Misunderstandings, colloquialisms, wrong words and false friends: 13

 

There’s a lot of rivalisation between companies in IT.

 

There are two possible corrections here, depending on what the speaker is talking about, and so it is worth looking at these differences in a little detail.

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The error concerns the word rivalisation. There is no such English word, although the word does occur in many other languages and in translated pieces which you can find on the internet quite easily.

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The first possible correction is rivalry, with the meaning to be in the state of competing or fighting between people, businesses, or organizations who are in the same area or want the same things: There’s a lot of rivalry between the Manchester football teams.

 

The second is competition, which is the situation where two or more people or groups are trying to get something which not everyone can have, or where two or more companies each tries to get people or organisations to buy their products and not from the others: There’s a lot of heavy competition in the IT market. City centre shops are facing stiff competition

from shopping centres.

 

So it depends on the context, and if I had to choose the most appropriate word, it would be competition as I’m sure these IT firms are not involved in competition that may include some kind of battle, but as far as I can understand, the direct Polish translation of rywalizacja can be rivalry, duel, or competition.

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