Tony M Sep 20, 2015:

@ Asker (2) HOWEVER, IF your text then went on to qualify the certificate in some other way, then you MIGHT need the article in there:
"in confirmation of which, the marriage cetritifcate no. 123 hereto appended ..." etc. In this latter case, omitting the article would not be wrong, but a case could be made for its presence to assist reading; imagine how the sentence would read if the 'n° 123' wasn't there at all.

So you see just how important it is to give us correct, complete context, rather than peremptorily dismissing people's attempts to help.

Tony M Sep 20, 2015:

@ Asker (1) Your original question is far from clear, and to be honest, downright confusing: you initially wrote: "Is the definite article required after the abbreviation "No." in sentences?" — which does not in any way correspond to the example sentence you gave.

THEN you subsequently wrote:
"The question is this:
THE marriage certificate No. XXX or marriage certificate No. XXX (without THE)" — NOW this makes a whole lot more sense!

It seems as if in your original question you wrote 'after' when in fact you really meant 'before'?

And the answer, of course, depends on exactly what comes next; IF there is no further qualification of the specific marriage certificate in question, then it would be correct WITHOUT the article:
"in confirmation whereof, marriage certificate no. 123 was issued on... by..." etc.

katsy Sep 20, 2015:

Here's a certificate with the "to certify which" http://agendalink.co.fort-bend.tx.us:8085/mindocs/2015/CCTR/...
I personally would have put "to certify which," (ie with a comma). My point being that this turn of phrase does not strike me as unnatural in legalese... nor - at least with the comma! - is it IMO difficult to understand. HTH

mailbag (asker) Sep 20, 2015:

I fully support you in your belief that legal translations should be elegant and easy for laymen to read. However, I am doing this particular translation for a very specific (even idiosyncratic) audience, who believes, for example, that "to establish a mortgage on an apartment ownership" is a perfectly good English clause :))))). And remains deaf to my attempts to argue otherwise. Today, my only concern WAS the article. I should not have written that sentence in the first place to avoid any unnecessary discussions. I did not want to be sharp. I just do not want us to waste our valuable time on things which are irrelevant. Sorry and thanks again!

Taña Dalglish Sep 20, 2015:

@ Mailbag Both DLyons and I (and Jack) are only trying to help YOU. Personally, no one is asking you to write out entire sentences, even if they are not in English. Personally, I beg to differ. Legal translations do not need to be unnatural sounding. Nowadays, the whole idea is to simplify the language so that even a layman can understand the often complicated concepts. If you only want to know about the use of the article, or non-use, you have it, but I don´t think you need to be sharp, or reject native English speakers' opinions regarding other sections of your work which are unclear. //Be that as it may, I leave it there as well! Regards.

mailbag (asker) Sep 20, 2015:

Oh, I'm not gonna argue and write out the entire sentence as it is in the original language (which is not English). Legal translations are often somewhat unnatural for the sake of being accurate. I just wanted to know about the article. Thank you all for your help!

DLyons Sep 20, 2015:

That sounds unnatural and open to being misread.// It is unnatural without being accurate. And there I leave it.

mailbag (asker) Sep 20, 2015:

I think that WHICH is appropriate in my sentence.
The full sentence reads smth. like that:
A married B, to certify which marriage certificate No. xxx was issued.

Taña Dalglish Sep 20, 2015:

@ mailbag I believe what DLyons is referring to is what comes before. Your example: e.g. to certify "which (the ???)" marriage certificate No. xx". As Jack confirms, you do not need the definite article - leave out "the"; but your example should read "e.g. to certify that marriage certificate No. xxx was issued to the parties", not WHICH. HTH!

mailbag (asker) Sep 20, 2015:

I've given a non-defining relative clause in my example.
.... , to certify which (i.e. this fact) .....
The question is this:
THE marriage certificate No. XXX or marriage certificate No. XXX (without THE)

DLyons Sep 20, 2015:

It's not clear what you are asking. Your suggestion seems to have it well before "which (the ???) marriage certificate".