Guidance for Chinese Traditional

[PMtranslator]

Guidance for Chinese Traditional

1. Capitalization

• In case of capitalized letter for a name, a person, a product, a place, or any similar scenario, do not translate it but leave it as it is.
• Check the context and understand what matters the most in the sentence. Capitalizing is impossible for Chinese characters, yet no wrong with emphasizing the term.

Capitalize proper names
Proton Mail
Proton VPN
NetShield

Do not capitalize

• Internet addresses (domain names)
• e-mail address

2. Gender

• In Mandarin Chinese, there is no distinction made between the words sex and gender. Terms like “gender registration” or "legal gender” are referring to biological sex. 生理性別 : 認同性別 = Sex : Gender
• The wording and tone of the translation must avoid discrimination against gender.

English	We avoid	We prefer
I am happy to help you.	能幫到您是一件快樂的事	很榮幸為您服務
If you are interested in Proton Mail…	若您被 Proton Mail 吸引著	Proton Mail 必使您心動
I am not used to this tool.	我對這個工具不熟悉	這工具對我而言很陌生

• You can use passive language to avoid gender-specific verbs, but only if it doesn’t hurt readability and/or make the sentence sound unnatural.
• Apply the masculine form when an adjective, verb, or another part of speech refers to multiple nouns with different genders.
• Rephrase when you are unable to find a gender-neutral way.
• The gender and number of an acronym are determined by the gender and number of the translation for the governing noun of the extended form.
  “parent folder” is masculine because the translation is “父”系資料夾
  CD-ROM Mastering is feminine because the translation is “光碟“母“片”

3. Abbreviations

Whenever possible, avoid using abbreviations.
Abbreviate the text only when you lack space (mainly buttons, option names or strings with specific character limitations) or when you need to ease the text readability. Instead of abbreviating (e.g., 4 or 5 consecutive words), summarize a term or a phrase in 2 or 3 words that can be written in full.

General criteria for shortening words:

• Omit at least two letters
• Truncate a word so that it ends with a consonant and place a period after it
• When a word contains a double consonant, truncate it at the second one and place a period after it
  電子郵件 => 電郵
  IP 位址 => IP

Days abbreviations (in calendars, agendas, timetables… the names of days are written without a period for visual purposes):

English	Translation	Abbreviation option 1	Abbreviation option 2
Monday	星期一	週一	一
Tuesday	星期二	週二	二
Wednesday	星期三	週三	三
Thursday	星期四	週四	四
Friday	星期五	週五	五
Saturday	星期六	週六	六
Sunday	星期日	週日	日

4. Acronyms

• Common examples are VPN (Virtual Personal Network), DNS (Domain Name Server), HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), etc.
• The most common acronyms and their translations are included in the glossary. Always refer to the glossary when localizing acronyms.
• Commonly used acronyms do not need explanations (DVD, LED, TV, etc.).
• When an acronym is repeated several times in the same section, include its extended form in parentheses only for its first occurrence.

5. Pronouns

Mandarin Chinese has many words with the same pronunciation and different meanings, and even different pronunciations of the same word represent different meanings. When translating, try to avoid repetition of a single word in the same sentence, especially the use of “you (您)“, and the basic politeness will not be discarded because of informal translation.

6. Gerunds (“ing” ending)

• Gerunds are used in English, such as in “Creating a report”.
• When paragraph and chapter heads begin in English with a gerund, as a general rule please use an infinitive, translating it as the equivalent of “Create a report”.
• But depending on the context, this may also mean “in the process of”.

English	Context	We avoid	We prefer
Generating keys	Action or title	正在產出金鑰	產出一組金鑰
Generating keys	Processing	正在生成金鑰	生成一組金鑰
Importing	Action or title	正在匯入	匯入
Importing	Processing	正在匯入	匯入
Importing data from %1s to %2s	Action or title	正在匯入資料自 %1s 至 %2s	匯入資料自 %1s 至 %2s
Importing data from %1s to %2s	Processing	正在匯入資料自 %1s 至 %2s	匯入資料自 %1s 至 %2s

7. Punctuation

• The first half of a pair of punctuation marks (such as (, ", <, [, {, ", ', etc.} must not appear at the end of the line; nor should the second half appear at the beginning of the line.
• There should be no punctuation at the beginning of any line or on a line by themselves.
• In the event of untranslated passages, please retain all text and punctuation formatting in the original text.
• Headings do not take punctuation (such as quotation marks or a period), except that a comma or enumeration comma (、) may be added to an overly long heading.
• Manual and chapter titles use corner quotation marks 「」.

