Swedish Style Guide for Community

Swedish Style Guide

for Community

Swedish Style Guide for Community

Table of Contents

Introduction ... 4

Approach ... 4

Content Principles ... 4

The Facebook Voice ... 5

Basics ... 5

Be Brief ... 5

Consider Your Audience ... 6

Make it Readable ... 6

Use Active Voice ... 6

Style ... 6

Abbreviations ... 6 Acronyms ... 7 Capitalization ... 8 Consistency ... 8 Contractions ... 8 Gender ... 8

Numbers (includes currency, dates and times) ... 9

Pronouns ... 10

Punctuation ... 10

Spacing ... 11

Titles and Subtitles ... 11

Other Language Conventions ... 12

Tense ... 12 Word order ... 12 Prepositions ... 13

Localization Guidelines ... 13

General Information ... 13 Product Names ... 13 User Interface ... 13 Buttons ... 13 Mobile ... 14 Third Party UI ... 14 Tokens ... 14

Swedish Style Guide for Community

References ... 15

Facebook References ... 15 Public References ... 15

Swedish Style Guide for Community

Introduction

Created: May 2014 The purpose of this document is to provide the stylistic guidelines for community translators who contribute to Facebook Swedish localization. The scope of this style guide includes general Facebook content standards, Swedish language conventions and localization specific guidelines.

Approach

Content Principles

All Facebook content should follow these 3 simple rules. This keeps people's experience consistent, builds trust and strengthens our brand.

1. Keep It Simple Use short words and sentences, and keep the number of words to a minimum.

2. Get to the Point Clearly explain how things work and give people enough information to make good decisions.

3. Talk Like a Person Keep things friendly, conversational and respectful, like you’re talking to a neighbor.

4. Improve on the source when needed You can be better than the source if it isn’t perfect. A poor source, as long as you understand the meaning, is never an excuse for a poor translation.

5. Write Swedish Use idiomatic, colloquial Swedish. Specific linguistic

conventions exist within different fields (IT, legal etc.) and individual projects may have specific instructions, but our main task is to write comprehensible everyday Swedish that is understood by all users.

Swedish Style Guide for Community

The Facebook Voice

The Facebook voice is our personality. Our tone may change in different contexts, but we always sound like Facebook: simple, straightforward and human.

Simple:

• Stick to common words that people use in everyday speech. • Be concise. Write short sentences that are easy to understand. Straightforward:

• Keep terms and messaging consistent across all channels, on and off Facebook. • Don't bury information or gloss over it.

• Don't use language that’s vague or possibly misleading. Human:

• Translate like you’re talking to someone one-on-one. (Read your content out loud if you’re not sure it sounds natural.)

• Stay neutral. Avoid language that’s opinionated, cutesy, irreverent or otherwise over the top.

• Don't sound like a robot. Even the smallest bits of interface content should be approachable.

Basics

Be Brief

Use as few words as possible while still being clear. • Make sure every word has a job to do

Swedish Style Guide for Community

Consider Your Audience

Facebook reaches people of all ages and backgrounds in nearly every country around the world. While most websites have a target demographic, we want to help people around the world connect each other on Facebook. This means our audience is truly everyone.

Exceptions When translating for specific audiences (ex: advertisers, developers, people in security checkpoints, and so on), you may need to incorporate special terminology or adjust your tone. However, the basic standards above still apply.

Make it Readable

Readability is a measure of how easy it is to both read words and understand them. With an audience of diverse ages, cultures and literacy levels, readability helps make Facebook usable and accessible.

Use Active Voice

In an active sentence, the subject of the sentence is doing something. In a passive sentence, something is being done to the subject (making the subject passive). Example:

English Error Example Correct Example

The file can’t be saved Filen låter sig inte sparas Det går inte att spara filen When a user performs a

search in a folder När en sökning görs av en användare i en mapp När en användare söker i en mapp

Style

Abbreviations

An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word. Abbreviate text if space is an issue or to make the text easier to read at a glance.

Swedish Style Guide for Community

Units of time:

• Months – jan, feb, mar, apr, maj, jun, jul, aug, sep, okt, nov, dec (no periods) • Dates – 9 jan or 1 feb

• Days – sön, mån, tis, ons, tor, fre, lör, or sö, må, ti, on, to, fr, lö if space is really tight (no periods)

• Hours – h, min, sek, fm, em Other common usages:

• Examples – use t.ex. not t ex if you need to abbreviate, when there are no space restrictions spell out “till exempel” or “exempelvis”

• Osv. and dvs.– always include a period with osv. and dvs. Where possible, spell out "och så vidare " and “det vill säga” or use an alternate word • Info (no period) – spell out “information” on first use unless space is very

limited

• Facebook – don't abbreviate Facebook

• Some common Swedish abbreviations: m.m. (med mera), kl. (klockan), nr (nummer), fr.o.m. (från och med), max. (maximum), min. (minimum), min (minut), p.g.a. (på grund av)

Example:

English Error Example Correct Example

You can attach photos,

videos, documents et cetera Du kan bifoga foton, filmklipp, dokument mm Du kan bifoga foton, filmklipp, dokument m.m. The videocall starts at 8 Videosamtalet börjar kl 8 Videosamtalet börjar kl. 8

Acronyms

Acronyms are abbreviations formed using the first letters of a compound term. URL, SMS and PC are common acronyms.

