Swedish Style Guide for Community

Transcription

1 Swedish Style Guide for Community

2 Table of Contents Introduction... 4 Approach... 4 Content Principles... 4 The Facebook Voice... 5 Basics... 5 Be Brief... 5 Consider Your Audience... 6 Make it Readable... 6 Use Active Voice... 6 Style... 6 Abbreviations... 6 Acronyms... 7 Capitalization... 8 Consistency... 8 Contractions... 8 Gender... 8 Numbers (includes currency, dates and times)... 9 Pronouns Punctuation Spacing Titles and Subtitles Other Language Conventions Tense Word order Prepositions Localization Guidelines General Information Product Names User Interface Buttons Mobile Third Party UI Tokens

3 References Facebook References Public References

4 Introduction Created: May 2014 The purpose of this document is to provide the stylistic guidelines for community translators who contribute to Facebook Swedish localization. The scope of this style guide includes general Facebook content standards, Swedish language conventions and localization specific guidelines. Approach Content Principles All Facebook content should follow these 3 simple rules. This keeps people's experience consistent, builds trust and strengthens our brand. 1. Keep It Simple Use short words and sentences, and keep the number of words to a minimum. 2. Get to the Point Clearly explain how things work and give people enough information to make good decisions. 3. Talk Like a Person Keep things friendly, conversational and respectful, like you re talking to a neighbor. 4. Improve on the source when needed You can be better than the source if it isn t perfect. A poor source, as long as you understand the meaning, is never an excuse for a poor translation. 5. Write Swedish Use idiomatic, colloquial Swedish. Specific linguistic conventions exist within different fields (IT, legal etc.) and individual projects may have specific instructions, but our main task is to write comprehensible everyday Swedish that is understood by all users. 4

5 The Facebook Voice The Facebook voice is our personality. Our tone may change in different contexts, but we always sound like Facebook: simple, straightforward and human. Simple: Stick to common words that people use in everyday speech. Be concise. Write short sentences that are easy to understand. Straightforward: Keep terms and messaging consistent across all channels, on and off Facebook. Don't bury information or gloss over it. Don't use language that s vague or possibly misleading. Human: Translate like you re talking to someone one-on-one. (Read your content out loud if you re not sure it sounds natural.) Stay neutral. Avoid language that s opinionated, cutesy, irreverent or otherwise over the top. Don't sound like a robot. Even the smallest bits of interface content should be approachable. Basics Be Brief Use as few words as possible while still being clear. Make sure every word has a job to do Replace jargon with everyday terms 5

6 Consider Your Audience Facebook reaches people of all ages and backgrounds in nearly every country around the world. While most websites have a target demographic, we want to help people around the world connect each other on Facebook. This means our audience is truly everyone. Exceptions When translating for specific audiences (ex: advertisers, developers, people in security checkpoints, and so on), you may need to incorporate special terminology or adjust your tone. However, the basic standards above still apply. Make it Readable Readability is a measure of how easy it is to both read words and understand them. With an audience of diverse ages, cultures and literacy levels, readability helps make Facebook usable and accessible. Use Active Voice In an active sentence, the subject of the sentence is doing something. In a passive sentence, something is being done to the subject (making the subject passive). The file can t be saved Filen låter sig inte sparas Det går inte att spara filen When a user performs a search in a folder När en sökning görs av en användare i en mapp När en användare söker i en mapp Style Abbreviations An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word. Abbreviate text if space is an issue or to make the text easier to read at a glance. 6

