Guidance for Dutch

[PMtranslator]

Last update: February 9, 2023

If you have any comments, suggestions, questions or need for an arbitration, create a topic in the Style Guide section, the Language Lead will get back to you.

Here you will find the guidance for Dutch, but you should also consider the guidance for all languages.

1. Capitalization

• Capitalize only the first letter of a sentence.
• Always apply your language conventions rather than adhering to the English source.

Capitalize

• Proper names
  Proton Mail
  Proton VPN
  NetShield
• Command/Folder names and keywords (first word only)
  Openen
  Sluiten
  Opslaan als
• First word of a sentence, title or subtitle.
  De voordelen van Proton VPN
• Words after a colon when followed by a complete sentence or on a separate line
  Aanbieding beperkt geldig: bespaar tot 50% met onze aanbiedingen!
• In bulleted lists consisting of complete sentences
  Uw voordelen met ProtonVPN:
  • Bescherm uw e-mailverkeer.
  • Toegang tot internationale streaming.

Do not capitalize

• Words following en-dashes (exception: nouns)
  Het belangrijkste voor ons - de privacy van onze gebruikers.
• After salutation in an Email
  Hallo xxx
  [new line] dank u voor uw e-mail.
• Words after a colon when in the same line and not a complete sentence
  Het belangrijkste voor ons: de privacy van onze gebruikers.
• Words in a list introduced by a sentence and followed by incomplete sentences:
  Eigenschappen van ProtonVPN:
  • sterke protocollen
  • volledige encryptie

2. Gender

• We want to be as inclusive as possible, so we try to be neutral, but we use gender-specific nouns and verbs if remaining neutral goes against the writing best practices for a specific language.
• Basic principles: when possible, avoid the use of masculine singular form to refer to someone whose gender is not known.

English	We avoid	We prefer
If you are a Proton Mail user, you get:	Als Proton Mail gebruiker ontvangt u:	Als u Proton Mail gebruikt, krijgt u:
Our employees are constantly developing new features.	Onze medewerkers die zijn de hele tijd in de weer met het ontwikkelen van nieuwe functies.	Onze medewerkers ontwikkelen voortdurend nieuwe functies.

• 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 only when an inclusive gender is intended, but cannot be expressed otherwise.

The gender and number of the acronym are determined by the gender and number of the translation for the governing noun of the extended form.
VPN (Virtual Personal Network) is neuter because the translation of “network” (“Netwerk”) is neuter.

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
• Use commonly used abbreviations if one exists
• Place a period at the end of abbreviations
• Examples:
  • Met betrekking tot m.b.t.
  • Bijvoorbeeld vb. of bijv.

Days abbreviations:

English	Translation	Abbreviation
Monday	maandag	ma.
Tuesday	dinsdag	di.
Wednesday	woensdag	woe.
Thursday	donderdag	do.
Friday	vrijdag	vr.
Saturday	zaterdag	za.
Sunday	zondag	zo.

Months abbreviations:

English	Translation	Abbreviation
January	januari	jan.
February	februari	feb.
March	maart	maa.
April	april	apr.
May	mei	mei
June	juni	jun.
July	juli	jul.
August	augustus	aug.
September	september	sep.
October	oktober	okt.
November	november	nov.
December	december	dec.

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.
• The gender and number of the acronym are determined by the gender and number of the translation for the main noun of the extended form.
  API (Application Programming Interface) is feminine because the translation of “interface” (“interface”) is feminine.
• 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

• English, especially technical English, is more redundant than some other languages.
• When translating, you often need to reduce the redundancy of the source text using pronouns. This may otherwise affect the text readability. However, this must not affect accuracy.
• When translating technical and complex strings, ensure users can associate pronouns to the noun they refer to.
• Avoid the use of possessive pronouns when possible.
• Omit pronoun subjects such as “we” and “you".

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 a noun, translating it as the equivalent of “Creation of a report”.

English	We avoid	We prefer
Generating keys	Sleutel aanmaken	Aanmaken van sleutels

7. Punctuation

The general rule is to follow your language standard grammar rules. As the main reference, the Onze Taal should be consulted: Onze Taal

7.1 Period

• For the period at the end of a sentence, adapt the source to your language usage: when the English source does not put a period at the end of the sentence but should in your language, add it in your translation. In this case, make sure that the text you are translating is not a part of a longer sentence (this is usually specified in the context).
• Unless the item includes more than one sentence, do not place any periods at the end of titles, links, buttons and checkboxes.
• Include a period at the end of each extended sentence in a bullet list if this sentence has a full meaning by itself.

7.2 Exclamation mark

Exclamation points have the same function as in English: keep them.

7.3 Parentheses

• Parentheses are used to clarify statements or provide additional information.
• If a sentence in parentheses clarifies the context, it usually starts in lower case and does not require an ending period.
• However, a complete sentence in parentheses providing additional information separated from the context may, but does not need to, start in upper case and have its own ending period:

English	Translation
Please choose a display name to finish setting up your account. (Other people will see this.)	Kies een weergavenaam om het instellen van uw account te voltooien. (Andere mensen zullen dit zien.)

7.4 Comma

• Commas are generally adopted from English, but there is an exception: “w ,and x” is translated as “w and x”. If there is a new clause after the “and”, then there will be a comma.

English	We avoid	We prefer
You can also add, delete, and edit them by…	U kunt die ook toevoegen, verwijderen en bewerken door …	U kunt ze ook toevoegen, verwijderen, en bewerken door…

• When connecting main clauses, the comma is optional, but not necessary to aid readability:

English	Translation
No one can access files you have stored on Proton Drive (except you) and encryption and decryption occur on your device only.	Niemand heeft toegang tot de bestanden die u op Proton Drive heeft opgeslagen (behalve u) en de versleuteling en ontsleuteling vinden alleen op uw apparaat plaats.

