lot of pressure on short term results.
∙∙ IPO’s costs are very high.
∙∙ The firm must accept the disclosure to the public requirement.
∙∙ There is a loss of control about decision-making (shareholders take the power).
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∙ 4. Disclosure
The SEC (Securities and Exchange Committee) which regulates the US stockmarket requires
that all publicly-traded companies regularly issue disclosures because investors and share-
holders could be at a disadvantage if they know less than the firm’s insiders meaning mem-
bers of the firm’s management. The latter could use non-public information for their own
benefit; this would lead to “insider trading”, which is prohibited by law.
The issue of the imbalance between company executives and shareholders is explained in
the agency theory or “principal and agent theory”. It develops the idea of asymmetrical
information between the “principal” (company executives) and the agent (shareholders)
whose interests may diverge. For example, when management decides to expand to other
markets, short-term profitability is jeopardised so “agents” should be aware of such pro-
jects. There is also the idea that most of the risk is borne by the “principal” for decisions only
made by the “agent”.
The obligation to publish disclosures also applies to brokerage firms and analysts as they
hold information which may influence investors’ decisions. So this is to avoid the risk of any
conflict of interest.
Mandatory (or compulsory) disclosures contain: statements about income, balance sheet,
cashflow as well as non-financial domains like environmental protection, social responsibi-
lity, diversity (male/female, age, origins of staff, etc.).
Non-mandatory disclosure regroups all the other additional information a firm wishes to
publish but on a voluntary basis: business review, risk information, social and environmental
missions etc. with the aim of making its accounting more explicit and of attracting investors.
Word box
Disclosure: la divulgation d’informations
Insider trading: délit d’initié
Jeopardised: en péril
Business review: bilan des affaires
C. the SEC
The SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) is the US equivalent of the French AMF
(Autorités des marchés financiers). It’s an independent federal government agency which
was created in 1934.
Its role is to guarantee the fair dealing of securities market to avoid fraud, and to facilitate
the formation of capital.
The SEC oversees securities exchanges, brokerage firms, dealers and investment funds. It
encourages the disclosure and sharing of all market-related information and guarantees
access to statements, reports or database.
In case of fraud, the SEC can slap heavy fines; in 2008, in the wake of (as a consequence of)
the subprime crisis, it fined over 200 organisations and collected $4bn in penalties (Goldman
Sachs paid one the highest penalty ever: $550 million). In 2015 it banned Standard and
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Poor’s from a large part of the mortgage market for a year and fined it $58m for its mishan-
dling of the rating of subprime bonds.
However, many criticise the SEC’s lack of more severe sanctions against the senior managers
and the brokers involved in the financial crisis.
The Dodd Frank law has provided a program promoting and protecting whistleblowers. As
a result, individuals now can share information with the SEC related to the fraudulent deal-
ings of firms or banks and they get rewarded 10 to 30% of the sum of the penalty.
Word box
Mishandling: mauvaise gestion
A whistleblower: lanceur d’alerte
focus
March 2020: an unprecedented crisis
Following the Covid-19 outbreak which started in China in December 2019 then hit the
whole world, the global economy has faced a major risk of recession.
By April 2020, the European Union came to an agreement on how to pool the debts which
are expected to balloon among the member countries, within the Eurozone and outside of it.
The 27 member states managed to set up plans to collect over €500bn, a sum which will
come from different sources:
∙∙ A €200bn guarantee will be paid to the European Investment Bank (EIB) and
destined for loans to companies.
∙∙ The European Commission will raise €100bn on the financial markets in order to fund
the unemployment schemes which will have to be set up.
∙∙ The European Stability Mechanism–which had been created after the 2008
crisis to salvage the Eurozone (to bail out Greece in particular) and which is worth a
€410bn, will be used for loans of up to €240bn, with preferable rates. These loans will
have to cover healthcare costs due to the Coronavirus pandemic only.
∙∙ The ECB will buy back €1trn (€1,000bn) worth of bonds from the European countries.
However, Italy’s suggestion that all debts should be pooled (in the form of “Corona-
bonds”) has been rejected by Germany and the Netherlands. The agreement on all other
aspects of the salvation plan will need to be confirmed in the course of April 2020.
The stakes are extremely high: whether its member states will achieve unity on this critical
issue will decide of the future of the EU itself.
Word box
Outbreak: pandémie
To pool: mettre en commun
Schemes: dispositifs
To salvage: sauver, sauvegarder
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p i t re
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c
2. Press review
A selection of articles on the topic of finance
DOCUMENT 1
Mapping the COVID-19 recession
With each passing day, the 2008 global financial crisis increasingly looks like a mere
dry run1 for today’s economic catastrophe. The short-term collapse in global output
now underway already seems likely to rival or exceed that of any recession in the last
150 years.
Even with all-out efforts by central banks and fiscal authorities to soften the blow2, asset
markets in advanced economies have collapsed, and capital has been pouring out of emer-
ging markets at a breathtaking pace. A deep economic slump and financial crisis are unavoi-
dable. The key questions now are how bad the recession will be and how long it will last.
Until we know how quickly and thoroughly the public-health challenge will be met, it is
virtually impossible for economists to predict the endgame of this crisis. (…) Employment
in China has rebounded somewhat, but it is far from clear when it will return to anything
close to pre-Covid-19 levels. And even if Chinese manufacturing does rebound fully, who
is going to buy those goods when the rest of the global economy is sinking? As for the
United States, returning to 70% or 80% of capacity seems like a distant dream.
Now that the US has failed miserably to contain the outbreak despite having the world’s
most advanced health system, Americans will find it exceedingly difficult to return to
economic normalcy until a vaccine becomes widely available, which could be a year or
more away. There is even uncertainty about how the US will pull off its November 2020
presidential election.
For now, markets seem to be comforted by massive US stimulus3 programs, which have
been absolutely necessary to protect ordinary workers and prevent a market meltdown4.
A massive injection of government demand stimulus would absolve a lot of sins. But the
world is experiencing the most serious pandemic since the 1918-20 influenza outbreak.
And even after an economic restart, the damage to businesses and debt markets will
have lingering5 effects, especially considering that global debt was already at record-
breaking levels before the crisis began.
1. A dry run: un galop d’essai.

