Danish Style Guide for Community

Danish Style Guide for Community

Table of Contents Introduction... 4 Approach... 4 Content Principles... 4 The Facebook Voice... 4 Basics... 5 Be Brief... 5 Consider Your Audience... 5 Make it Readable... 6 Use Active Voice... 6 Style... 6 Abbreviations... 6 Acronyms... 7 Capitalization... 7 Consistency... 8 Contractions... 8 Gender... 9 Numbers (includes currency, dates and times)... 9 Punctuation... 10 Pronouns... 12 Spacing... 12 Titles and Subtitles... 13 Tone... 14 Other Language Conventions... 14 Accents... 14 Plural... 14 Redundancy... 15 Localization Guidelines... 15 General Information... 15 Product Names... 15 User Interface... 16 Buttons... 16 Mobile... 16 2

Third Party UI... 17 Tokens... 17 References... 18 Facebook References... 18 Public References... 18 3

Introduction Created: May 2014 The purpose of this document is to provide the stylistic guidelines for community translators who contribute to Facebook Danish localization. The scope of this style guide includes general Facebook content standards, Danish 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. 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. 4

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 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. 5

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). To continue, please update your computer's clock: Der fortsættes ved at opdatere computerens ur: Du skal opdatere din computers ur for at fortsætte: Posts you hide from your timeline may still appear in News Feed and elsewhere on Facebook. Opslag man skjuler på tidslinjen, kan stadig blive vist i Nyheder og andre steder på Facebook. Opslag, du skjuler på din tidslinje, kan stadig blive vist i Nyheder og andre steder på Facebook. 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. Units of time: Century 21. årh. (remember full stop in ordinal numbers) Decades 80'erne (with apostrophe) Months jan, feb, mar, apr, maj, jun, jul, aug, sep, okt, nov, dec (no periods and lower case) Dates Short date format: 06-05-2014 (dd-mm-yy). Long date format: 6. maj 2014. Days sø, ma, ti, on, to, fr, lø, sø (no periods) 6

Hours t., min, sek. Use "min" without full stop to avoid confusion with abbreviation of "minimum". Am and pm should not be used. Use 24 hour format. 2:30pm should be changed to 14:30. Use colon as time separator. Other common usages: Follow standard abbreviations accepted by Retskrivningsordbogen. Avoid, if possible, any abbreviations that are not listed here. Examples Use "f.eks." instead of "fx" (only if space is an issue "fx" can be used. etc. and osv. Use "osv." instead of "etc. " "Facebook" Don't abbreviate Facebook USA Never U.S.A. or U.S. Acronyms Acronyms are abbreviations formed using the first letters of a compound term. CD, SMS and PC are common acronyms. Common acronyms that are accepted by Retskrivningsordbogen should be written in lower case: cd, dvd, pc, sms, mms. Less common acronyms such as URL, can ideally be replaced by common words, link or webadresse that improve the understanding for a broader audience. Use acronyms if they help clarify meaning and there are no common words to replace them. Most acronyms are untranslatable and should be treated as follows: Define the acronym in parentheses the first time you use it (if context available for knowing where it appears). Ex: API (Application Program Interface). The definition in parenthesis should be in English unless a translation makes up the same acronym. Online strings should generally not apply definition in parenthesis. Don t use periods. Ex: API, not A.P.I. Capitalization Danish capitalization rules differ from English. Respect Danish conventions regarding use of capitalization, irrespective of the English source. For example: 7

Do capitalize only the first letter of the first word of buttons, functions, captions and titles. Don't capitalize each word as is common in English. Upper case is used in the following contexts: First letter in first word in the beginning of a text After full stop finishing a sentence After exclamation mark After question mark After colon followed by a complete sentence First word and the following meaningful words in proper nouns: Gorm den Gamle, Det Kongelige Teater, Østre Landsret, De Kanariske Øer. Some personal pronouns (formal and generally not used in Facebook): I, De, Dem, Deres Some titles/modes of address: Hendes Majestæt Acronyms Note that nationalities, names of days, months and languages are NOT capitalized in Danish. Consistency The general rule is to keep consistency in translating the same terminology with the same concept. Adam likes a post on your wall Adam kan godt lide et opslag på din mur Adam synes godt om et opslag på din væg Photo Foto Billede Contractions Not applicable. 8

