Things you should know about how languages work

If you want to create a good UI that's easy to localize, there are some quirks of language that you should be aware of. Words and phrases can affect each other in different ways in different languages – most of which are not visible in English. The following sections will give you an idea of how to avoid the most common pitfalls.

Gender and number variation

Below you can find an example on how one text in English has several different possible translations in Czech, depending on what the expression refers to.

VARIATION IN NUMBER AND GENDER

The translation of "Must be defined" varies according to the number and gender of the word it refers to (e.g. "access point" or "mailbox"). localizable language: Czech

     

English text

Czech translation

English text

Czech translation

"Access point"

"Přístupový bod"

"Must be defined"

"Musí být definován"

"Mailbox"

"Schránka"

"Musí být definována"

"Message centre"

"Středisko zpráv"

"Musí být definováno"

"Recipients"

"Příjemci"

"Musí být definováni"

"Servers"

"Servery"

"Musí být definovány"

"Web addresses"

"Webové adresy"

"Musí být definovány"

"Settings"

"Nastavení"

"Musí být definována"

Often the English language is deceptively simple. For example, the common words "On" and "Off" are adjectives, and they can be translated in different ways depending on the context:

English

French

Spanish

Spanish

On

Activé

Activado

Activado

 

Activée

Activada

Activada

 

Activés

Activados

Activados

 

Activées

Activadas

Activadas

 

Activer

Activar

Activar

 

Oui

Off

Desactivé

Desactivado

Desactivado

 

Desactivée

Desactivada

Desactivada

 

Desactivés

Desactivados

Desactivados

 

Desactivées

Desactivadas

Desactivadas

 

Désactiver

Desactivar

Desactivar

 

Aucun

 

Non

No

No

Verbs and prepositions

The localization of prepositions can depend on both the preceding verb and the following noun. Please use separate text ID for each time you use an expression like "Copy to:", "Remove from:", "Save to:" etc. in a different context. From the example below, you can see how another language uses different prepositions and even a completely different verb depending on the context:

English

French

Go to

Gallery

Aller à Galerie

File manager

Aller ds Gest. de fichiers

Feeds

Aller aux flux

image mode

Passer en mode photo

Podcast library

Aller au menu Podcast

Nouns and cases

Even with nouns, the same English text and the same layout do not always result in the same translation. A Selection list heading can influence the translation of the Selection list items:

English

Croatian (standalone list item)

Croatian under heading Insert: (Umetni:)

Ukrainian standalone list item

Ukrainian under heading Insert: (Вставити:)

Image

Slika

Sliku

Зображення

Зображення

Note

Bilješka

Bilješku

Нотатка

Нотатку

New slide

Nova stranica

Novu stranicu

Новий слайд

Новий слайд

Table

Tablica

Tablicu

Таблиця

Таблицю

Translations of an Options sublist item depend on what kind of an Options list item they refer to. "Sort by" - "Date" is in Polish "Sortuj według" - "Daty" whereas the Setting item "Date" would be "Data".

English

Finnish (standalone)

Finnish as a options sublist item after "View by" (Tarkastele)

Slovak

Slovak as a options sublist item after "View by" (Zobraziť podľa)

Album

Albumi

Albumin mukaan

(standalone list item)

Albumu

Artist

Esittäjä

Esittäjän mukaan

Album

Interpreta

Composer

Säveltäjä

Säveltäjän mukaan

Interpret

Skladateľa

Date

Päivämäärä

Päivämäärän mukaan

Skladateľ

Dátumu

Genre

Lajityyppi

Lajityypin mukaan

Dátum

Žánru

Size

Koko

Koon mukaan

Žánr

Veľkosti

Title

Nimi

Nimen mukaan

Veľkost

Názvu

Some languages also need to display different definite articles/suffixes with nouns/adjectives in situations where the English looks the same.

Please do not reuse anything just because the English looks the same.