2. To soften the blow: amortir le coup.
3. Stimulus: relance.
4. A market meltdown: un effondrement des marchés.
5. Lingering: durable.
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To be sure, governments and central banks have moved to backstop6 large parts of the
financial sector in a fashion that seems almost Chinese in its thoroughness; and they
have the firepower to do a lot more if necessary. The problem, however, is that we are
experiencing not just a demand shock but also a massive supply shock.
source : From Project Syndicate, April 2020.
DOCUMENT 2
Amid7 Covid-19 crisis, America’s stockmarkets are flying high
American share prices have risen by more than 40% from their trough in March. The
S&P 500 index of big firms is near an all-time high; the tech-heavy Nasdaq market rea-
ched it on August 4th.
Credit Suisse, a bank, calculates that for those firms which have already reported their
results for the most recent quarter–a group representing 84% of the S&P 500’s market
capitalisation–earnings have beaten hyper-bearish8 estimates by a total of 24%.
There are other hopeful signs. After a plunge earlier this year, capital spending grew at
its fastest monthly pace since Morgan Stanley, an investment bank, began tracking it in
2004. New orders for factory goods rose by 6.2% in June. JPMorgan Chase, a bank, belie-
ves that a global “synchronised cyclical recovery from the covid-19 crash has started”,
with manufacturing leading the way. “Recovery is happening”, echoes Michael Wilson of
Morgan Stanley, pointing to promising advances in treatments and vaccines for Covid-19.
Hang on a minute. Earnings may have beaten expectations, but, as David Kostin of
Goldman Sachs, another bank, notes, the bar was very low. By his reckoning, in a typical
quarter about 5% of firms produce earnings per share above forecasts.
The collective headline numbers for big companies are also flattered by the success
of America’s technology giants. Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet are
thriving9, by making life possible for remote workers, online shoppers and anyone who
seeks solace online. The quintet, which together represent 22% of the S&P 500’s market
value, up from 16% a year ago, has generated stockmarket returns of 35% so far this
year, against –5% for the other 495 firms in the index.
This dominance has boosted the market–and investor confidence. […] But should a
speedy recovery materialise, money could flow out of tech and into currently unloved
sectors such as heavy industry.
[…] When the Conference Board, a research group, recently surveyed hundreds of
American bosses anonymously, it encountered much more pessimism about the timing
and robustness of economic recovery than among CEOs in Europe and Asia. Whereas
40% of chief executives in China see sales returning to pre-pandemic levels by the end
6. To backstop: soutenir.
7. Amid: en plein(e).
8. Bear(ish) market: marché baissier (contraire : bull market).
9. To thrive: prospérer.
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of 2020, only 12% of American bosses do. The Conference Board concludes that a return
to pre-coronavirus revenues is “at least a year or more down the road” and that “risk and
volatility will remain high for the foreseeable future.”
source : From The Economist, August 2020.
DOCUMENT 3
An interview with Gemma Godfrey, a British Fintech entrepreneur
How did your business Moola [an online money management service] start?
I’m sure it’s the same for everyone in financial services: you’re often approached by
friends asking you what they should do with their money [Godfrey has worked in finan-
cial management since 1997]. For me this was magnified because I was being asked the
same question on television while appearing as a money and consumer expert [Godfrey’s
credits include the BBC, ITV and Sky News].
There is a savings crisis in the UK. Millions [according to Deloitte research the number is
5.5 million] have a bit of money to invest but no access to financial advice.
People are making more financial transactions online and I felt this change in beha
viour was not being catered for. Meanwhile, finance has been shrouded in jargon and
complexity, which has alienated people.
With Moola, which was launched at the end of 2016, I wanted to offer something diffe
rent. The advice is jargon-free and it provides a stripped down service to small investors.
For financial advisers it takes away the regulatory and administrative burden of looking
after smaller clients, making it more cost-effective.
So far, we have a few thousand people signed up and we have been working with venture
capital10 and private equity11 firm Octopus Investments and their network of independent
financial advisers and customers for the last couple of months.
How does Moola make money?
It gives users access to online investment services for a fee [the lowest amount that can
be invested is £200]. We keep the price down by offering a simplified service and auto-
mating wherever possible.
The fee is a small slice of what’s invested. It covers the cost of safeguarding the money,
background checks, guiding towards investment options, putting the money to work
and monitoring it from then on.
Where would you like to take it?
The vision is to change the landscape of finance, making it inclusive and accessible, so
that everyone can grow their money, regardless of how much money they have or how
much they understand about investing.
It could help people who feel left behind financially, such as those who made their
feelings known in the Brexit vote.
10. Venture capital: capital risque.

11. Private equity: capital investissement.
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Why do you think finance is dominated by men?

It’s a self-perpetuating scenario where the lack of women has put off more women from
rising through the ranks. But a successful business needs a balance of skills. Diversity
of age, gender and background is required to represent customer needs, challenge the
business strategy and deliver tailored solutions.
The way to solve the problem is to initiate a virtuous circle of [diverse] role models and
mentors showing how it can be done and shifting the balance.
source : From The Guardian, January 2017.
DOCUMENT 4
Amazon Bank accounts? Why commercial banks should fear the online
giant
Analysts have been predicting for years that Amazon would get into banking. In March,
the Wall Street Journal reported that the online retail giant was even in talks with
J.P. Morgan to offer checking accounts. Now it appears that banks have a real reason to
fear if that ever comes to pass.
A Bain & Company survey of 6,000 people published Tuesday showed that consumers
trust Amazon more than they do their banks: 65% of Amazon Prime customers said they
would sign up for a bank account with Amazon (specifically, a free account that offered
2% cash back), while 43% of non-Prime customers and 37% of non-Amazon customers
said they would.
Of course, to move into banking Amazon would have to overcome hurdles12 that have
slowed other retailers in the past. It would have to clear regulatory obstacles, perhaps
by buying a smaller bank and scaling it up13. That’s because laws have long separated
banking from other commercial sectors for reasons ranging from limiting systemic risks
and conflicts of interest to lobbying from existing market players. For example, Walmart
made an ill-fated stab14 at the banking sector in 2005, until some unlikely bedfellows15
in the financial industry fended it off16.
Still, Amazon already makes possible many of the smaller tasks associated with bank-
ing, from paying back friends to storing cash, through unlicensed transactions, such as
Amazon Gift Cards or the Amazon Cash service. If you’re a small business owner, you can
take out a loan from Amazon, which has already loaned over $3 billion to entrepreneurs.
And more such services may be on the way. “What’s more likely is technology getting
to a place where things that we think of banking today can be done outside of banks,”
Aaron Klein, policy director of the Center on Regulations and Markets at the Brookings
Institute told Bankrate earlier this year.
12. Hurdles: obstacles.