Use an acronym only if it helps clarify meaning and there’s no common word to replace it. Then:

• Define the acronym in parentheses the first time you use it. Ex: API (Application Program Interface)

Swedish Style Guide for Community

Capitalization

The Swedish language capitalizes far less than the English language. Follow general Swedish linguistic rules and capitalize only UI terms and example names of people and places, companies, organizations and authorities. Write ”internet” with lowercase letters. Words should not be capitalized after a colon after words like ”Note”, ”Caution”, ”Warning”, etc.

Example:

English Error Example Correct Example

Establish an Internet

connection Skapa en Internetanslutning Skapa en internetanslutning Insert the CD into the drive Sätt i CD-skivan i enheten Sätt i cd-skivan i enheten Watch a TV show Titta på ett TV-program Titta på ett tv-program

Consistency

The general rule is to keep consistency in translating the same terminology with the same concept.

Example:

English Error Example Correct Example

Power Editor Den avancerade redigeraren,

Volymhanteraren Power Editor Video(s) Videofilm(er), video(r) Filmklipp

Contractions

Not Applicable

Gender

”They” and ”them” are often used as gender-neutral singular pronouns in English. In Swedish ”han eller hon” is used. Please note that the words are used

Swedish Style Guide for Community

Numbers (includes currency, dates and times)

We use numbers in text, when referring to currency, and in time stamps and dates. Numerals Use a non-breaking space to set off groups of 3 digits.

• 10 • 100 • 1 000 • 10 000 • 100 000 • 1 000 000

Currency Use the numerical form:

• When using international currency abbreviations, e.g. SEK, USD, GBP, place the abbreviation after the numerical in body copy, i.e. 5 000 SEK. Place the abbreviation before the numerical in currency tables, i.e. SEK 5 000.

• If a currency symbol must be used, include a non-breaking space between the number and sign: 450 €.

Time stamps and dates Use the numerical form and write the numbers as

compactly as possible. Use 24 hours format: kl. 09:00, 12:30, 18:15, 22:00, etc. A colon is used to separate hours from minutes.

• 5 minuter sedan • 9 januari kl. 21:16

• Dates should be written using the Swedish year, month, and day format (2013-10-28), which is different from the order used in the US

(month/day/year – 10/28/2103). Keep this in mind when translating, as 06/02/2013 would refer to the 2nd of July, instead of the 6th of February. • If the month is written in letters, the Swedish date format should be shown

as day-month-year: 28 oktober 2013. No comma is used prior to the year (c.f. English usage: December 24, 2013). Occurrences of the English use of 2nd_{, 3}rd_,

4th_{, etc. should not be rendered as 2:a, 3:e, 4:e in date formats, but omitted}

or written in full where appropriate: 4th _{of July = fjärde juli, 24}th _{December =}

Swedish Style Guide for Community

Pronouns

In direct communication with users, the source text sometimes uses the personal pronoun “I”. In Swedish, write “vi” instead of “jag” to avoid getting too personal. Sometimes a fictive name is used in the source, which should also be avoided in Swedish.

Example:

English Error Example Correct Example

Hi! I’m John, and I’ve noticed that you have created an account but haven’t posted anything yet.

Hej! Jag heter John och jag ser att du har skapat ett konto men inte gjort några inlägg ännu.

Hej! Vi ser att du har skapat ett konto men inte gjort några inlägg ännu.

Punctuation

The general rule is to follow the standard punctuation rules in Svenska skrivregler, Språkrådet (2008).

Comma Do not separate complete sentences with a comma. Use a period or a conjunction.

Colon Do not copy the colons from the source text without discretion. Follow Swedish punctuation standards. If the sentence works without the colon, remove it. Please see the example below.

Ellipsis Include a non-breaking space before ellipsis

Note: Dealing with punctuation rules is a little different in UI translations. Make

sure to follow the English source strings to avoid any potential issues. For

example, a source string may not include a period after a full sentence though the general rule is that we should add a period after a full sentence in Swedish. Some strings are structured this way on purpose, so please follow the punctuation used in source strings.

