Alchemy Translations

INCIDENTAL WORDS: when incidental words of cultural/linguistic courtesy or habit are generally used in the source language but not in the target, or generally used in the target language but not in the source, translators may add or delete such words to best convey the same meaning and tone. For example, when translating a string that discusses a future event from Arabic into English, sometimes it may be needed to delete the word “inshallah” rather than literally translating it to more closely convey the meaning and tone.

IDIOMS: in case of idioms, proverbs, and expressions, always retain the meaning of the source string in your translation. A literal word-by-word translation is not acceptable if the meaning of the source string gets lost. Example: “Break a leg” → “In bocca al lupo”.

GRAMMAR AND SPELLING: we expect grammatically correct translations without spelling errors. Spell checker is integrated in Oneforma and available directly in the webapp. To launch the check, click on this button in each string you want to check:

GENDER: if the source sentence has a specific gender, it should be translated into the same gender in the target.

STYLE AND FORMALITY: if the source sentence contains a level of formality, try to replicate the same level of formality/politeness in the target unless this would be perceived as unnatural by the target audience.

POLITE WORDS: if using ‘polite’ words (like 'please') is not common or expected in the target, please omit them (this should not be considered an Omission error during review).

SWEAR WORDS/VULGAR CONTENT: do not omit any parts of the source content and do not change the original tone of the sentence. If source contains swear words, politically incorrect expressions, vulgar comments, etc. please keep it in target as well by conveying the same meaning and tone. If you do not feel comfortable with the content of the string and do not want to translate it, feel free to skip the hit.

NUMBERS: keep numbers as is (keep the “same style”). That means written-out numbers in the source should be translated into written-out numbers in the target and Arabic numerals (123) in the source should be transferred as Arabic numerals (123) in the target. Please stick to this rule even if it might be unusual/rare in the target language. Examples:

• 123 → 123
• two plus two equals four → zwei plus zwei ist gleich vier

THOUSAND/DECIMAL SEPARATOR: any formatting of the numbers, for example thousand and decimal separators needs to be modified to fit the target language. For example, given English to German translation, “123,000” should be translated to “123.000”.

DATES: dates need to be formatted based on the target language but remaining close to the source format as much as possible. For example, given English to French translation, “02/10/2015” should be translated to “10/02/2015”.
TIME: time indication/hours need to be formatted based on the target language but remaining close to the source format as much as possible. For example, given English to Italian translation, “5:30 PM” should be translated to “17:30”.
CURRENCIES: currency names should be translated (not converted). For example, given English to Spanish translation, “8000 crowns” would be “8000 coronas”. “18 dollars” would be “18 dólares”.

UNITS OF MEASUREMENT: Never convert units even if the target language uses different metric systems. Translation with converted units are not acceptable. Example: 75 Fahrenheit should not change into 25 Celsius (75 F should be translated to 75 F). 6 inches should not change into 15.24 cm.

SYMBOLS: symbols can be switched if one variant is more common in the target language. For example, given English to German translation, “$125 dinner” might be translated to “125 USD Abendessen”.

FORMATTING: The format of the source text should be maintained in the target languages unless target language has a pre-defined syntax. Example: “123” should be translated as “123” and not as “one hundred and twenty-three”. Example: “I am so happy!!!!!!!!!” should be translated by maintaining the same number of “!” in the target.

CODE & TECHNICAL TEXT: links , html tags, development code, text usually in English wrapped with <>, {}, [] or other type of coding language should not be translated. The checkbox “garbled text” should be marked in these cases. Example: “<head>” “{top:-30px;position:absolute;right }”, “xmlHttp.open(“GET”, true)”, etc. Additionally, there are other instances of text referring to a UI, a code, or an instruction where it does not need to be translated.

BUSINESS AND PRODUCT NAMES: keep business names and product names as-is with proper capitalization. Examples: Facebook → Facebook, ebay → eBay. Exception: if a company/product has been officially marketed in another country under a different name, you should use the official name for the target country. Examples: “Diet Coke” would be “Coca-Cola Light” in Italian; “Algida” would be “Frigo”, “Miko”, or “Eskimo” depending on the target country.

PROPER NAMES: proper names of people should NOT be changed unless they are historical names widely recognized in each language. Example: Columbus > Colón. Transliteration can be used as long as the names are the same as in source. Example for Serbian: “Shakespeare” > “Šekspir”. Other names (e.g. names of places and languages) should be translated when the name is rendered differently in the source and target languages. For example, Warsaw in Polish should be Warszawa, Cologne in German should be Köln and Spain in Spanish should be España.

APP NAMES: keep well known app names as in source if there is no official translation. Example: Skype → Skype

NAMES OF LAWS, ACTS, ORGANIZATIONS: keep as in source the names of laws, acts, organizations, etc. that belong to a specific country. Example: 'Defense of Marriage Act'. For international organizations or international documents, i.e., 'Universal Declaration of Human Rights', please use the standard and approved translations for the target.

MOVIE/BOOK/SONG/SHOW TITLES: if there is no official/culturally relevant translation for the title, keep the one in the source. If there is an official translation or adaptation that is more familiar to the target locale, please use that one. Example: “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” should be translated into French as “Harry Potter à l'école des sorciers” because that was the title of the French version of the same book. “Twinkle, twinkle, little star” might be translated into Korean using the corresponding Korean- language song “반짝 반짝 작은 별”.

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