13. Scale up: develop.
14. Stab: entry.
15. Bedfellow: partner.
16. Fend off: reject.
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In the end, Amazon’s close relationship with its customers may be more dangerous to
banks than its size. In a briefing earlier this year, Bain warned that, “perhaps the greatest
challenge to senior bank executives and board members is to recognize that Amazon has
a completely different worldview focused on lifetime customer value, while most banks
remain slaves to periodic ‘bad’ profits.”
source : Adapted from Fortune.com, September 2018.
DOCUMENT 5
The Subprime Market is back in business
The “sub-prime” mortgage sector shut down following the financial crisis in 2007-08,
but brokers say more and more lenders are returning to the market–with some willing
to lend to people who were bankrupt as little as a year or so ago.
On 30 June new retail bank Masthaven became the latest company to open its doors to
people who have suffered financial problems, such as one or two missed mortgage pay-
ments, or who have county court judgments against them.
Meanwhile, some of the existing players have been cutting the cost of their deals. Pepper
Homeloans, which caters for those with “credit blips17 or previous financial difficulties”
recently announced it had “slashed” rates on some products.
(…) Everyone in the financial services industry is terrified of using the term “sub-prime”–
in short, mortgages for people with poor credit histories–so you will notice that a new
lexicon has developed to describe the market, with “impaired18 credit”, “credit repair”
and “complex prime” among the labels commonly used.
It divides into the “light” impaired, where someone has had a small default posted on
their credit score for a small sum, usually put there by a mobile phone company; through
to “heavy adverse”, which will be people whose credit score has been wrecked by bank-
ruptcy or serial defaults.
This is a “not on the high street” market. Most, if not all, the sub-prime lenders are
specialist companies that only sell through brokers. The names most commonly men-
tioned are Kensington Mortgages, Precise Mortgages, Bluestone, Pepper Homeloans and
Magellan Homeloans.
The “lighter” the impairment, the lower the interest rate–and vice versa. So some-
one lightly impaired may be offered a two-year fixed-rate deal at below 2.5%. Pepper
Homeloans has introduced some mortgages starting at 2.28% aimed at those “who mar-
ginally fail a credit score”.
However, those emerging from serious financial problems will, in some cases, be offered
8% or more. One of the highest rates we found was a three-year fix from Magellan at
8.2% up to 70% loan-to-value. (…) A huge increase in the number of defaults posted on
17. Blips: Short interruption.

18. Impaired: reduced, diminished.
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credit files by mobile phone companies, often for trivial19 amounts is driving a lot of the
new activity. (…)
There is an obligation on brokers and lenders to check that the borrowing is sensible and
appropriate. But what about those with extremely poor financial histories? Bluestone
will consider applicants who have come out of a bankruptcy at least three years ago, and
will overlook20 up to four missed mortgage payments.
source : From The Guardian, September 2017.
Vocabulary in context
Banking
To lend, a loan/To borrow, borrowers Prêter, un prêt/Emprunter, emprunteurs

To apply for, an application Postuler, faire une demande/Une candidature
To grant (a credit, a favour)/To turn down Accorder (un crédit ou un service)/Rejeter
A deposit Un apport, dépôt, acompte, arrhes, dépôt de garantie
A current account Un compte courant
A bank statement Un relevé bancaire
The balance Le solde
Spendthrift/Thrifty Dépensier(e)/Économe
Savings, a savings account Économies, un compte épargne
To withdraw/A withdrawal (Se) Retirer/Un retrait
An overdraft Un découvert bancaire
A bank fee Des frais bancaires
Bank charges Des agios
A downpayment Un apport
A mortgage Un crédit immobilier
Instalment(s) Acompte, mensualités
Collateral Le nantissement
Credit record/Credit history Antécédents bancaires
Creditworthy/Creditworthiness À qui l’on peut prêter, solvable/solvabilité
Solvent, Insolvent, Solvency Solvable, insolvable, solvabilité
Seed capital Fonds d’amorçage
To run into debts/Indebtedness (“b” of “debt” not S’endetter/L’endettement
pronounced)
ATM (Automated Teller Machine) Distributeur de billets automatique
19. Trivial: not important.

20. Overlook: not pay attention to.
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Too big to fail
To bail (someone) out/A bailout Renflouer/Un reflouement

To go bankrupt/Bankruptcy Faire faillite/La faillite
To assess/To rate Évaluer/Estimer, classer
A rate Un taux, un classement, un grade
An incentive Une incitation
To foreclose/A foreclosure Saisir (un bien)/Une saisie
Junk bonds Obligations toxiques
Credit crunch Resserrement du crédit
A slump Une récession
To default on a payment Ne pas s’acquitter d’une dette
A conflict of interest Un conflit d’intérêts
A whistleblower/To blow the whistle on a scandal Un lanceur d’alerte/Signaler un scandale
Accountability La responsabilité
To be accountable for Être comptable d’une situation, rendre des comptes
Stock market
A share, a stock/A shareholder, stockholder Une action/Un(e) actionnaire

A stake/A stakeholder Une participation (au capital)/Une partie prenante
A bond/A bondholder Une obligation/Un porteur de bons
Securities Des titres
To issue securities Émettre des titres financiers
Equity Titres ou fonds propres
A takeover/A takeover bid Un rachat/Une OPA
A bid Une offre, une enchère
A merger Une fusion
Spread betting Paris sur la marge, spread betting
Futures contract Marché à terme
Hedge funds Fonds spéculatifs
Leverage/Leverage buyout À effet de levier/Rachat d’entreprise par effet de levier
To raise capital Lever des capitaux
A bubble can burst Une bulle peut éclater
A bull market/ Un marché haussier
a bear market Un marché baissier
To disclose/A disclosure Divulguer/Divulgation
A quoted (GB)/listed company Une entreprise cotée en Bourse
Return on investment or R.O.I Retour sur investissement
The yield Le rendement
The share price La cote
Initial Public Offering or I.P.O L’entrée en Bourse
An all-time high/low Un niveau (élevé ou bas) jamais vu avant
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3. Translation
EXERCISE 2
QUESTIONS
OVER TO YOU
Traduisez les phrases suivantes en anglais.
1. Les prêts bancaires sont accessibles à condition d’avoir des garanties.

