Insurance and provision in French

The list for the letter nobody wants to write. Two of its entries sit next to each other and both are false friends. L’expertise is not expertise: it is the *inspection* — the visit somebody makes to look at the damage and put a figure on it, l’expertise a lieu mardi. And l’expert is the person who does it, which English calls a « loss adjuster » or a « claims assessor », never an expert. The French word does also mean skill in other contexts — son expertise en la matière — but on an insurance file it names an appointment. So « the expertise takes place on Tuesday » is not English, and reading l’expert passe demain as « a specialist is coming » misses that the visit decides how much gets paid. The French for expertise in the English sense is usually la compétence or le savoir-faire.