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General => Feedback & Help => Topic started by: spiros on 17 Nov, 2011, 15:56:30

Title: Terminology Questions style guide and Different source/target and translations separators usage
Post by: spiros on 17 Nov, 2011, 15:56:30
Terminology Questions style guide

Enter your query in the subject field in lowercase, unless grammar demands a capital (i.e. "Greek" and not "greek").
— Do not enter your query in quotation marks or precede it with please help with a translation, etc.
— Use appropriate spaces. For example, there is no space before comma and there is always ONE space after the comma (unless the comma is a decimal separator).
— When you have an idea what the possible translation(s) of your term may be, enter it/them in the subject, after the term. I.e.

βαθμολογική εξέλιξη → promotion in grade, grade advancement; (https://www.translatum.gr/forum/index.php?topic=225581.0)

— Use full translations of the terms rather than parts of the term in parenthesis. I.e. instead of this:

βαθμολογική εξέλιξη → (grade) advancement

use

βαθμολογική εξέλιξη → advancement, grade advancement

Note that multiple translations are separated by a comma. Also, since this is a question, at the end there is a semicolon (or Greek question mark) to alert people about its question status. If you enter a term without a suggested translation, the term per se is enough and no semicolon is needed.

Different source/target and translations separators usage

Normally, the source/target separator is (hyphen plus greater-than sign) and the translations separator is the comma (,).

However, there are some exceptions.

In case one of the proposed translations includes a comma, then the vertical bar is used in all translations (|) as translation separator.  (Not necessary in case, for example, of translations including "ό,τι", as there is no space after the comma).

Another way (complimentary to the aforementioned or to be used when there is only one translation and hence, not possible to use the vertical bar translation separator) to filter this out is to use an n-dash plus greater-than sign (–>) instead of hyphen plus greater-than sign as source/target separator. This is a way of pointing out some non-standard usage to the person who will do the term filtering. I.e. in the following example there is no place to enter a vertical bar (one source term, one translation):

day in, day out –> μέρα μπαίνει, μέρα βγαίνει

Terms (source text) which include a comma is another way of filtering entries which do not abide to the comma separator rule. Hence, there should never be two terms in the source segment, but either broken in two topics of the specific language pair, or reverse the language pair, if the equivalent translation is only one term. For example, instead of:

foot, leg → πόδι [in English-Greek pair]

use

πόδι → foot, leg [in Greek-English pair]

When the subject ends with a Greek question mark (;) then it is an indication that the translations given are not reliable or that they are tentative. The Greek question mark is also used to indicate a question, when one enters one or more possible translation equivalents, to assist the answerers. The Greek question mark is not necessary when only the source term is entered. Similarly, please use only the Greek question mark to indicate this and not the English one.

Do not use a question mark (Greek or English) for completed translations, even if the phrase is a question, as the question mark will be used to filter out all inconclusive translations.

See also:
— Παράθεση ακρωνύμων στο φόρουμ (https://www.translatum.gr/forum/index.php?topic=218935.msg415559#msg415559)