2. Les banques sont réticentes à se prêter de l’argent entre elles.
3. On a accordé des crédits coûteux à des foyers à revenus très modestes.
4. Les taux d’intérêt très bas étaient une incitation à dépenser et consommer.
5. Le volume de liquidités en circulation était gigantesque, ce qui était une manne pour
l’économie.
6. Il semblerait qu’on recommence à proposer des crédits immobiliers à des emprunteurs
qui n’ont pas les moyens de les rembourser.
7. S’endetter, c’est entrer dans un cercle vicieux qui mène à des faillites personnelles.
8. Aux États-Unis, le financement des start-up se fait surtout par des investisseurs en
capital-risque et par les investisseurs dits « providentiels ».
9. Comment garantir l’indépendance quand on contrôle son propre employeur ?
10. C’est là tout l’enjeu des agences de notation dont les analyses sont suivies de près par
les investisseurs.
11. Les transactions boursières sont souvent perçues comme un moyen de spéculer.
12. Réguler le secteur boursier est une nécessité étant donné les opérations risquées et les
sommes folles qui s’y échangent.
13. La valeur actionnariale est trop souvent privilégiée aux dépens des parties prenantes.
14. Il faudrait s’inspirer des modèles de co-gestion allemand ou suédois.
15. La fraude fiscale est un énorme manque à gagner pour les États.
16. Il y a trop de vides juridiques en matière fiscale.
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ANSWER KEY
Traduisez les phrases suivantes en anglais.
1. Bank loans are accessible provided you show/have security.
Avec le pronom you, vous rendez la généralité d’un « on ».
On peut aussi exprimer « on » par le pronom anglais one – provided one has/shows
security (tant que l’on produit des garanties) – mais c’est plus formel.
2. Banks are reluctant to lend money to each other.
Attention, il faut bien le pronom réciproque ici et non « themselves » qui est réfléchi
(= à elles-mêmes).
3. Low-income households were granted expensive credits.
On exprime le « on » (tant que cela ne veut pas dire « nous ») par du passif, en mettant
l’objet (COD) en sujet + auxiliaire be et participe passé.
4. Low interest rates were an incentive to spend and consume.
Notez que « consommation » se traduit par consumption et « la société de consomma-
tion » se traduit par the consumer society.
5. The volume/flow of money/cash circulating was huge, which was a windfall for the
economy.
Notez que les reprises par la relative « ce qui, ce que » se traduisent toujours par which.
6. It seems that once again borrowers are (being) offered mortgages though they can’t
afford to pay them back/It seems that borrowers who are likely to default on repayment
are once again offered mortgages.
Plusieurs syntaxes sont possibles ; on peut aussi rendre par le pronom they « it seems
that they are offering mortgages to borrowers who… ».
7. Running into debts means entering a vicious circle that leads to personal bankruptcies.
Les verbes mis en sujet prennent la forme en « -ing », c’est le gérondif.
8. In the USA, startups are mostly funded by venture capital investors or business angels.
On peut garder business angels en français.
9. How can independence be guaranteed when one controls one’s own employer?
Ici, il faut exprimer « on » par one, car you est trop général et inclusif (= tout le monde)
alors qu’on parle d’une catégorie spécifique de professionnels.
10. That is what is at stake for rating agencies whose analyses are scrutinised by investors.
Notez bien la relative en whose pour traduire « dont ».
11. Trading on the stock market is often seen as a way to speculate.
Gérondif sujet.
12. Regulating the stock market’s activities is necessary given the risky operations and
the crazy sums that are traded there.
Given = étant donné
13. Shareholder value is too often favoured at the expense of stakeholder value/
Shareholder value is too often chosen over stakeholder value.
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La préposition « over » s’emploie pour traduire « par rapport à » dans les choix, « I pre-
fer this over that ».
14. German or Swedish-style co-management should be used as examples/One should
take a page from Germany’s or Sweden’s co-management policies.
Rappelez-vous que la langue anglaise affectionne beaucoup la voix passive.
15. Tax evasion represents a major shortfall/loss of income for the state/The state is
losing out massively to tax evasion.
16. There are too many loopholes in tax law/there is too much of a grey area of law for
taxes.
Vous pouvez toujours exprimer ce genre d’expressions par une explicitation du type :
there are many things that the law doesn’t punish, etc. Ce qui compte, c’est le message !
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4. Practice
EXERCISE 3
QUESTIONS
OVER TO YOU
Voici deux documents d’entraînement au résumé et au commentaire oral.
Le document 1 est un extrait de presse visant à vérifier votre niveau de compréhension
par des questions (et réponses) en français.
Le document 2 correspond au type de texte et de questionnements qui vous attendent à
l’examen.
Les questions 1 à 5 portent sur le texte 1.

1. Quel est le sujet de cet article ? Résumez la problématique en une ou deux phrases.
2. De quel type d’article s’agit-il ? Quel est le point de vue donné ?
3. D’après l’article, quel est le rôle de la finance ?
4. Quels reproches sont faits à ce secteur d’activité ? Décrivez-en deux.
5. Quelles solutions sont proposées ? Décrivez-en deux.
Les questions 6 à 10 portent sur le texte 2.