7.1 Period

For the period at the end of a sentence, adapt the source to your language usage.

7.2 Exclamation mark

• Exclamation marks are used to give emphasis.
• As their use is less common than in English, you should use them sparingly: feel free to change an exclamation mark into a period if it is more natural, but please don’t change a period into an exclamation mark.

English	We avoid	We prefer
Theme reset! Redirecting…	主題重設！ 重新導向中…	視覺主題已重設並重新導向
Importing contacts complete!	匯入聯絡名片完成！	匯入聯絡名片已完成。
You have %d new emails!	您有 %d 封新郵件！	您有 %d 封新郵件。

7.3 Parentheses

• Parentheses are used to clarify statements or provide additional information.
• Half-shaped brackets do not need to be changed into full-shaped brackets.
• Half-shaped space must be added before and after the half-shaped brackets.

English	We avoid	We prefer
Please choose a display name to finish setting up your account. (Other people will see this.)	請選擇一個顯示名稱以完成設定帳號。（其他人也可看到）	請選擇一個顯示名稱以完成您的帳號設定，請記得其他人也可看到此名稱。
We also support importing vCard. (UTF-8 encoding)	我們也支援匯入vCard (UTF-8 編碼)	我們同時支援匯入 UTF-8 編碼的 vCard。

7.4 Comma

Do not place a comma before “and” and “or” when the conjunction is used to link two related terms.

English	We avoid	We prefer
You can also add, delete, and edit them by clicking…	您也可透過點擊加入、刪除、和編輯它們…	您亦可透過點擊指令，例如：加入、刪除和編輯等以進行操作。
Assign permissions to users, or groups	指派權限給使用者，或是群組	指派權限予使用者或是群組

7.5 Colon and semicolon

• Colons and semicolons are all preceded by a non-breaking space.
• No need to add the extra period “。” at the end
  Date: Old to new 日期：以舊至新排序

7.6 Em dash (—), en dash (–), hyphen (-)

• In English, an Em or En dash is used to demarcate an isolated element, to introduce an item that is not essential to the sentence’s meaning, to emphasize a sudden change in thought or to bring focus to a list.
• It is often more appropriate to use a comma, a full stop or parenthesis instead.
• Also, the Em dash is not used for date ranges, therefore you should use “至” instead.
  September 10 - 20 9 月 10 - 20 日

7.7 Quotation marks

Always use Chinese corner quotation marks 「 」 (and 『 』 for a quote nested inside another). Do not use full-width or half-width English-style quotation marks ( " " ).
「範例」

7.8 Apostrophes

Use straight apostrophes User’s Contacts = 使用者的通訊錄

7.9 Ampersand (&)

Replace “&” with “和”, “與” unless it is part of a company/product name or a registered trademark.

7.10 Half-width & full-width space

• Use half-width space:

  • Special symbols such as @, #, $, %, &, *, =, ~.
  • Between Chinese characters and English characters
  • When English characters appear in parentheses, but there should be a half-width space between the words before and after the brackets.

• Use full-width space:

  • When Chinese characters appear in parentheses
  • Within the documents, such as comma (，) or (、), period (。), colon (：), question mark (？), upper and lower quotation marks (「」)…

• Except for periods (。), commas (，), and the enumeration comma (、), which must be centered full-width, other punctuation marks should be half-width. Chinese abridgment marks (…) shall be replaced by English abridgment marks (…).

8 Spacing and non-breaking spaces

• Use non-breaking spaces to prevent improper division of elements such as product names, part numbers, numbers, dates, etc.
• When using currency symbols or units of measurement, include a non-breaking space between number and sign.
• To insert a non-breaking space using your keyboard:
  • On Windows, hold down the “Alt” key while typing the number “255”.
  • On Apple, Control + Option⌥ + Space bar.

