Tips — Writing for Translations

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Writing for Translations. CPG offers translation servicesTips — Writing for translations

Applying the following methods will ease translation and help to avoid the misinterpretation that often results in translation errors.

  1. Avoid random or unnecessary capital letters. Extra capital letters in English can fool the translator into assuming more words are brand names or proper nouns, changing how the text is translated. Even consider moving your corporate style toward upper case or “sentence case” for heads and subheads. Sentence case (first letter is capped) is very popular globally, while Americans often use “title caps” (select important words are capped) or all initial caps.

EXAMPLES

Upper case: THE RED BALL BOUNCES ONTO THE COURT. (preferred)

Sentence case: The red ball bounces onto the court. (preferred)

Title caps: The Red Ball Bounces onto the Court.

Initial caps: The Red Ball Bounces Onto The Court.

 

  1. Use short sentences, simple grammar, and “active voice”. Technical information resources will often include long, complicated sentences or sentences written in “passive voice”, leaving it up to the reader to decide who or what is performing the action. Break up long sentences and make the subject clear.

EXAMPLES

Active voice: The player passes the red ball onto the court. (preferred)

Passive voice: The red ball is passed onto the court.

 

  1. Use consistent vocabulary for parts. For a good translation and for the user’s best understanding, don’t change an expression for any important part of the machine. For example, don’t call the item a “retention valve” and later call the same item a “check valve”. The translator will feel obligated to follow your example and will most likely also use two different terms.

 

  1. Use articles, including “a” and “the”. They help identify nouns to the translator. In English many nouns are also used as adjectives and verbs, and leaving their articles out increases the chances of the entire sentence being misunderstood. This style of leaving articles out is unfortunately very popular with technical information resources.

 

  1. Don’t use clever English. Be careful when using nouns as different sentence parts, such as newly-made verbs. Always use hyphens in phrase-type modifiers. Don’t use slang and buzzwords. Avoid ambiguous language where the translator can’t tell if it is a noun phrase or a verb phrase.

 

  1. Include relative pronouns, like “that” and “which”. Some of us have been taught
    that we should not use so many “thats” and “whiches”. But leaving them out can
    confuse the translator.

EXAMPLES

Relative clause with “that”:

The player passes the red ball that she received onto the court. (preferred)

Relative clause without “that”:

The player passes the red ball she received onto the court.

 

  1. Introduce bulleted/numbered lists with complete sentences. It is a bad idea to complete the sentence with each bullet as an ending. This will not translate well into languages that use different word orders in their grammars.

EXAMPLES

List introduced with a complete sentence:

The player should wear the following: (preferred)

        • A jersey
        • Shorts
        • Acceptable shoes

List introduced with a partial sentence:

The player should wear:

          • A jersey
          • Shorts
          • Acceptable shoes
        1. In text about controllers, make the on-machine or on-screen text into an adjective by adding a noun, such as “button” or “key”. If you want your translation to reflect what is seen on the machine or on the screen, don’t use them as a different part of the sentence as we might normally in English.

EXAMPLES

Good for translation:

Press the ENTER key.

Bad for translation:

Press ENTER.

ENTER number.

 

        1. In text for parts lists, spell out abbreviations and acronyms (if possible) and make sure you can identify the main noun. Only use abbreviations if they can be found in a standard dictionary. Because parts list often include nouns used as adjectives, a good way to write their part names is to lead with the main noun, followed by a comma.

EXAMPLE

DRIVE, AUXILIARY MOTOR

 

        1. Be very careful when writing text for software and firmware. Avoid tricks common in English such as re-use of partial phrases, since these methods will not work in many other languages. Keep phrases together to accommodate the changes in word order found in various languages.

NOTE: It is best to consider translations for software and firmware (“strings”) as if they were part of your product, since this text may be permanently programmed into your machines. Translators should manage character limits and cohesiveness of the entire program. Sending extra columns in your file for character limits and for long forms of the actual shortened phrases is helpful to the translator. It is also very important to get them translated correctly, before any manuals are written.

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