6. What are the main ideas of this article? The tone?
7. Let’s take the issues of corporate governance and accountability, what is said?
8. Do you understand the concept of “spillover effects”?
9. Who is to blame?
10. Any solutions (apart from the proposal of a new law)?
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DOCUMENT 1
Other People’s Money
1. What is the finance sector for? This vital question is all too often forgotten in the
debate about the debt crisis of 2008 and its aftermath; it certainly seemed to be forgot-
ten by bankers before the debacle. But if the world is to avoid future banking collapses,
or at least limit their economic impact, people need to think clearly about the issue.
2. John Kay’s new book, “Other People’s Money”, does the job; it should be read by eve-
ryone concerned with preventing the next crisis. John Kay questions whether its high
rewards reflect its true economic contribution. The purpose of the financial sector is
to process payments, extend credit and capital to business, to manage savings and to
deal with economic risks. But the sector has become dominated by trading, with assets
changing hands faster than humans can blink.
3. This frenetic activity has had little to do with the needs of the real economy. The cons
tant exchange of all these pieces of paper should not logically result in net profit for the
finance sector as a whole, let alone the economy. When profits do occur, they require
the taking of risk. Traders are rewarded for this risk of pursuing short-term profits but
the cost of their mistakes will be transferred to shareholders or, ultimately, taxpayers.
4. A further problem is that the finance sector is, by its nature, an intermediary. Banks
channel money from savers to borrowers; fund managers invest on behalf of their clients.
This agent-principal relationship has to rely on trust if it is to work. But the subprime
mortgage debacle of 2007 showed the problems that arise from a long chain of interme-
diaries who cared little about the credit quality of the loans they were passing on.
5. Smarter people have been employed in finance in recent decades, using more sophis-
ticated technology, but the quality of intermediation has got worse. So what is to be
done about this? The authorities responded to the crisis with minutely detailed regula-
tion, but Mr. Kay says there are already far too many regulations, not too few.
6. Instead of vast conglomerates, what is needed are focused institutions; banks that
take deposits, for example, should be limited in the assets that they hold. Intermediaries
who handle other people’s money should be held to high standards of customer care,
and subject to civil and criminal penalties. These penalties should fall on individuals, not
corporations, which tend merely to pass on the cost to shareholders.
7. Above all, the finance sector should be judged on the same basis as other industries;
if an activity is unprofitable without taxpayer support, it should not occur. “Our willing-
ness to accept uncritically the proposition that finance has a unique status has done
much damage,” the author wisely says.
source : Adapted from The Economist.
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DOCUMENT 2
A new chapter for Capitalism
1. All across the United States, students are settling into college with an introductory
course typically taught with a broadly reassuring message: if markets are allowed to
work, good outcomes–such as productivity growth, increasing wages, and generally
shared prosperity–will surely follow.
2. Unfortunately, this course could actually be considered misleading: markets can be
good, but they are also profoundly susceptible to abusive practices, including by promi-
nent private-sector people.
3. One core problem is that market incentives reward self-interested private behavior,
without accounting for social benefits or costs. We generally overlook our actions’spillover
effects on others, or “externalities.” (…) There is also an even deeper problem. There is
a general presumption in the course that firms should maximize profits, and that this is
best for their shareholders and for society. But this notion of “firms” is just a shorthand
for people organized in a particular form. People, not firms, make decisions.
4. Since the 1970s, the people who run firms have become much more focused on
increasing their compensation, through bonuses, stock options, and the like. There has
been a significant rise in the value of shares, most of which are owned by the wealthiest
10% of Americans. At the same time, median wages have barely increased.
5. Today, it is top managers and members of boards of directors in whose interest firms
are run. Investors sometimes get a good ride, though there are plenty of instances where
insiders take excessive advantage by awarding themselves overly generous compensa-
tion, taking on excessive risk, or engaging in other, more devious practices.
6. This is the context in which Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts is proposing a
new Accountable Capitalism Act. Very large companies would need to acquire a federal
charter which would come with specific obligations–in particular, the need to consider
the interests of all corporate stakeholders, including workers. To make this more mean-
ingful and generally improve transparency, ordinary (non-management) employees
should get some representation on the board of directors. This type of arrangement
works well in Germany, a country where workers continue to be treated with respect.
7. (…) Large corporations are granted significant rights, including limited liability for
individual executives, and facilitate the pooling of large amounts of capital from people
who do not necessarily know one another.
8. Warren is proposing a much broader rethink. Large corporations can still do well, but
they need to be held accountable in a much more transparent way. Incentives for exe
cutives would be adjusted, and running these companies would no longer be so much
about lining their own pockets. Workers would no longer be treated so badly, and more
people might even start to believe again in the American Dream of prosperity for all. The
legitimacy of capitalism–private ownership and reliance on market mechanisms–would
be greatly strengthened under the Accountable Capitalism Act.
source : Adapted from Project Syndicate, August 2018.
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ANSWER KEY
1. Quel est le sujet de cet article ? Résumez la problématique en une ou deux phrases.
Il est question ici d’évaluer et de remettre en question le rôle de la finance dans un monde
post- crise financière afin d’éviter la survenue d’une nouvelle crise de cette ampleur.
2. De quel type d’article s’agit-il ? Quel est le point de vue donné ?
L’auteur de cet article fonde ses remarques à partir d’un ouvrage intitulé Other People’s
Money (« L’argent des Autres ») écrit par John Kay, probablement un économiste. Ce
texte est donc une critique (a review, en anglais). Le journaliste vante les mérites de
cet ouvrage – « it should be read by everyone concerned with preventing the next crisis »
– et s’attelle à en reformuler les idées principales, idées auxquelles le journaliste adhère
entièrement. La critique du système que propose John Kay est ainsi relayée.
3. D’après l’article, quel est le rôle de la finance ?
Le rôle du secteur financier et de ses agents est de traiter les opérations de paiements, de
gérer l’épargne, d’accorder des crédits et de lever des capitaux pour les entreprises tout
en mettant en place des dispositifs d’évaluation du risque.
4. Quels reproches sont faits à ce secteur d’activité ? Décrivez-en deux.
Le principal reproche est que ce secteur d’activité a été laissé à la merci de transactions
trop démultipliées, si bien que les opérations ne cessent de changer de mains.
Cette frénésie (frantic activity) ne peut qu’augmenter le risque de fautes en particulier
dans un secteur qui favorise et récompense la prise de risque. Lors de pertes, les perdants
sont les actionnaires, mais aussi les contribuables appelés à mettre la main à la poche
pour renflouer les caisses des institutions financières.
Le secteur de la finance est composé d’intermédiaires qui mettent en relation l’épargnant
et le demandeur de crédit par exemple, ou le client et son gestionnaire de fonds. Or,
cette chaîne d’intermédiaires nécessiterait qu’elle repose sur un rapport de confiance ;
confiance qui a été trahie lors de la crise des subprimes en 2007 lorsque les financiers
n’ont pas été assez regardants sur la qualité des prêts qu’ils accordaient.
5. Quelles solutions sont proposées ? Décrivez-en deux.
L’auteur John Kay suggère d’agir sur la taille des institutions financières, en favorisant les
petites structures plutôt que les gros conglomérats. Les banques de dépôt ne devraient
utiliser que leurs actifs.
Les intermédiaires devraient être soumis à des règles de qualité de service plus contrai-
gnantes avec le risque d’être poursuivis individuellement en justice en cas de faute. Leur
hiérarchie ne les couvrirait plus.
Le secteur de la finance devrait avoir le même traitement que n’importe quel autre sec-
teur économique : si l’une de ses institutions n’est plus rentable, il faut la liquider (au
sens de liquidation administrative) et ne pas attendre des contribuables le moindre
renflouement.
6. What are the main ideas of this article? The tone?
The article starts with an observation: in the USA, university students are taught that
markets work perfectly well and create growth and wealth.
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This is far from true, says the journalist. The article is biased as it passes a judgment on
the flaws (les failles) of the economic system.
The journalist attacks many aspects of the market economy by focusing on the role and
responsibility of large firms and the “people” who run them.
As a starting point, he or she recalls that workers’ wages have been stagnating for years
while executives have been enjoying higher and higher pay levels, not to mention the
addition of stock option and bonuses. There is a lack of redistribution of profits.
The other ideas include the way decisions are taken in firms (corporate governance) and
the need to moralise the system, using Senator Elizabeth Warren’s proposal of a new law.
7. Let’s take the issues of corporate governance and accountability, what is said?
The issue of this text could be: the predominance of shareholders.
Large firms of the PLC kind (public limited companies) are the main object of the journa
list’s criticisms.
First they are protected by their status of limited liability (responsabilité limitée), a status
they tend to take too much advantage from to take “excessive risk”.
Their corporate governance lacks transparency and equality:
Corporate governance is a set of rules to make firms more accountable, i.e. more respon-
sible, and to limit the power of managers.
For example, the 2002 Sarbane-Oaxley law (also referred to as SOX, it was voted in the
wake of the Enron fiasco) set the obligation for more internal audits and controls, a limi-
tation of CEO’s wages and more protection for shareholders and stakeholders. It was also
aiming at ending conflicts of interests in boardrooms.
However, on top of the issue of the wage gap between management and employees, the
text alludes to the agency theory (paragraph 5). Insiders take advantage of their position
at the expense of external investors.
All of these practices reveal a massive problem of misconduct, or misbehaviour from
executives only interested by their own situation.
8. Do you understand the concept of “spillover effects”?
The “spillover effects” or “externalities” regroup all of the negative impacts of the eco-
nomic activities of the large groups.
The list is long:
∙∙Low wages vs high margins and salary gaps (a CEO may earn up to 300 times more
than a worker);
∙∙Depletion (épuisement) of natural resources: sea, forests, wildlife, ecosystems;
∙∙Climate change;
∙∙Child labour and sweatshops (ateliers de travail esclavagistes);
∙∙Tax evasion;
∙∙Greenwashing (marketing strategy to pretend they are eco-friendly).
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9. Who is to blame?
The obsession with shareholder value as well as the increasing role of financial markets
are to blame. They lead to the race for more stock options and profiteering (making prof-
its at all costs) and ultimately to speculation (“devious practices”).
The state is to blame: it has turned a blind eye to firms’ growing monopolies instead of
favouring more competition. Hence their increasing power today (think of the GAFAM-
Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft).
Companies put an immense pressure on government to have laws voted in their favour,
this is called lobbying. There are many lobbies in various sectors: high tech, finance or
drugs. The text could actually allude to this when it says that the state has let firms have
it their way for years, whether under Democratic or Republican administration.
10. Any solutions (apart from the proposal of a new law)?
Solutions exist, as with Senator Warren’s proposal to introduce a new law to reinforce
corporate social responsibility (RSE) by giving more power to workers over strategic
decisions.
∙∙ The German model is mentioned: it’s based on co-management.
One third to half of employees attend the most important assemblies of their firms.
They have a say on working conditions, redundancy packages, etc.
It’s the same for strategic co-management: they Attend the Supervisory Board with
decisions about appointments, investments, projects…
Sweden has also enforced co-management. In both countries, trade unions are
powerful and represent a solution against abusive practices.
∙∙ The introduction of the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010 can also be cited as a major
improvement to limit the abuses in the financial sector.
It has also created the official status and rights of the whistleblower (lanceur d’alerte)
who can report any misconduct in the private and public sector.
Conclusion
If firms continue to favour profiteering at the expense of the other stakeholders, the lack
of ethics could lead to more social conflicts and less and less trust from consumers, while
environmental issues will continue to get worse. The future of capitalism as we know it
is at stake.
You may give your personal opinion at that point.
123
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218
Annexes
ANNEXE 1
Les verbes irréguliers