English	Traditional Chinese	[non-breaking space]
First step: click	第一步驟 : 點擊	第一步驟[non-breaking space]: 點擊
Thank you!	謝謝 !	謝謝[non-breaking space]!
Why?	為什麼 ?	為什麼[non-breaking space]?
30%	30%	30[non-breaking space]%
€5	€5	€[non-breaking space]5
1 GB	1 GB	1[non-breaking space]GB
Message “%s” does not exist.	郵件訊息「%s」不存在。	郵件訊息「[non-breaking space]%s[non-breaking space]」不存在。

9 Numbers

• No need to replace the period that stands for the decimal point in American English with a comma in your translations.
  3.75 3.75
• For numbers smaller than 1, always put a zero before the decimal comma.
  .5 0.5
• The period in app/software version numbers remains unchanged.
  Proton Mail v.3
• As a thousand separator, use a non-breaking space. Never use thousand separators in years.
  15,000 and year 2015 15,000 和 2015 年
• Arabic numerals — including decimal points, thousands separators, and mathematical operators — otherwise keep their original English format.
• Keep special symbols (@, #, $, %, &, *, =, ~) in their half-width (ASCII) form. Preserve any high-ANSI accented characters from the source (e.g. â, ã, ä) as-is; if such a character cannot be displayed, substitute a half-width-parenthesis form instead (e.g. (R), (C), ™).
• Time and date:
  • Hours and minutes are separated by a colon. Use the 24 hour format to specify A.M. and P.M.
    at 9:25 P.M 在 21:25
  • For dates: 01/31/22 (mm/dd/yyyy) 2022年01月31日 — order the year, month and day according to Traditional Chinese convention rather than the English source’s order (e.g. rewrite “9/11/01” as “01/9/11” or “2001年8月20日”).
  • When using the Republic of China (Minguo) calendar, use the standard format “民國90年9月11日” (Minguo year, month, day).
  • Time may be kept in the original format (e.g. “8:30 A.M.”) or converted to Chinese format (e.g. “上午8時30分”).

10 Ordinal numbers

Ordinal numbers may be written in with numerals and letter suffixes, where the suffix acts as an ordinal indicator.

English	Translation
1st	第一
2nd	第二
3rd	第三
4th	第四
5th	第五
6th	第六
7th	第七
8th	第八
9th	第九
10th	第十

11 Currencies

• Do not convert USD ($) or EUR (€) amounts to any local currency.
• Place the USD or EUR code or the symbol €, $ after the number and separate it with a non-breaking space from the number.
• “额" is zh_CH and “額” is zh_TW: Never ever mixed these two “Languages
  Amount of $30 金額 30 美元

12 Units of measurement

• Use the metric system.
• Insert a non-breaking space between a number and the relevant unit.
• Convert imperial units into metric units.
  6 feet 1,83 公分

Category	Measurement unit	Translation	Abbreviation
LINEAR	Kilometer	公里	km
LINEAR	Meter	公尺	m
LINEAR	Centimeter	公分	cm
LINEAR	Millimeter	公厘	mm
MASS	Ton	公噸	t
MASS	Kilogram	公斤	kg
MASS	Pound	磅	lb
IMPERIAL	Inch	英吋	in
IMPERIAL	Feet	英呎	ft
IMPERIAL	Mile	英哩	mi
IMPERIAL	Gallon	加侖	gal
COMPUTING	Byte (B)	位元組	b
COMPUTING	Megabyte (MB)	百萬位元組	mb
COMPUTING	Gigabyte (GB)	十億位元組	G
COMPUTING	Terabyte (TB)	萬億位元組	T

13 Form of address

Use the second-person plural (“you”) form of address.
Open navigation 打開導航

14 English/US terms and keyboard key names

For users of both Chinese and American keyboards, all function keys with English names, such as Esc, Shift, Alt, Tab, Ctrl, Enter, Insert (Ins), Delete (Del), Home, End, Page Up, Page Down, Print Screen, Scroll Lock, Pause, Break, Num Lock, Caps Lock, and F1 to F12 should be kept in their original text. Only if small caps are used in the original text, they should be changed to normal capitals.
Translate the arrow keys ←↑→↓ as 向左鍵, 向上鍵, 向右鍵, and 向下鍵 respectively. Translate Spacebar as 空格鍵 and Backspace as 退格鍵.

