Common Translation Errors¶

Translators – even professional translators – usually make these error when translating computer software.

Overview of common errors¶

Capitalisation¶

Wrong: no capitalisation in translation
Correct: translation follows translation language capitalisation
convention

Double words¶

Translator could not decide which word was more appropriate

Wrong: two translated words for one original word

Correct: choose one word if you have two options

Translated things that should stay in English¶

Wrong: translating program function name like get_file_attributes()

Correct: leave program syntax or function names untranslated

Variables¶

Wrong: variables left out of translation

Correct: variable in translation in the correct order for the language

Wrong: environment variable names (eg. EDITOR) and possible fixed values
(eg. COLOR, TRANSPARENT) translated
Correct: left in English and perhaps surrounded by single quotes to
indicate that they are not in the target language on purpose.

Punctuation¶

Wrong: leaving out end punctuation and whitespace (eg. "File: ")
Correct: copying end punctuation and whitespace almost exactly as the
original into the translation.

Wrong: adding missing fullstops to translated sentence
Correct: if full sentences do not contain a fullstop in the original do
not add one to the translation.

Wrong: adding exclamation marks (!) to the translation when they occur in the original
Correct: use exclamation marks to correspond with the tone of the
application and the convention of the translated language.  Ie you may leave
them out of the translation.

Wrong: leaving out ellipses (…)

Correct: always add ellipses to the translation

Accelerators¶

Wrong: leaving out accelerators (either _&~ depending on the application)

Correct: if the original has an accelerator so should the translation

Wrong: placing the accelerator exactly in the same position as the original
Correct: place the accelerator on the word / syllable / part of the
sentence that is accented in its pronunciation or is the focus of the sentence.

Wrong: using the same letter for accelerator keys
Correct: try to vary the letters chosen as the accelerator key (in some
languages almost all words start with U or I.  In this case make an effort to
choose other letters)

HTML¶

Wrong: HTML tags are translated

Correct: HTML tags are not translated

Wrong: translatable HTML entities are not translated
Correct: translate items that will be viewable.  E.g. HTML img tag’s alt
attribute <img alt=”translate me”>, a tag’s title attribute <a href=blah
title=”translate me”>.