#214 Confirming the Scope of a Contracted Assignment｜French Business Phrases

When you are proceeding with a service contract, moving forward without a clear mutual understanding with your client can lead to discrepancies later on.

For this reason, it is essential that you carefully confirm the scope of work, deadlines, and deliverables in advance.

In this section, I will explain useful French expressions for confirming the details of a contracted assignment, following a practical dialogue example.

Dialogue

A

Merci pour votre proposition. Afin d’éviter tout malentendu, j’aimerais revoir certains points avec vous.
（Thank you for your proposal. In order to avoid any misunderstanding, I would like to review a few points with you.）

B

Bien sûr, je vous écoute.
（Of course, I am listening.）

A

Pour commencer, pourriez-vous préciser les tâches incluses dans la mission ?
（To begin with, could you clarify the tasks included in the assignment?）

B

Oui, il s’agit principalement de la rédaction de contenu et de la gestion des réseaux sociaux.
（Yes, it mainly involves content writing and social media management.）

A

Concernant les livraisons, quelle est la fréquence prévue ?
（Regarding deliverables, what is the expected frequency?）

B

Nous prévoyons une livraison hebdomadaire.
（We plan to deliver on a weekly basis.）

A

Merci pour ces précisions. Cela nous permettra de mieux organiser le projet.
（Thank you for the clarification. This will help us organize the project more effectively.）

1. Stating the Purpose of the Discussion

When you discuss the scope of work with a client, I recommend that you begin by clearly stating the purpose of the conversation.

The structure “afin de + infinitive” is used to express purpose and is commonly found in formal contexts.

In this case, it combines with “éviter” (to avoid) and “tout malentendu” (any misunderstanding) to convey the idea of preventing miscommunication.

While “afin de” is formal and suitable for business situations, you can also use “pour + infinitive” in less formal contexts.

2. Clarifying the Scope of Work

One of the most common sources of trouble in service contracts is ambiguity regarding the scope of work. For this reason, you should clearly confirm what is included in the assignment.

The expression “préciser + noun” means “to clarify” or “to specify in detail.”

Here, “les tâches” (tasks) functions as the object, indicating that you want to define the scope of work more precisely.

In addition, “les tâches incluses dans la mission” uses the past participle “inclus” (from “inclure,” “to include”) as an adjective modifying “les tâches.”

It is important to note that the past participle agrees with the noun it modifies:

3. Confirming Conditions

In addition to the scope of work, conditions such as deadlines and delivery frequency are equally important.

The word “concernant” means “regarding” or “concerning” and is often placed at the beginning of a sentence to introduce a new topic.

It is widely used in business conversations and emails.

To ask about frequency, the noun “fréquence” is used to specify how often something occurs. The phrase “quelle est la fréquence” means “what is the frequency?”

The word “prévue” is the feminine singular form of the past participle of “prévoir” (to plan), and it agrees with “fréquence,” which is a feminine noun.

Summary