Re: [PATCH] l10n: de.po: translate 265 new messages

From: Christian Stimming <stimming@tuhh.de>
Date: May 20, 2012, 20:56 UTC
Message-ID: <1825828.hnjW9vybBO@cs-pc>
In-Reply-To: <1337533755-29399-1-git-send-email-ralf.thielow@googlemail.com>

Dear Ralf,

your changes are very good. However, I just noticed one specific stylistic issue with the existing German translation, which you've continued in the very same way:

Am Sonntag, 20. Mai 2012, 19:09:15 schrieb Ralf Thielow:

> +#: help.c:214
> +msgid "git commands available from elsewhere on your $PATH"
> +msgstr "Vorhandene Git-Kommandos irgendwo in deinem $PATH"

(and several more following)

The translation (both in the existing strings and in your newly added ones) addresses the user as "du" instead of "Sie" (for the non-German-speaking: "du" is the informal addressing, "Sie" is the formal addressing). However, in German software there are two main rules on this: 1. Don't address the user directly. Rather prefer passive forms over directly addressing the person. I know English software is much more permissive of this one. Hence, occasionally the German translator should take the freedom to change the wording so that the addressing of the user is replaced in the translation by some passive wording without the addressing of the user. 2. If the addressing of the user is unavoidable, the text should use "Sie" instead of "du". Addressing the user as "du" should be constrained to audiences which for sure always address each other as "du", such as certain educational settings and/or games and such (and maybe in the Ikea-Katalog, but even there they switched from Du to Sie and back again several times). Please try to avoid using "du" in developer tools' user-visible strings. Thanks a lot!

Regards,

Christian