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.
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 |
Sí |
Sí |
|
Off |
Desactivé |
Desactivado |
Desactivado |
Desactivée |
Desactivada |
Desactivada |
|
Desactivés |
Desactivados |
Desactivados |
|
Desactivées |
Desactivadas |
Desactivadas |
|
Désactiver |
Desactivar |
Desactivar |
|
Aucun |
|||
Non |
No |
No |
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:
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.