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List:       kde-i18n-doc
Subject:    Re: Context information needed for isolated words
From:       Nicolás_Alvarez <nicolas.alvarez () gmail ! com>
Date:       2020-05-02 14:18:41
Message-ID: 8323DD4E-3D32-4B36-A46D-E94DD9B9211F () gmail ! com
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> > > On 2 May 2020, at 08:12, Johan Ouwerkerk <jm.ouwerkerk@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Sat, May 2, 2020 at 12:36 PM Eloy Cuadra <ecuadra@eloihr.net> wrote:
> > Hi,
> > There is a widespread problem across many text strings to be translated: some \
> > isolated words are gender invariable in English, but not in many languages. For \
> > example, let's consider this case of a cascade menu: New
> > Folder
> > File
> 
> What prevents you from arbitrarily re-naming a particular top level
> entry? E.g. if you see "New", why not translate it as though it were
> "Create" if that makes your translation work more naturally?
> 
> I understand you'd want to stick as close as possible to the upstream
> default, but languages being languages no doubt someone will point out
> that verbs, too, could be conjugated differently depending on the
> object. Or aspect, time, mood, actor, tense, whether or not it is
> reflexive, medium, or otherwise. It could be that the verb might
> change completely: i.e that creating a new folder somehow requires a
> different translation of "create" than creating a new file would.
> Which might mean that "New > File" is much more appropriate as a
> starting point for *those* languages, because it avoids all the
> verb-related pitfalls.
> 
> English cares very little for any of that, so trying to account for it
> in English might only serve to render it clumsy and awkward.
> Conversely there are features which English is very particular about
> like articles which many other languages don't bother with at all.
> 
> All in all I think it is just easier if translation teams took some
> liberties to get the point across rather than hoping for English to
> become more like their native language. In particular this avoids most
> of the need for complicated rules about "what words to use when".

New is an adjective, if you translate it as a verb, in most places it will make no \
sense.

Suppose the string "New" is used in these two situations:

New
  File
  Folder

Messages received:
- Information regarding GitLab migration
- Context information needed for isolated words [New]

In the first case it's the action to create a new thing (file or folder), in the \
second case it indicates the second message is new. In some languages you may get \
away with using the same word, in some maybe not. "Nuevo" in Spanish makes sense in \
both cases, except that (as Eloy said) "Nuevo Carpeta" (new folder) has a gender \
mismatch.

But I don't think there is *any* language where you can translate "New" as the verb \
"Create" and have that work in both cases.

- Context information needed for isolated words [Create] ??

That's why the code needs to use i18nc, so that the two cases can be translated \
differently.

-- 
Nicolás=


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