Swedish Style Guide for Community

Example:

English Error Example Correct Example

… implement the important updates in areas such as: documents, files, folders and more

… implementera de viktiga uppdateringarna i områden som: dokument, filer, mappar och annat.

… implementera de viktiga uppdateringarna i områden som dokument, filer, mappar och annat.

Spacing

• Don’t add a space before or after a dash for ranges, time periods and distance.

• Add a non-breaking space between numbers and % sign: 47 %. Non-breaking spaces can be added by pressing Ctrl + Shift + space bar.

• When using units of measurement, include a non-breaking space between number and sign: 2 km.

English Error Example Correct Example

Business hours 9 – 4 Öppettider 9 – 16 Öppettider 9–16

Titles and Subtitles

Titles and subtitles help you organize information, introduce ideas and highlight key concepts.

Interface content

Swedish Style Guide for Community

Titles

Use title case. Then:

• Always capitalize the first word of a title • Don't put periods at the end of titles

o Exception: Question marks are okay, where appropriate Subtitles

Use sentence case, with the first word capitalized and the rest of the words in lowercase. • Exception: Proper nouns (Facebook Pages, Mark Zuckerberg)

o Don’t put periods at the end of subtitles o Exception: Question marks

Other Language Conventions

Tense

The English past tense favors simple past (preterite) more than in Swedish, e.g. “X commented on Y's post”. In Swedish the perfect aspect should be used for completed actions: “X har kommenterat Ys inlägg” rather than the simple past: “X kommenterade Ys inlägg”.

Word order

Make sure that the correct Swedish word order is used, as exemplified below:

English Error Example Correct Example

This means that when you

buy an item within a game you will always be paying

with Facebook credits when you buy an in-game object

Det innebär att när du köper ett objekt i ett spel betalar du

alltid med Facebook-krediter.

Det innebär att du alltid

betalar med

Facebook-krediter när du köper ett objekt i ett spel.

Swedish Style Guide for Community

Prepositions

Use the following prepositions throughout for the exemplified objects:

I en profil, på en tidslinje, i en logg

Localization Guidelines

General Information

Product Names

Product and feature names should be consistently translated. Some product and feature names are translated and others are used in English based on strategic decisions. For example, “Messenger” was translated in many languages, but now changed back to English in all languages.

Example:

English Error Example Correct Example

Lookalike Dubblett Lookalike

User Interface

Buttons

Buttons are one of the main ways people take action on Facebook, so they should be clear, active and specific.

Always translate button names with the format “knappen X”. Example:

English Error Example Correct Example

Swedish Style Guide for Community

Mobile

Mobile UI localization has more space constraint than regular UI localization. Mobile strings sometimes come with specific description about the allowed number of characters. It is important to keep translation within this limit in order to avoid any truncation issues, e.g.: in SMS-related translations.

If possible, try to put the most important information at the front of the sentence so that it won’t be buried with other information. However, translations should not deviate from the English source unless instructed otherwise, since this may cause accuracy issues.

Third Party UI

If you encounter third party UI terms, please check if they were localized. For example, please check the existing translations on iPhone if they refer to iPhone UIs.

Tokens

UIs often include tokens which are a portion of full sentences and represent the “bricks” of what will be seen by the users. Note that text in { } are placeholders and replaced by either a variable or another string. For example, {name} is replaced by a user name and {count} is replaced by a number. If the placeholder contains the = sign right after the opening bracket, it means that it will be replaced by exactly the same text that it contains.

Example:

{user} edited his {=changed relationship status} that you followed.

The {user} token will be replaced by the name of the user, while the {=changed relationship status} token will be replaced exactly by the words “changed

relationship status”, and this will look like “Jane edited her changed relationship status that you followed”.

Swedish Style Guide for Community

Example:

English Error Example Correct Example

If you're sure you entered the correct user name and password, please {=report a problem}.

Om du är säker på att du har angett rätt användarnamn och lösenord kan du {=anmäla ett problem}.

Om du är säker på att du har angett rätt användarnamn och lösenord kan du {=report a problem }.

References

Facebook References

• Glossary in Admin Panel

Public References

These are a few of the generally recommended public references. • Svenska skrivregler, Språkrådet (2008)

• SAOL (Svenska Akademiens ordlista) for spelling, plural endings etc. Online version here:

http://www.svenskaakademien.se/svenska_spraket/svenska_akademiens_ ordlista/saol_pa_natet/ordlista

• Svenska datatermgruppen

• Official website: http://www.nada.kth.se/dataterm

• Online dictionary: http://lexikon.nada.kth.se/cgi-bin/sve-eng • Nationalencyklopedin should be used for geographical references.

Online version here: http://www.ne.se/