Control Engineering

The eighth entry is l’action intégrale, and it is the sort of trap that springs long after the page has been read, because here the word means exactly what it looks like. L’action of a controller is its action, the share of the correction the integrator contributes, and there is nothing to unlearn. Away from the control room the same noun does two jobs English gives to unrelated words. The first is money. Une action is a share in a company: acheter des actions is to buy shares, le cours de l’action is the share price, un actionnaire is a shareholder, and une société par actions is a joint-stock company. The second is law. Une action en justice is a lawsuit, and intenter une action contre quelqu’un is to bring proceedings against them. So a headline reading l’action du groupe a chuté reports a fall in the share price and describes nobody’s conduct. For a deed or a step French keeps un acte and une mesure, and reaches for them often. Look at the neighbours before the noun: a controller, a market or a court.