My bottle of Tide High-Efficiency laundry detergent says on alternate sides of the cap, “2x concentrated” and “2x plus concentré”. I washed hundreds of loads of laundry before it occurred to me: what, exactly, does “2x plus concentré” mean? By analogy, it should presumably mean “double-concentrated” or “two times as concentrated”. But, in English:
two times as concentrated = 100% increase
two times more concentrated = 200% increase
and “plus” looks like “more” to my untrained eye. (I am bereft of French-English dictionaries and French-speaking friends, and I’ve learned not to trust online translation services for things like this.) So, does “2x plus concentré” really indicate a 100% increase? If so, what phrase indicates a 200% increase? And vice versa: if “2x plus concentré” is an error and really means a 200% increase, what French phrase indicates a 100% increase?
I would interpret “deux fois plus concentré” as meaning “twice as concentrated”, i.e. a 100% increase (or a 50% decrease in mass for the same cleaning power). You couldn’t say “deux fois concentré” or “deux fois aussi concentré” in French, the second is ungrammatical and the first one doesn’t really mean the same thing. This said, I wouldn’t be surprised if many people thought “twice as concentrated” and “200% increase” meant the same thing, so I guess there’s always a risk these phrases will be misinterpreted.
Yes. They used these symbols in order to save space.
It would mean “as”. For example, “je suis aussi vieux que lui” would mean “I am as old as he is”. But while you can say “twice as concentrated”, “deux fois aussi concentré” sounds awkward.
Well, it means “twice concentrated”. I guess it could be interpreted as having the same meaning as “twice as concentrated”, but in my mind it evokes images of a product undergoing a process of concentration twice.
Of course. But, having only a passing familiarity with French grammar, I just wanted to make sure I was grokking you right as to which exact word was covered by the “x”.
What severus said. But I will submit that the writing/translation was poorly done. The French "2x plus concentré“ infers that the product is more concentrated than it was before or than the regular stuff. In English, it could mean both that the product is more concentrated or that it was concentrated more often.