7 Units of time: Months jan, feb, mar, apr, maj, jun, jul, aug, sep, okt, nov, dec (no periods) Dates 9 jan or 1 feb Days sön, mån, tis, ons, tor, fre, lör, or sö, må, ti, on, to, fr, lö if space is really tight (no periods) Hours h, min, sek, fm, em Other common usages: Examples use t.ex. not t ex if you need to abbreviate, when there are no space restrictions spell out till exempel or exempelvis Osv. and dvs. always include a period with osv. and dvs. Where possible, spell out "och så vidare " and det vill säga or use an alternate word Info (no period) spell out information on first use unless space is very limited Facebook don't abbreviate Facebook Some common Swedish abbreviations: m.m. (med mera), kl. (klockan), nr (nummer), fr.o.m. (från och med), max. (maximum), min. (minimum), min (minut), p.g.a. (på grund av) You can attach photos, videos, documents et cetera Du kan bifoga foton, filmklipp, dokument mm Du kan bifoga foton, filmklipp, dokument m.m. The videocall starts at 8 Videosamtalet börjar kl 8 Videosamtalet börjar kl. 8 Acronyms Acronyms are abbreviations formed using the first letters of a compound term. URL, SMS and PC are common acronyms. Use an acronym only if it helps clarify meaning and there s no common word to replace it. Then: Define the acronym in parentheses the first time you use it. Ex: API (Application Program Interface) Don t use periods. Ex: API, not A.P.I. 7

8 Capitalization The Swedish language capitalizes far less than the English language. Follow general Swedish linguistic rules and capitalize only UI terms and example names of people and places, companies, organizations and authorities. Write internet with lowercase letters. Words should not be capitalized after a colon after words like Note, Caution, Warning, etc. Establish an Internet Skapa en Internetanslutning Skapa en internetanslutning connection Insert the CD into the drive Sätt i CD-skivan i enheten Sätt i cd-skivan i enheten Watch a TV show Titta på ett TV-program Titta på ett tv-program Consistency The general rule is to keep consistency in translating the same terminology with the same concept. Power Editor Den avancerade redigeraren, Power Editor Volymhanteraren Video(s) Videofilm(er), video(r) Filmklipp Contractions Not Applicable Gender They and them are often used as gender-neutral singular pronouns in English. In Swedish han eller hon is used. Please note that the words are used alphabetically: han/hon, hans/hennes, henne/honom. 8

9 Numbers (includes currency, dates and times) We use numbers in text, when referring to currency, and in time stamps and dates. Numerals Use a non-breaking space to set off groups of 3 digits Currency Use the numerical form: When using international currency abbreviations, e.g. SEK, USD, GBP, place the abbreviation after the numerical in body copy, i.e SEK. Place the abbreviation before the numerical in currency tables, i.e. SEK If a currency symbol must be used, include a non-breaking space between the number and sign: 450. Time stamps and dates Use the numerical form and write the numbers as compactly as possible. Use 24 hours format: kl. 09:00, 12:30, 18:15, 22:00, etc. A colon is used to separate hours from minutes. 5 minuter sedan 9 januari kl. 21:16 Dates should be written using the Swedish year, month, and day format ( ), which is different from the order used in the US (month/day/year 10/28/2103). Keep this in mind when translating, as 06/02/2013 would refer to the 2nd of July, instead of the 6th of February. If the month is written in letters, the Swedish date format should be shown as day-month-year: 28 oktober No comma is used prior to the year (c.f. English usage: December 24, 2013). Occurrences of the English use of 2 nd, 3 rd, 4 th, etc. should not be rendered as 2:a, 3:e, 4:e in date formats, but omitted or written in full where appropriate: 4 th of July = fjärde juli, 24 th December = 24 december. 9

10 Pronouns In direct communication with users, the source text sometimes uses the personal pronoun I. In Swedish, write vi instead of jag to avoid getting too personal. Sometimes a fictive name is used in the source, which should also be avoided in Swedish. Hi! I m John, and I ve noticed that you have created an account but haven t posted anything yet. Hej! Jag heter John och jag ser att du har skapat ett konto men inte gjort några inlägg ännu. Hej! Vi ser att du har skapat ett konto men inte gjort några inlägg ännu. Punctuation The general rule is to follow the standard punctuation rules in Svenska skrivregler, Språkrådet (2008). Comma Do not separate complete sentences with a comma. Use a period or a conjunction. Colon Do not copy the colons from the source text without discretion. Follow Swedish punctuation standards. If the sentence works without the colon, remove it. Please see the example below. Ellipsis Include a non-breaking space before ellipsis Note: Dealing with punctuation rules is a little different in UI translations. Make sure to follow the English source strings to avoid any potential issues. For example, a source string may not include a period after a full sentence though the general rule is that we should add a period after a full sentence in Swedish. Some strings are structured this way on purpose, so please follow the punctuation used in source strings. 10