Gender In Danish grammar there are only two genders i.e. common and neuter. Nouns of common gender take the indefinite article en whereas nouns of neuter gender take the indefinite article et. Some nouns take both articles but then the meaning of the terms is almost always different. Only very few nouns take both gender and have the same meaning. Examples: Common gender: Neuter gender: Both gender (different meaning): Both gender (same meaning): en annonce et opslag en vår (forår) et vår (overtræk til dyner og puder) en parameter (preferred) et parameter Please note that in online content there can be strings using "their" in English when referring to a singular person with unknown gender. The use of vedkommende will generally work well in these instances. Numbers (includes currency, dates and times) We use numbers in text, when referring to currency, and in time stamps and dates. Numerals in headlines and text: Use the numerical form of numbers (ex: 2, 3, 4, and so on), except for the number one, which is spelled out in most contexts (follow English source). Numerical form of numbers is used to ensure consistency as many numbers are replaced by tokens and the general Danish rule of writing out numbers from 0 to 10 inclusive is practically impossible to maintain. Title Case Headline: 5 gode grunde til at prøve tilbuddet News feed story: Tiffany Brown og 2 andre venner synes godt om dette Subhead: Køb en, og få en gratis 9

Use comma as decimal separator and full stop as thousands separator. Thousand separator is only used in numbers with five digits or more. 0,1 1 10 100 1000 10.000 100.000 1.000.000 Currency: Use the numerical form: Spil: 10 point til en værdi af 1 $ Udestående: 1,00 $ Currency symbols should follow the amount, not precede it: 450 USD/450 $ (add space between number and currency symbol). Time stamps and dates: Use the numerical form and use short or long form depending on context and possible length restrictions. for 5 minutter siden 5 min siden den 9. januar klokken 21:16 9. jan kl. 21:16 Punctuation The general rule is to follow the standard punctuation rules outlined by Dansk Sprognævn (http://www.dsn.dk). 10

Comma: Please use the traditional comma without applying the recommendations from Dansk Sprognævn on omitting commas in front of subordinate clauses. Hyphen: Hyphens are used to link compound words or parts of compound words or in the meaning of "from... to": søn- og helligdage sidehoved og -fod 486-processor Facebook-produkter træk og slip-tekstredigering 200-300 deltagere Refer to http://sproget.dk/raad-og-regler/retskrivningsregler/ retskrivningsregler/a7-40-60/a7-57-bindestreg Em dash (long dash ) is not used in Danish. Use en dash (short dash ) instead (Alt + 150) always surrounded by a space on each side. Quotation marks: Double straight quotation marks should be used. In a sentence ending with a term within quotation marks or brackets, the full stop should go outside the closing quotation mark or bracket. Note: Dealing with punctuation rules is a little different in UI translations and English source strings' end punctuation should be followed to avoid any potential issues as should the use of upper/lower case at the beginning of a sentence. 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 Danish. Some strings are structured this way on purpose, so please follow the punctuation used in source strings. 11

