Dutch

Communication Platforms

The most important thing to do is to stay connected with fellow translators and reviewers. The Localization Lab Mattermost is hosted on the International Freedom Festival domain and is subject to their Code of Conduct. Be sure to read through the Code of Conduct and then contact us and we will send you a link to sign up for the channel. You can also comment on strings in Transifex, but please tag a reviewer for your language, because Transifex comments can otherwise easily go unnoticed.

Dutch style guide

Signal Messenger

This Style guide is a result of reviewers communicating about inconsistencies and solutions. As the result of previous discussions we have come up with the following style guide for Dutch localization of Signal messenger. The style may deviate from other Localization Lab project, because no two projects are the same.

Any translator or reviewer should be using the Signal Beta app, so you can see the new strings as soon as possible and know where they occur in the app. If you don't know the context, you can't write good localizations.
What we are doing is localization, not just translation. That means translations do not have to match precisely to the same words in English; sometimes the cultural differences are a reason to write a different text in Dutch.
For quotation marks we use opening and closing quotation marks as such: “ ” . Note that these are not the same quotation marks we see in the English text strings. There is no key for these on your keyboard, so you might want to learn a shortcut to type them, or you can copy paste them wherever you need them.
Follow proper Dutch spelling, for example don't write "log bestand" but instead write "logbestand".
Dutch people like clear no bullshit language. Avoid figure of speech, try to be direct and factual.
Try to write strings in such a way that your grandfather and grandmother will also understand Signal, prefer Dutch words over English terminology. If a word is unfamiliar to someone, it helps if it's a Dutch word and sound similar to other Dutch words which they do know the meaning of.
On preference / setting descriptions: If the sentence contains any interpunction, end the sentence with a period. If the description does not contain any interpuction, don't end the sentence with a period.
About the structure of sentences: we highly recommend you read this lesson about word order in Dutch language, even if Dutch is your first language. MAny Duthc people also get it wrong. [1] Note that it's not just one page, there is a next page button on the bottom right and there are quite a lot of examples of different cases on that site.
About "je, jij, jou, jouw, u and uw" because Signal is a messenger you use day to day we think it's most fitting to use informal pronouns, so we don't use "u and uw". We use "je" wherever there is no ambiguity / possible confusion about the meaning of the text. We use "jij, jou or jouw" if the string does not occur in a sentence or if there is any ambiguity.
Use the ellipsis symbol instead of three lose dots: … . If it is breaking of a word use no whitspace: Ben je me nu al verge… If it breaks of a sentence use a whitespace between the last word and the ellipsis: Ik heb het potje vet al op tafel …
Make sure the subject is repeated in every new sentence, do not refer back to a previous sentence. We do this to keep texts easy to read and understand. An example: do not write "Turing this on allows you to receive emails. They will contain information about your account." instead write "Turning this on allows you to receive emails. The emails you will receive contain information about your account.".
Avoid anglicisms, our job is to localize the content so it can be understood by as many people as possible, that includes people who don't understand even the most common of English words.
For units we follow the Si-standards. That means we translate 20MB as 20 MB with a whitespace. Kilobytes as kB. Note that Signal does not use KiB, MiB etc, because Signal is following the same units as the Android operating system. The same rule applies to other units such as 10s becoming 10 s. Abbreviations for minutes, months and weeks are not si units but we agreed to translate those as "min", "mnd" and "w". Capitalization matters.

Other projects

For other projects the style has not yet been written down, however some translators seem to hold on to a style guide from Microsoft.

Tips for consistency

Use the suggestions tab in Transifex to see if a similar string has already been translated before
Use the glossary tab to see if a particular word has a suggestion
Always read the comments on the string
Look at the string key, to see what it is called in the code
If you want, you could take a look at the source code in GitHub. Just reading the titles of recent commits could already give you a helpful clue.
If you are not sure about the context, ask other translators in the comments, leave the string untranslated or give it your best guess and come back later to review it.
ANY time you edit a translation on a project with multiple separate resources, make sure to open all the resources and check if the same string exists elsewhere to apply the exact same edit there. An example would be when you edit a string in the Android Signal messenger app, make sure to also check if the same string exists in the Desktop app, the iOS app, the website or the support center. It's not easy for other reviewers to spot the inconsistency later, so do this right away at the very moment you make an edit.

How to review

If there is a Beta version of the website or app you are translating, you should probably be using it so you have early knowledge of where the string will occur , in what context, and how much space is available
See if the string provides clear information, and that users don't have to guess about its meaning.
Make sure all the interpunction is accurate, the capitalization is accurate, there are no double whitespaces, and no missing whitespaces
Make sure all symbols and next line match with the original string
Make sure the vocabulary matches that of other strings
Make sure the structure of the sentence matches that of other strings
Make sure the exact same phrase, with the same vocabulary and same sentence structure is used across various projects of the same organization, for example in the case of Signal messenger, across the iOS app, Desktop app, Android app, Support Center, Website and App store.
Make sure the string fits in the available space. However if you feel the available space is insufficient, do not come up with some unreadable string, but instead contact the developer about creating additional space for translated strings.
Don't just look at untranslated string, some strings are automatically translated by Transifex but might still be wrong because the context requires a different translation. use source_updated_after:dd-mm-yyyy to find all the new strings. Also check for edits made by others, using translation_updated_after:dd-mm-yyyy .

Language varieties (Flemish and Frisian)

If you want to localize a project to Flemish (nl_BE) or Frisian (fy) and if there already exist good quality translations to Dutch, than it is recommended to base your translations of Dutch rather than English or an other source language. This may make translations faster, but more importantly it also keeps the texts consistent, so that someone who lives just across the border doesn't see completely different texts for the same project. In Transifex there is an option to swap which language you are using as the source language for your translations; you will find it by clicking the setting icon in the top right of the translation interface. Any string that have not yet been translated to Dutch will automatically still be shown as the original source language for the project (usually English).

About compromising between Flemish and Dutch: If a project does not accept translations for nl_BE than unfortunately for Flanders, the languages nl and nl_NL will still follow Dutch standard language (Nederlandse standaardtaal). It is not possible to make nl into a mix or compromise between both languages to satisfy both languages. Flemish translators can contact a project maintainer and ask to add a nl_BE project.

Language Resources

Please use the following resources to guide the style, tone and terminology you use across Localization Lab supported projects. Note: These resources are not are not final. If you disagree with terminology or grammar choices, please escalate the issue to the Localization Lab team for further discussion with other Dutch language team contributors.

Grammer and word order in sentences

https://www.dutchgrammar.com/en/?n=WordOrder.00 About word order in sentences. It's not just one page, keep clicking on next page in the bottom right to see more examples.

Style and tone

First follow any styleguide you find here on this wiki for language and project you are working on
If you are missing something, contact other translators
If you search for style advise from other websites, avoid getting it from tech companies who make up their own version of Dutch language based on marketing rather than proper standard Dutch. Also avoid other wiki's which are often written by opinionated people who are not representative for the language. That doesn't mean you can't read them and learn from them, but take it with a grain of salt.

Spelling

Technical terminology

We prefer to use the glossary in Transifex. Localization lab also has a general Glossary, although we don't really use it much at this time: Dutch Unified Localization Lab Glossary. The document is maintained by Erin (a localization lab employee). If you wish to add comments, edits or suggest new entries, do so using the "Comment" feature in the spreadsheet.