11 implement the important updates in areas such as: documents, files, folders and more implementera de viktiga uppdateringarna i områden som: dokument, filer, mappar och annat. implementera de viktiga uppdateringarna i områden som dokument, filer, mappar och annat. Spacing Don t add a space before or after a dash for ranges, time periods and distance. Add a non-breaking space between numbers and % sign: 47 %. Nonbreaking spaces can be added by pressing Ctrl + Shift + space bar. When using units of measurement, include a non-breaking space between number and sign: 2 km. Business hours 9 4 Öppettider 9 16 Öppettider 9 16 Titles and Subtitles Titles and subtitles help you organize information, introduce ideas and highlight key concepts. Interface content Dialogs and pop-ups usually have just one title and subtitle. 11

12 Titles Use title case. Then: Always capitalize the first word of a title Don't put periods at the end of titles o Exception: Question marks are okay, where appropriate Subtitles Use sentence case, with the first word capitalized and the rest of the words in lowercase. Exception: Proper nouns (Facebook Pages, Mark Zuckerberg) o Don t put periods at the end of subtitles o Exception: Question marks Other Language Conventions Tense The English past tense favors simple past (preterite) more than in Swedish, e.g. X commented on Y's post. In Swedish the perfect aspect should be used for completed actions: X har kommenterat Ys inlägg rather than the simple past: X kommenterade Ys inlägg. Word order Make sure that the correct Swedish word order is used, as exemplified below: This means that when you buy an item within a game you will always be paying with Facebook credits when you buy an in-game object Det innebär att när du köper ett objekt i ett spel betalar du alltid med Facebook-krediter. Det innebär att du alltid betalar med Facebookkrediter när du köper ett objekt i ett spel. 12

13 Prepositions Use the following prepositions throughout for the exemplified objects: I en profil, på en tidslinje, i en logg Localization Guidelines General Information Product Names Product and feature names should be consistently translated. Some product and feature names are translated and others are used in English based on strategic decisions. For example, Messenger was translated in many languages, but now changed back to English in all languages. Lookalike Dubblett Lookalike User Interface Buttons Buttons are one of the main ways people take action on Facebook, so they should be clear, active and specific. Always translate button names with the format knappen X. Click on the button Save. Klicka på Spara-knappen. Klicka på knappen Spara. 13

14 Mobile Mobile UI localization has more space constraint than regular UI localization. Mobile strings sometimes come with specific description about the allowed number of characters. It is important to keep translation within this limit in order to avoid any truncation issues, e.g.: in SMS-related translations. If possible, try to put the most important information at the front of the sentence so that it won t be buried with other information. However, translations should not deviate from the English source unless instructed otherwise, since this may cause accuracy issues. Third Party UI If you encounter third party UI terms, please check if they were localized. For example, please check the existing translations on iphone if they refer to iphone UIs. Tokens UIs often include tokens which are a portion of full sentences and represent the bricks of what will be seen by the users. Note that text in { } are placeholders and replaced by either a variable or another string. For example, {name} is replaced by a user name and {count} is replaced by a number. If the placeholder contains the = sign right after the opening bracket, it means that it will be replaced by exactly the same text that it contains. {user} edited his {=changed relationship status} that you followed. The {user} token will be replaced by the name of the user, while the {=changed relationship status} token will be replaced exactly by the words changed relationship status, and this will look like Jane edited her changed relationship status that you followed. 14

15 If you're sure you entered the correct user name and password, please {=report a problem}. Om du är säker på att du har angett rätt användarnamn och lösenord kan du {=anmäla ett problem}. Om du är säker på att du har angett rätt användarnamn och lösenord kan du {=report a problem }. References Facebook References Glossary in Admin Panel Public References These are a few of the generally recommended public references. Svenska skrivregler, Språkrådet (2008) SAOL (Svenska Akademiens ordlista) for spelling, plural endings etc. Online version here: ordlista/saol_pa_natet/ordlista Svenska datatermgruppen Official website: Online dictionary: Nationalencyklopedin should be used for geographical references. Online version here: Other popular dictionaries and glossaries such as Microsoft Language Portal. 15