Site management

The twenty-sixth entry is a permissão de trabalho, and it sets two English traps in four words. The first is the noun itself. « Permission » is abstract and uncountable: one has permission, one asks for permission, and one cannot hold a permission. The paper is « a permit », a separate countable noun, and every document of this kind takes it — a parking permit, a permit for the crane. So a permissão de trabalho é obrigatória para soldar has to become « a permit is required », because « a permission » is not English at all. The second trap is word order, and it is the expensive one. « A permit to work » is the document this list means: the signed authorisation that lets a named person do one dangerous job on one named day, issued after the hazards have been checked. « A work permit », the same two words the other way round, is the immigration paper that lets a foreigner take a job in the country. Site English keeps them rigidly apart and shortens the first to « PTW ». Reversing the words does not soften the sense: it changes the subject.