Re: Verbs form in UI actions

["Dale Gulledge" <dgulledge gmail com>]

On 12/18/06, Wouter Bolsterlee <uws+gnome xs4all nl> wrote:

2006-12-17 klockan 17:31 skrev Youssef Chahibi:
>    In what form (Infinitive, Noun, Imperative) are UI actions
> like "Open", "Close", "Show" ... translated in your language?
>    Do you have any idea about what is intended by the verb form in English, is
> Imperative or infinitive?

In English, these words are written as imperatives (spelled the same as
infinitive). However, in Dutch, we stick to infinitives only. Imperative
form is considered bad style and impolite.

I don't know whether it makes any difference in terms of politeness, but I've always interpreted these menu items as imperatives directed at the software.  Thus, the user is commanding the program to perform the action.