Publish this post to your Udgiv dette opslag på din side nu. Udgiv dette opslag på din side nu Page now send her a birthday greeting* Send hende en fødselsdagshilsen* sende hende en fødselsdagshilsen* * beware of the description as this text part could be used in a longer sentence such as "You can send her a birthday greeting" and the correct translation would therefore need to use infinitive and not imperative. Ampersand (&): Please change ampersand symbol to og unless it is part of a company name or trademark. Pronouns Use du when addressing the reader. Always use du in direct speech especially in instructions. User guides in English often use you and your e.g. your wall. Often these pronouns are replaced by the definite form of the noun i.e. væggen. However, this will depend on context and the pronoun can in some situations be necessary for clarification. You post a photo on your wall with the button Post. Man slår et billede op på væggen med knappen Slå op. Du slår et billede op på væggen med knappen Slå op. He posts a photo on your wall. Han slår et billede op på væggen. Han slår et billede op på din væg. Spacing Please don t add a space between a word and an opening or closing parenthesis. Double spacing is NOT used in Danish. Add a space on both sides of en dash. 12

Add a space between numbers and unit/symbol. Please be careful not to insert trailing spaces in target texts. Suspension points should be preceded by a space unless they are substituting only part of a word. If you want to upload something --as a photo or video-- you should find the file on your computer first. Hvis du vil overføre noget f.eks. et billede eller en video skal du først finde filen på computeren. Hvis du vil overføre noget f.eks. et billede eller en video skal du først finde filen på computeren. 10% 10% 10 % Add countries... Tilføj lande... Tilføj lande... 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. Titles: Capitalize only the first word in a title (exception: proper nouns) Don't put periods at the end of titles o Exception: Question marks are okay, where appropriate. 13

Subtitles: Same rules as titles Introducing New Apps for Timeline Introduktion til Nye Apps til Tidslinje. Introduktion til nye apps til tidslinjen Introducing New Facebook Features Introduktion til Nye Facebook Funktioner. Introduktion til nye Facebook-funktioner Tone Please always use the informal du except in very rare texts with a highly legal content where formal De should be used. In normal legal text such as terms and conditions du is also used. Please read and accept the De bedes læse og acceptere Du bedes læse og acceptere terms vilkårene vilkårene Other Language Conventions Accents Imperatives ending in stressed -er should only use accent if the word can be mistaken by another word. Select the photos Marker billederne Markér billederne Edit the photos Redigér billederne Rediger billederne Plural Some commonly used words have various options for plural endings. In these cases please use the one that differentiates singular from plural. 14

Jobs Job Jobs email e-mail e-mails In English software the plural form is often placed in parentheses in order to avoid double representation of a term. In Danish the term is translated in plural without the parentheses. In running text it is possible to rephrase the text though, in order to include both singular and plural form e.g. Markér et eller flere billeder. File(s) Fil(er) Filer Select the photo(s) Markér billedet/billederne Markér et eller flere billeder Redundancy Note that we write føje til instead of tilføje til. 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. 15

Messenger Chatprogram Messenger Power Editor Effektivt redigeringsprogram Power Editor News Feed Nyhedsstrøm Nyheder* * Please note that within a sentence it is not necessary to refer to News Feed as Nyheder with upper case. The word can be used in lower case and for example determined form (nyhederne) if it is more appropriate and improves the readability. User Interface Buttons Buttons are one of the main ways people take action on Facebook, so they should be clear, active and specific. Buttons should use imperative form in Danish. They should never end with full stop. Save Gemme Gem Add Photos/Video Tilføje billeder/video Tilføj billeder/video 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. 16

Std rates apply. Der gælder normale takster. Normal takst. 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 her {=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 Example (please note that in this example the text within the token has been written out for clarification purposes instead of leaving the actual token!): {Jane} edited her {changed relationship status} that you followed {Jane} redigerede sin {har ændret civilstatus}, som du følger {Jane} redigerede sin {ændrede civilstand}, som du følger 17

References Facebook References Glossary in Admin Panel Public References These are a few of the generally recommended public references. Retskrivningsordbogen, published by Dansk Sprognævn. http://www.dsn.dk http://www.sproget.dk, edited by Dansk Sprognævn and Det Danske Sprogog Litteraturselskab. To be used for grammar, punctuation, and Q&A on common doubts. Other popular dictionaries and glossaries such as Microsoft Language Portal. http://www.microsoft.com/language/en-us/search.aspx 18