15 Foreign words

• The decision about the use of foreign words (keeping it in English) rather than an equivalent term in your language is based on how widespread the use of the word is. An English term might be recommended when its use has become very common.
• To find out how common a word is, you can use internet search engines. Search for the English word and for the corresponding translation in your language on your preferred search engine. The number of occurrences in each case will be an indication of how popular the use of each word is. If in doubt for an important term, ask Proton Localization team to make an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) check.
• Foreign words might be accompanied by quotation marks or italics when their use is not widely spread. However, English words that are widely accepted for use are kept as they are in the original but do not take the ending “s” in the plural case.
• When foreign words are common and well understood, they can be left in the source language. Where necessary, add an explanation in the target language.
• Avoid using too many anglicisms.

16 Localizing person names

• Localize fictitious person names used for explanatory purposes, choosing a name that is generic but not stereotypical.
  Please enter your display name (e.g. 王大明 大明 (例如: 王大明)
• Do not localize real persons’ names.
  Bart Butler is a senior engineer at Proton Mail Bart Butler 是服務於 Proton Mail 的資深工程師。

17 Localizing domains and email addresses

• Localize fictitious domain names and e-mail addresses used for explanatory purposes:
• Translate the local-part of an e-mail address
  user@ (使用者自訂名稱)@ user_01@
• Translate the domain name
  yourdomain.com (您的網域名稱).com protonforme.tw
• Use your target country code at the end
  .com .com.tw

English	Translation
Proton Mail allows you to keep your business email address (you**@yourcompany.com**).	Proton Mail 可讓您保有使用商務電郵位址 (you**@yourcompany.com**)
Receive all email sent to addresses in your domain that do not exist (e.g., “ mistake@yourdomain.com”).	接收所有傳送至您網域不存在的電郵位址 (例如: 「mistake@yourdomain.com」)

However, do not localize any real email addresses or domain names.
To reset your mailbox password, please use the web version of Proton Mail at proton.me
若要重設您的電郵信箱密碼，請移駕至網頁版 proton.me。

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The sections below (18–21) come from a separate, community-contributed Traditional Chinese localization manual and have been merged into this file.

18 Accuracy and consistency

• Content must be translated accurately, with no mistranslation or omission, and translated content must be reviewed.
• Pay special attention to specific technical terminology (e.g. “Noise” translates as 雜訊, “Traffic” as 流量).
• Cross-references within content (page numbers, headings) must be exactly correct.
• Operational content in manuals (headings, labels, menus, buttons) must match the software’s own UI translation exactly.
• Avoid typos or mistranslation (e.g. “out of order” means malfunction, not a sequence error).
• Company and product name translations must be verified as correct.
• Content may be added or removed at the meaning level (not just wording polish) to faithfully reflect the product/service’s functionality, but only when the English original is unclear.
• Terminology used across a product and its related accessory software must be completely consistent; refer to the Proton Glossary for terms used in the software, and keep other non-proprietary technical terms/phrases consistent as well.
• For a term whose meaning is not obvious from a literal translation, an original-language annotation may be added the first time it appears.
• Some common Proton terms have more than one accepted translation (e.g. “archive” as 封存 or 封存檔); if you cannot decide which fits, ask the Proton Language Lead.

19 Specific word choices

• Use 其它 (not 其他) when referring to things rather than people.
• Translate “scan” as 掃描 (not 掃瞄).

20 Terminology and tone

• Wording and tone must avoid discrimination based on gender, age, race, occupation, religion, political belief, party affiliation, nationality, region, wealth, or disability.
• Follow Chinese grammar and idiomatic expression; avoid literal translation.
• Avoid overly long sentences, and avoid difficult or rare characters/words.
• Write for a general audience, prioritizing approachable, fluent phrasing.
• For operating instructions, prioritize concise clarity, and avoid inconsistent translations of the same operation, which could mislead users.

21 Style: formatting and untranslatable elements

• Preserve English italics as italics and bold as bold in translation.
• A capitalized English term (typically a proper technical term, emphasized content, or a software feature name) should be enclosed in full-width Chinese corner quotation marks 「」 once translated.
• All English text uses half-width characters; an untranslated English portion keeps its original formatting.
• Product names, trademarks ™, and OS names stay in the original language, as do command lines and code.
• English text or an abbreviation inside half-width parentheses in the source is left untranslated, and the half-width parentheses are not converted to full-width, but add one half-width space before and after the parenthesis pair (e.g. 動態隨機存取記憶體 (DRAM)).
• A fully capitalized English word or acronym is not translated.
• A word formed by joining two or more English words (e.g. “AutoInstall”) is not translated; ask the Proton Language Lead if unsure.