When organizing projects or delegating tasks, you often need to shift focus from one topic or person to another. French uses two common prepositional phrases to make these transitions smoothly in formal and professional settings.
En ce qui concerne (Regarding)
En ce qui concerne translates to "regarding," "concerning," or "as far as ... is concerned." Use it to introduce a new topic or to shift attention to a specific aspect of a plan.
| Regarding this project, we are going to distribute the tasks among certain employees. | En ce qui concerne ce projet, nous allons répartir les tâches entre certains employés. |
| Regarding the team, it is better to delegate than to supervise. | En ce qui concerne l'équipe, il vaut mieux déléguer que superviser. |
| Regarding the specifications, who is going to draft them? | En ce qui concerne le cahier des charges, qui va le rédiger ? |
Quant à (As for)
Quant à translates to "as for." It is often used to establish a contrast, such as when assigning different roles to different people or evaluating different phases of a project.
Because it ends with the preposition à, you must use stressed pronouns (like moi, lui, or vous) when referring to people.
| As for me, I distribute a task to each one. | Quant à moi, je distribue une tâche à chacun. |
| As for you, you can supervise the team without having the responsibility for it. | Quant à vous, vous pouvez superviser l'équipe sans en avoir la responsabilité. |
| As for him, he delegated the implementation without consulting us. | Quant à lui, il a délégué la mise en œuvre sans nous consulter. |
Keep in mind that à must also contract with definite articles (le and les) to form quant au and quant aux. It does not contract with la.
| As for the responsibility of the project, it is enormous. | Quant à la responsabilité du projet, elle est énorme. |
Managing Projects
These phrases are highly common in professional environments. You will hear them frequently when managing a team or evaluating specifications (le cahier des charges), timelines (l'échéancier), and implementation (la mise en œuvre).
| The project is good; however, regarding the timeline, we are late. | Le projet est bon ; cependant, en ce qui concerne l'échéancier, nous sommes en retard. |
| As for the implementation, do you respect the specifications? | Quant à la mise en œuvre, respectez-vous le cahier des charges ? |
