Practical guide · 4 min read

French-English glossary of Cameroonian official documents

In Cameroon, the same paper has two names: an “acte de naissance” from a Douala council is a birth certificate for an office in Buea or Bamenda. Here is the exact name of each document in the other language, and what to know before having it translated.

By Talla Naoussi Arnold, translator — Master II in translation, ASTI, Buea · Updated 2 November 2026

Documents stacked on a desk, ready to be filed

Civil status and identity

French and English names of Cameroonian civil status and identity documents
In French	In English	Worth knowing
Acte de naissance	Birth certificate	Drawn up by the civil status registrar of the town of birth.
Acte de mariage	Marriage certificate	The marital property regime is translated exactly as written.
Acte de décès	Death certificate	Often required for an estate or a pension file.
Jugement supplétif	Declaratory judgment	Issued by the court when a birth was never registered or the record was lost.
Certificat de nationalité	Certificate of nationality	Issued by the court of first instance.
Carte nationale d’identité (CNI)	National identity card	Mainly the reference for the exact spelling of names.

What does not get translated

A document name has an equivalent. A diploma does not always have one. A baccalauréat is not “A Level”: translating it that way means deciding in place of the university or credential evaluator who will read the file.

The same rule applies to marks out of 20 and to GCE grades the other way round: they stay on their own scale. Proper names are spelled exactly as in the passport, letter for letter.

A translated diploma keeps its own title and grading scale.

Education, work, driving

French and English names of education, employment and driving documents
In French	In English	Worth knowing
Baccalauréat, BEPC, licence, master	Same title, kept in French	A French diploma title is not converted into “A Level” or “O Level”: the reader decides the equivalence.
Relevé de notes	Transcript, statement of results	Marks stay on their original scale out of 20, with no conversion.
Certificat ou attestation de travail	Work certificate, certificate of employment	Job titles are rendered as closely as possible, never reinvented.
Bulletin de paie	Pay slip	Requested with the work certificate for work and family visas.
Relevé bancaire	Bank statement	Amounts stay in FCFA; no currency conversion is added.
Permis de conduire	Driving licence	Licence categories (A, B, C…) are kept as they are.
Permis de conduire international	International driving permit	A separate document, issued on top of the national licence.

Courts, notaries, certification

French and English names of court and notarial documents, and of certification terms
In French	In English	Worth knowing
Extrait de casier judiciaire, bulletin n° 3	Police clearance certificate, criminal record extract	Applied for at the registry of the court of the place of birth.
Jugement	Court judgment	Civil-law vocabulary is carried into common-law terms one by one.
Acte notarié	Notarial deed	Sale, power of attorney, gift: drawn up before a notary.
Déclaration sous serment	Affidavit	Made before an authorised officer; translating it changes nothing to its value.
Copie certifiée conforme	Certified true copy	Confirms a copy matches the original. It is not a translation.
Légalisation	Legalisation	Authenticates a signature. It does not translate anything either.
Traduction certifiée	Certified translation	A translation with the translator’s signed and stamped statement.
« Traduction assermentée »	“Sworn translation”	Done by a translator registered with a court. This is not Verbatim’s status.

Certification, legalisation and certified copies are three different things: the guide to the differences explains which one your institution asks for.