The work reference

La liste des attributions is the part of the certificate that says what the job actually consisted of, and « attribution » is the wrong English word for it. Les attributions, in the plural, are the powers and duties formally attached to a post: les attributions du maire, or cela ne relève pas de mes attributions, which is the polite way of saying that something is not your job. English « attribution » never means any of that. It is the act of saying who made a thing or who said it — the attribution of a painting, an attribution in a footnote — and « an attribute » next to it is a quality somebody has. A line translated as « the list of attributions » therefore promises a page of credits where the reader wants a page of work; what is wanted is duties, responsibilities or powers. There is a second catch, in the number. The singular l’attribution is not one of those duties at all: it is the awarding of something, as in l’attribution d’un marché. The plural here is not the plural of the singular.