10

Example sentence

How would you translate:

In order to control for any retirement related impact, ...

Term

The term to control for is used in statistics:

What I've found so far

The discussion forum at dict.leo.org suggests:

The PONS dictionary suggests:

1
  • So, if it was me, I would take the English then translate the concept into German-I would take the tack of 'anticipate' for 'to control for' or even 'predict response' but start with German for anticipate. :)
    – user19490
    Dec 14, 2015 at 11:37

3 Answers 3

2

In the context of statistics it should be kontrollieren/Kontrolle (Drittvariablenkontrolle).

Example:

Zur Kontrolle von ruhestandsbezogenen Einflüssen ...

In the context of economics you often find bereinigt um/Bereinigung um, but then you don't speak of control for in English either.

Example:

inflationsbereinigt, Bereinigung um saisonale Effekte

2
  • You would really say that in the context of statistics? To me, it sounds completely odd (and I've studied math, though I didn't specialize in statistics). Note that the usage in the linguee examples is from fincance (where "Bereinigung" is common), not from statistics .
    – dirkt
    Dec 14, 2015 at 19:09
  • @dirkt No you wouldn't. I just had a talk with someone who knows this better, I changed my answer almost entirely to reflect this.
    – moooeeeep
    Dec 14, 2015 at 20:36
5

I assume you are asking about the statistical notion of controlling for a variable. It doesn't seem to describe a single technique but a number of different ones that all have the common purpose of finding the effect of a single variable (or maybe sometimes several) in the presence of other, confounding variables. In German one usually makes the specific technique used more explicit: vermeiden (avoid), berücksichtigen (consider), herausrechnen (eliminate (computationally)).

If you really want to (or have to) stay general, you can work with a literal translation of controlling a confounding variable: einen Störfaktor kontrollieren.

3

I would translate

Um den Einfluss des Eintretens in den Ruhestand als Störfaktor zu verringern, ...

I don't know a direct translation. In principle, bereinigen, kontrollieren and etwas berücksichtigen can be valid translations of "to control for", but not in the particular context of the example.

I think this is one of those cases where you have to use expressions appropriate for the particular situation, instead of trying to translate something directly.

The Wikipedia article for Störfaktor contains some relevant expressions and terminology.

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