Base verbale Prétérit Participe passé Traduction
arise arose arisen s’élever, survenir
awake awoke awoken (se) réveiller
bear bore borne supporter
beat beat beaten battre
become became become devenir
begin began begun commencer
bend bent bent (se) courber
bet bet bet parier
bid bid bid offrir (un prix)
bind bound bound lier, relier

bite bit bitten mordre
bleed bled bled saigner
blow blew blown souffler
break broke broken casser
breed bred bred élever (du bétail)
bring brought brought apporter
build built built construire
burn burnt burnt brûler
burst burst burst éclater
buy bought bought acheter
cast cast cast jeter, lancer
catch caught caught attraper
choose chose chosen choisir
cling clung clung s’accrocher
come came come venir
cost cost cost coûter
creep crept crept ramper
125
UE

cut cut cut couper
deal dealt dealt distribuer
dig dug dug creuser
do did done faire
draw drew drawn dessiner, tirer
dream dreamt dreamt rêver
drink drank drunk boire
drive drove driven conduire
dwell dwelt dwelt habiter
eat ate eaten manger
fall fell fallen tomber
feed fed fed nourrir
feel felt felt sentir, éprouver
fight fought fought combattre
find found found trouver
flee fled fled s’enfuir
fling flung flung jeter violemment
fly flew flown voler
forbid forbade forbidden interdire
forget forgot forgotten oublier
forgive forgave forgiven pardonner
freeze froze frozen geler
get got got obtenir
give gave given donner
go went gone aller
grind ground ground moudre
grow grew grown grandir
hang hung hung pendre, accrocher
have had had avoir
hear heard heard entendre
hide hid hidden (se) cacher
hit hit hit frapper, atteindre
hold held held tenir
hurt hurt hurt blesser
keep kept kept garder
kneel knelt knelt s’agenouiller
know knew known savoir, connaître
lay laid laid poser à plat
lead led led mener
lean leant leant s’appuyer
leap leapt leapt sauter
learn learnt learnt apprendre
leave left left laisser, quitter
126
UE

lend lent lent prêter
let let let permettre, louer
lie lay lain être étendu
light lit lit allumer
lose lost lost perdre
make made made faire, fabriquer
mean meant meant signifier
meet met met (se) rencontrer
overcome overcame overcome surmonter, vaincre
pay paid paid payer
put put put mettre
quit quit quit cesser (de)
read read read lire
rid rid rid débarrasser
ride rode ridden chevaucher
ring rang rung sonner
rise rose risen s’élever, se lever
run ran run courir
saw sawed sawn scier
say said said dire
see saw seen voir
seek sought sought (re) chercher
sell sold sold vendre
send sent sent envoyer
set set set fixer
sew sewed sewn coudre

