Re: Verbs form in UI actions

["Christian Rose" <menthos gnome org>]

On 12/18/06, Thomas Thurman <thomas thurman org uk> wrote:
> On 18/12/06, Wouter Bolsterlee <uws+gnome xs4all nl> wrote:
> > I was explicitly referring to Dutch here. Imperative style is just not
> > friendly in Dutch, and it sounds a bit strange as well (all Dutch software
> > uses infinitives instead of imperatives).
>
> I think it must vary a lot by language. Someone on LiveJournal told me that
> in Swedish they use the passive voice for such instructions.

I can't say that I recognize that statement...
Swedish uses imperative on all menu items and buttons, except for some
old translations (like "File" menu => "Arkiv") that are nouns by
convention (that's what they were mistakenly translated to in the
early days of GUIs, and that's what people simply expect them to be
today). Any more recent menu/button terms are all imperatives (like
"Exit" => "Avsluta" and "Close" => "Stäng").

People that learn Swedish as a second language are often surprised at
how "rude" the language actually is. We simply don't use polite
expressions very much. The equivalent of "please" is used extremely
rarely, almost reluctantly, and we all say the equivalent of "you"
(German: "Du", French: "Tu") to everyone, even our bosses, and it's
actually considered improper to use the more formal equivalent of
"You" (German: "Sie", French: "Vous").
When translating software into Swedish, we actually spend a lot of
time removing all extra politeness from the English phrases that would
just be considered weird in Swedish (for example, "Please restart your
computer" should just be translated into the equivalent of "Restart
your computer" in Swedish). It would sound harsh and rude in English,
but in Swedish the extra politeness would instead just sound weird,
out of place, and cheesy...
So the use of imperatives on menu items in Swedish software should not
come as a surprise...

Swedish-speaking people that learn English on the other hand, are
forced to learn that they should add polite phrases everywhere in
large amounts, just so as to not come out as being harsh and rude
unintentionally.


Christian