7.5 Colon and semicolon

• Colons and semicolons come immediately after the preceding word, with no space in between; capitalization of the following word should follow your language rules:
  Date: Old to new Datum: oud naar nieuw

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.
• Use an en dash:
  • to separate sentence parts
    De voordelen van ProtonVPN - nu nog goedkoper
  • to express “to” in ranges
    8—17 uur
• Use a hyphen:
  • to separate words at line breaks
  • to connect nouns that are not spelled as one word
    API-interface”
• Do not use the Em dash.

7.7 Quotation marks

Use normal quotes
“Voorbeeld”

7.8 Apostrophes

• The only usage case for an apostrophe that might arise in the context of this project are:
  • the genitive form of names ending in an -s sound.
  • translating “In the morning, noon, evening” 's Morgens, 's Middags, 's Avonds
• Use a curved apostrophe in these cases.
• Do not use the apostrophe to show letters omitted in spoken language.

English	Wrong	Correct
Max’s email	Maxs e-mail / Max’s e-mail	Max’ e-mail
Jan’s email	Jan’s e-mail	Jans e-mail

7.9 Ampersand (&)

Generally speaking, replace “&” with “and” unless it is part of a company/product name or a registered trademark.

8 Spacing and non-breaking spaces

• Do not insert blank spaces before punctuation.
• Only use a single space between words or after punctuation.
• Use non-breaking spaces to prevent improper division of elements such as product names, part numbers, dates, etc.
• For amount and units
  • When an amount and unit are used separately, include a non-breaking space between them.
  • When the amount and unit are used in combination with a noun, there is no space between the amount and the unit, and a hyphen is added between the unit and the noun
  • More information on this here: https://onzetaal.nl/taalloket/230-v-aansluiting
    10 Gbps, 25 m, 120 km, 1,8 GHz, 30 °C…
    10Gbps-servers, 25m-bad, 120km-bord, 1,8GHz-processor, 30°C-grens…
• For currency symbols
  • For simple prices, include a non-breaking space after the currency symbol
    € 10
  • When it’s part of a word, do not include a space after the currency symbol
    Hij betaalde met een €200-biljet
• For percent sign, do not include a space
  10%
• You can use these keyboard shortcuts on Windows:
  • Opening quotation mark => hold down the “Alt” key while typing the number “174”
  • Close guillemet => hold down the “Alt” key while typing the number “175”
  • Unbreakable space => hold down the “Alt” key while typing the number “255”

9 Numbers

• Replace the period that stands for the decimal point in American English with a comma in your translations. Example: 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
• Use a non-breaking space for thousand separators. Never use thousand separators in years.
  15,000 and year 2015 15 000, het jaar 2015
• Time and date:
  • Hours and minutes are separated by a colon. Please use the 24 hour format to specify A.M. and P.M.
    at 9:25 P.M om 21u25 of 21:25
  • The date format is “dd/mm/yy”.
    01-31-22 (mm/dd/yy) 31/01/22

10 Ordinal numbers

Ordinal numbers are indicated by a period. When used in a sentence, they should typically be spelled out.

English	Translation
1st prize:	1e prijs of 1ste prijs
This marked only the 3rd time that…	Dit was pas de 3e keer dat…

11 Currencies

• Do not convert USD ($) or EUR (€) amounts to any local currency.
• Place the USD or EUR code or the symbol €, $ before the number and separate it with a non-breaking space from the number.
  Amount of €30 Bedrag van € 30

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 m

Category	Measurement Unit	Translation	Abbreviation
LINEAR	Kilometer Meter Centimeter Millimeter	Kilometer Meter Centimeter Millimeter	km m cm mm
MASS	Ton Kilogram Gram	Ton Kilogram Pond	t kg lb
IMPERIAL	Inch Feet Mile Gallon	Inch Voet Mijl Gallon	in ft mi gal
COMPUTING	Byte (B) Megabyte (MB) Gigabyte (GB) Terabyte (TB)	Byte Megabyte Gigabyte Terabyte	B MB GB TB

13 Form of address

• Use the formal second-person singular (“u”) form.
• Also use lower case for pronouns (“u”).
• As a result, you also use the politeness form for a possessive pronoun - “uw”.

English	Translation
You decide that.	Dat beslist u.
Use your own domain name	Gebruik uw eigen domeinnaam

14 English “please”

• In English, it is very common to use the word “please” to introduce an instruction (“Please fill out the field Name in the form”). It will not be translated.
  Please try again later Probeer later opnieuw.

15 Foreign words

• The decision about the use of foreign words (keeping it in English) instead of the equivalent terms 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.
• Plural of English words do not follow your language rules.
  Babys Baby’s
• 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. Julia Smith) Voer uw weergavenaam in (bijv. Jan Janssens)
• Do not localize real persons’ names.
  Bart Butler is a senior engineer at Proton Mail Bart Butler is een senior ingenieur bij Proton Mail

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@ gebruiker@
• Translate the domain name
  yourdomain.com domeinnaam.com
• Use your target country code at the end
  .com .com

English	Translation
Proton Mail allows you to keep your business email address (you@yourcompany.com)	Met Proton Mail kunt u uw zakelijk e-mailadres behouden (uzelf@uwbedrijf.com)
Receive all email sent to addresses in your domain that do not exist (e.g., Mistake@yourdomain.com)	Ontvang alle e-mail die is verzonden naar adressen in uw domein die niet bestaan (vb. fout@uwdomein.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
Om het wachtwoord van uw mailbox opnieuw in te stellen, kunt u de webversie van ProtonMail gebruiken op proton.me