shake shook shaken secouer
shear sheared shorn tondre (des moutons)
shed shed shed verser (des larmes)
shine shone shone briller
shoot shot shot tirer
show showed shown montrer
shrink shrank shrunk rétrécir
shut shut shut fermer
sing sang sung chanter
sink sank sunk couler
sit sat sat être assis
sleep slept slept dormir
slide slid slid glisser
sling slung slung lancer (avec force)
slit slit slit fendre, inciser
smell smelt smelt sentir (odorat)
sow sowed sown semer
127
UE

speak spoke spoken parler
speed sped sped aller à toute vitesse
spell spelt spelt épeler
spend spent spent dépenser
spill spilt spilt renverser (un liquide)
spit spat spat cracher
split split split fendre
spoil spoilt spoilt gâcher, gâter
spread spread spread répandre
spring sprang sprung jaillir, bondir
stand stood stood être debout
steal stole stolen voler, dérober
stick stuck stuck coller
sting stung stung piquer
stink stank stunk puer
strike struck struck frapper
strive strove striven s’efforcer
swear swore sworn jurer
sweep swept swept balayer
swell swelled swollen enfler
swim swam swum nager
swing swung swung se balancer
take took taken prendre
teach taught taught enseigner
tear tore torn déchirer
tell told told dire, raconter
think thought thought penser
throw threw thrown jeter
thrust thrust thrust enfoncer
tread trod trodden fouler aux pieds
undergo underwent undergone subir
Understand understood understood comprendre
upset upset upset bouleverser
wake woke woken (se) réveiller
wear wore worn porter (des vêtements) et s’user
weave wove woven tisser
weep wept wept pleurer
win won won gagner
wind wound wound enrouler
withdraw withdrew withdrawn (se) retirer
wring wrung wrung tordre
write wrote written écrire
128
UE
ANNEXE 2
Faux amis
Les faux amis sont des mots qui ressemblent à des mots français, mais qui ont un sens
totalement différent dans la langue anglaise. Les traduire littéralement conduit à un
contresens.
A
Actual = vrai, réel | Current = actuel
Agenda = l’ordre du jour | Diary = agenda
Ancient = très vieux, âgé | Former or Old = ancien
Assist = aider | Attend = assister à
Assume = supposer, présumer | Take responsibility = assumer
B
Benefit = avantage | Profit = bénéfice
C
Camera = appareil photo | Video camera = caméra
Cave = grotte | Cellar = cave
Chance = hasard | Luck = chance
Charge = accuser ou facturer | Load = charger
Comprehensive = complet | Understanding = compréhensif
Concerned = inquièt(e), inquiétude | selon le contexte, « concerned » peut signifier
« concerné par quelque chose » comme dans « as far as I’m concerned »
Course = stage, cours, plat (food) | Race = une course
D
Deceive = tromper (deception = tromperie) | Disappoint = décevoir
Delay = retard | Time-limit or Deadline = délai
Demand = exiger | Ask = demander
Dispose = se débarasser (of) (disposable = jetable) | Have = disposer de ; Available = disponible
Dramatic = spectaculaire, énorme | Tragic or Terrible = dramatique
E
Engaged = fiancé(e) | Involved or Committed = engagé(e)
Eventual = final | Possible = éventuel
Evidence = preuves | Obvious = évident
129
UE
F
Figure = chiffre, silhouette | Face = visage, figure
G
Genial = jovial(e) | Brilliant = génial(e)
H
Hazard = danger (hazardous = dangereux) | Chance = hasard
I
Ignore = refuser de prêter attention | Not to know = ignorer
Infant = nouveau-né (infancy = petite enfance) | Child = enfant
Inhabited = habité | Uninhabited = inhabité
Inherit = hériter | Disinherit = déshériter
Injure = blesser | Insult or Abuse = injurier
L
Large = grand, vaste | Wide or Broad = large
Lecture = conférence ou leçon de morale | Reading = la lecture
Location = endroit, emplacement | Hire or Rent = location
M
Marriage = le mariage (vie conjugale, institution) | Wedding = la cérémonie
Miserable = triste | Very poor or Destitute = misérable
Misery = détresse morale | Dire poverty = misère
O
Occasion = jour ou moment spécial | Bargain or Opportunity = occasion à ne pas manquer
Offer = proposer | Give = offrir
P
Petrol = essence | Oil = pétrole (crude oil = pétrole brut)
Prejudice = préjugé | Damage = préjudice
Pretend = faire semblant | Claim = prétendre
Proper = correct | Clean = propre
Property = propriété | Cleanliness = propreté
Propose = demander en mariage | Suggest or Offer = proposer
Purchase = acheter | Chase = pourchasser
130
UE
R
Remark = mentionner | Notice = remarquer
Rest = se reposer | Stay or Remain = rester
Resume = reprendre, recommencer | Sum up or Summarise = résumer
Retire = prendre sa retraite | Withdraw = (se) retirer
Rude = grossier, impoli | Hard = rude
S
Savage = féroce | Wild = sauvage (wildlife = la faune et la flore)
Sensible = raisonnable | Sentitive = sensible
Stage = étape, scène | Training period = stage
Support = soutenir, entretenir financièrement | Stand, Bear or Put up with = supporter
131
2021/2022
UE 218 Anglais des affaires
Devoir 1
À déposer pour correction : Auteur : Soraya Belaroussi

deli.cnam.fr
Side note
1. Les réponses sont à rédiger entièrement en anglais.
2. Certaines réponses nécessitent des recherches. Toutefois, il faudra impérativement refor-
muler les idées avec vos mots de la façon la plus proche d’une expression orale. Évitez la
paraphrase.
4. Évitez les énumérations sous forme de listes.
3. Tout « emprunt » – copié-collé de sites Internet ou de la copie d’un camarade –
sera très fortement pénalisé. Votre devoir ne pourra pas être noté et sa lecture
sera interrompue.
5. S’il est vrai qu’un niveau écrit de qualité sera toujours bonifié (vocabulaire riche, syntaxe juste,
expressions idiomatiques…), gardez en tête que les idées comptent au moins autant que la forme,
la grammaire, etc.
EXERCISE BUSINESS AS USUAL FOR BANKS (20 POINTS)
Deutsche Bank wants you to check your privilege

