Capturer, capter, captiver, etc.

The English word capture does not automatically translate to capturer, as some translators seem to think. Far from that actually.

There are cases where capter or captiver is appropriate, for example with expressions such as:

• He captured her attention. -> Il a capté son attention.

• This snapshot captured the magical atmosphere of the place. -> Ce cliché captait la magie du lieu.

• She captured his heart. -> Elle captiva son cœur.

Capturer should be used with the meaning of “taking by force”, as in “capture somebody” or “capture something mobile”. Other possibilities are s’emparer de, prendre.

• They captured the rebel. -> Il capturèrent le rebelle.

Also, there are many other possible translations when the object of the capture is abstract, for example: appréhender, représenter, illustrer, etc.

In IT translations, capture data would be saisir des données or entrer des données