Greek

Communication Platforms

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Mattermost: Greek Channel

Translation References

Style Guides

In an effort to have uniform Greek translations, we urge translators to follow these guidelines. These are guidelines and not rules, and the translators should also take care of the uniformity of the translations for each project.

Addressing the user

When addressing the user, you can use singular (ενικός) or formal plural (πληθυντικός ευγενείας) forms. Usually, Greek translators choose to use the formal plural, but in projects that try to have a more informal user experience, singular might be more appropriate. Make sure that your choice is consistent throughout the project, in order to keep the translation clean and not confusing.

Gendered words

When referencing a person of unknown gender (for example "the user"), the classical way of translating is by only using the masculine forms of nouns, pronouns and adjectives (for example "ο χρήστης"). Despite the widespread use of this approach, there has been criticism that it is very patriarchal and excludes females. A different, more inclusive approach is to use both genders (for example "ο χρήστης ή η χρήστης" or "ο/η χρήστης"). There is a specific regulation on non-sexist language usage by the Greek secretariat of gender equality towards all public entities, urging them to use inclusive forms ("η/ο χρήστρια/της") as much as possible.

However, the inclusive approach might not be appropriate at cases where there are character length restrictions, which are already an issue when translating to Greek (Greek words tend to be longer than English ones). In such cases, using masculine-only forms cannot be avoided.

Commonly used English words

Some technical words are very commonly used in their English form in Greek. To keep the translations shorter and easier to understand quickly, it is more appropriate to leave some words in English, ensuring uniformity throughout.

Examples:

• Email

Capitalization

For titles and other cases where there is a phrase where the first letter of each word is capitalized (for example "Privacy Policy"), the proper way to capitalize in Greek is to only capitalize the first letter of the phrase ("Πολιτική απορρήτου"). There are exceptions to this rule, when the phrase/title includes words that are capitalized anyway (names of people, organizations, countries, etc).

So for example the following title "The United Kingdom Will Leave The European Union By The End Of The Year" translates to "Το Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο θα αποχωρήσει από την Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση μέχρι το τέλος του έτους".

Project Resources

A good starting point for translation guidelines is the thorough Microsoft Localization Style Guide.

Select your language from the dropdown menu and select Download to access a PDF version of the style guide.