1. Deutsche Bank, which seems to be the financial institute of choice for money-launderers
and registered sex offenders1, has a few thoughts on making the world a fairer place. It’s
simple really: people should pay for the privilege of working at home.
1. Sex offenders: allusion to Jeffery Epstein, a US financier who was convicted of sex trafficking charges in
2008.
133
UE
 218 Anglais des affairesDEVOIR 1
2. A new report by economists from Deutsche Bank proposes that people pay a 5% tax
for each day they choose to work remotely after the pandemic. This money, they sug-
gest, could go to low-income workers unable to work remotely.
3. “Remote workers are contributing less to the infrastructure of the economy whilst
still receiving its benefits”, Deutsche Bank strategist Luke Templeman explained in the
report. “Quite simply, our economic system is not set up to cope with people who can
disconnect themselves from face-to-face society.”
4. What exactly do they mean by “our economic system”? Do they, perchance, happen
to mean their own balance sheets? Funnily enough, Deutsche Bank just happens to be
the top lender in US commercial real estate finance. It’s almost like they’ve got a vested
interest2 in punishing people for not going into an office.
5. The Deutsche Bank report, which came out Tuesday, has gone viral and sparked a
backlash for obvious reasons. People do not take kindly to a bank lecturing them on how
they ought to pay more tax for the good of society. Particularly when the bank in ques-
tion financed the building of Auschwitz; contributed to the 2008 financial crisis; was
fined record amounts for its role in rigging benchmark interest rates; was embroiled in a
$20bn Russian money-laundering scheme; did business with Donald Trump and Jeffrey
Epstein; and was fined over allegations that it hired unqualified relatives of Russian and
Chinese government officials to win business. And that’s just to name a few of the scan-
dals Deutsche Bank has been involved with.
6. To be fair, while Deutsche Bank’s report was laughably out of touch, there were some
important points buried within it. The report is right to note that a shift to remote wor-
king after the pandemic has the potential to disproportionately benefit the affluent3,
and widen the gap between the rich and the poor. But you know what a very simple
solution to that is? Taxing rich people and corporations more.
7. The solution is not, as Deutsche Bank suggests, making someone who earns £35,000
pay around £7 a day for the privilege of working from home. The solution is not stig-
matizing remote work and penalizing anyone who chooses to do it: a policy which will
inevitably end up hurting women, who are still the main caregivers, the most.
8. What’s more, a shift to normalized remote working doesn’t necessarily have to exa-
cerbate inequality. Indeed, it could help radically reduce it. If living in an expensive city
is no longer a requirement for a good job, the talent pool that companies have access to
widens considerably. Remote working could also help close the gender gap: according to
a 2019 survey, 31% of women who took a career break after having kids said they didn’t
want to but had to because of a lack of workplace flexibility. Additional studies show that
flexible working allows mothers to stay in employment after the birth of their first child.
9. The pandemic “is a portal”, Arundhati Roy4 wrote in a beautiful essay earlier this year.
“We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred,
our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us.
2. Vested interest: personal interest.

3. The affluent: the rich.
4. Arundhati Roy: Indian writer, winner of the British Booker Prize in 1997.
134
UE
DEVOIR 1 Anglais des affaires  218
Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And
ready to fight for it.”
10. We have an exciting opportunity at the moment to reimagine the world of work.
But it is becoming very clear that we are going to have to fight very hard against behe-
moths5 like Deutsche Bank who can’t wait to get back to business as usual.
source : From The Guardian, November 2020.
OVER TO YOU
Answer the following questions (5 lines minimum for each answer except the first;
5 points per question):
1. Present this text in a few sentences: topic (who, where, when, what) and tone.
2. Explain (no paraphrasing, rephrase) and comment the quote in paragraph 3: “Remote
workers are contributing less to the infrastructure of the economy … our economic sys-
tem is not set up to cope with people who can disconnect themselves from face-to-face
society.”
3. Banks are associated to frauds in this extract; rephrase some of the allusions and com-
ment on this accusation using your own words.
4. The text concludes by stating that “behemoths like Deutsche Bank who can’t wait to
get back to business as usual”. Define what is meant by “business as usual” and enlarge
your reflection to finance in general (not just banks). You may use your professional
experience in your reflection.
5. Behemoths: giants.
135

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UE 218 Anglais des affaires

Programme de l’UE d’Anglais des affaires 5

Méthodologie de l’épreuve d’Anglais des affaires 11

Plan annuel de l’UE 218 13

Chapitre 2. Facts you should know ........................................................................................ 26

Chapitre 1. Money, money, money . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Chapitre 2. Press review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Chapitre 3. Translation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Chapitre 4. Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Programme de l’UE d’Anglais

Nature de l’épreuve Durée de l’épreuve Coefficient ECTS

au candidat sera tiré de l’un des thèmes précisés infra.

2 – Accounting and auditing

Information systems (IS)

Security and quality of IS

Bienvenue dans le cours de l’UE 218 – Anglais des affaires de l’Intec !

I. L’UE d’Anglais des affaires

ce qui se fait/se dit dans le monde.

II. Les devoirs

III. Les webconférences

Les directives de l’épreuve prévoient d’évaluer la capacité des étudiants à :

Les trois temps de l’oral se décomposent donc ainsi :

II. Modalités de préparation

Plan annuel de l’UE 218

II. L’emploi de since, for et ago

TOPIC 2 ACCOUNTING AND AUDITING

TOPIC 3 GOVERNANCE AND CORPORATE SOCIAL

Chapitre 3. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

TOPIC 4 INFORMATION SYSTEMS

TOPIC 5 MANAGEMENT, HUMAN RESOURCES

• Se familiariser avec la phonétique.

Chapitre 2. Facts you should know

source : From slideshare.net/lmartina/english-phonetics.

2. Facts you should know

I. Economic theories and concepts

A. liberalism and free trade

∙ 1. Adam Smith (1723-1790)

∙ 2. Friedrich Hayek (1899-1992)

∙ 3. Milton Friedman (1919-2006)

C. the organisation of work

∙ 1. Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915)

assembly lines. Taylorism undeniably introduced a certain form of dehumanisation of

∙ 2. Henry Ford (1863-1947)

∙ 3. Lean manufacturing or Toyotism

To streamline: rationaliser/« dégraisser »

∙ 1. David Ricardo (1772-1823)

F. technology and innovation

∙ 1. Joseph Schumpeter (1883-1950)

c. Role of the entrepreneur

II. The media

∙ 1. Main British quality newspapers

e. The Daily Telegraph

f. The Spectator and New Statesman

Spectator.co.uk and newstatesman.com

Forbes.com and Hbr.org

B. watching TV and videos

bbc.com/news or bbc.co.uk (search the “Reel” section)

I. Les temps : présent et passé

A. le présent d’un verbe

∙ 1. Le présent des verbes be, can, must, have got

Forme affirmative Forme négative Forme interrogative Forme interronégative

a. Points à retenir sur la structure