Guidance for Korean

Style Guides Korean
1

Last update: Sept 1, 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 Korean, but you should also consider the guidance for all languages.

1. Capitalization

  • Hangul has no capitalization, so this topic only applies for English words.
  • Please do capitalize Proper names, such as for instance:
    :point_right: Proton Mail
    :point_right: Proton VPN
    :point_right: NetShield

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 unknown.
    • Don’t suggest the reader’s gender using a specific grammatical forms. If you cannot use forms that are gender-free, rephrase the sentence.
  • 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.

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 readibility. 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.

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

English Translation Abbreviation
Monday 월요일 월
Tuesday 화요일 화
Wednesday 수요일 수
Thursday 목요일 목
Friday 금요일 금
Saturday 토요일 토
Sunday 일요일 일

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.
  • To choose the appropriate article to use in front of an acronym, consider the gender and the euphonic effect.
  • 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 an infinitive, translating it as the equivalent of “Create a report”.
  • Depending on the context, this may also mean “in the process of”.
English We avoid We prefer
Generating keys 키 생성 키 생성 중

7. Punctuation

If you need help, you can check this website.

7.1 Period

  • For the period at the end of a sentence (subject + verb), adapt the source to your language usage: when the English source does not put a period at the end of the sentence (subject + verb), 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).
  • Include a period at the end of each extended sentence in a bullet list if this sentence has a full meaning by itself.
  • Unless the item includes more than one sentence, do not place any periods at the end of titles, links, buttons and checkboxes.

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… 테마를 초기화했습니다! 리다이렉트 중입니다… 테마를 초기화했으며 리다이렉트 중입니다…
Importing contacts complete! 연락처 가져오기를 완료했습니다! 연락처 가져오기를 완료했습니다.

7.3 Parentheses

  • Parentheses are used to clarify statements or provide additional information.
  • Let’s avoid parentheses as much as possible and adapt to the context.
English We avoid We prefer
We also support importing vCard. (UTF-8 encoding) vCard도 가져올 수 있습니다. (UTF-8 인코딩) (UTF-8로 인코딩된) vCard도 가져올 수 있습니다.

7.4 Comma

Write “and” and with commas whenever possible.
Do not place a comma before “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… 클릭해서 추가, 삭제, 그리고 수정을 할 수 있습니다… 클릭해서 추가, 삭제, 수정을 할 수 있습니다…
Assign permissions to users, or groups 사용자, 또는 그룹에 권한 부여하기 사용자 또는 그룹에 권한 부여하기

7.5 Colon and semicolon

Colons and semicolons are all preceded by a non-breaking space.

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.
  • Do not use Em dash.

7.7 Quotation marks

Use " quotation marks.

7.8 Apostrophes

Do not use apostrophes.

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, Ctrl + Option⌥ + Space bar.

9 Numbers

  • For numbers smaller than 1, always put a zero before the decimal comma.
    .5 :point_right: 0.5
  • The period in app/software version numbers remains unchanged.
    :point_right: Proton Mail v.3
  • As a thousand separator, use a comma. Never use thousand separators in years.
    15000 and year 2,015 :point_right: 15,000 및 2015년
  • Time and date:
    • Hours and minutes are separated by a colon. Use the 12 hour format to specify A.M. and P.M.
      at 9:25 P.M :point_right: 오후 9:25
    • xxThe date format is “yyyy-mm-dd”.
      01-31-22 (mm/dd/yy) :point_right: 2022-01-31

10 Ordinal numbers

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

11 Currencies

  • Do not convert USD ($) or EUR (€) amounts to any local currency like KRW (₩).
  • Place the symbol €, $ before the number and separate it with a non-breaking space from the number.

12 Units of measurement

  • Use the metric system.
  • Use unit symbol as abbreviation.
  • Insert a non-breaking space between a number and the relevant unit.
  • Using unit symbol over translation is recommended.
  • Convert imperial units into metric units.
    6 feet :point_right: 183cm
Category Measurement unit Translation Abbreviation (Unit symbol)
LINEAR Kilometer
Meter
Centimeter
Millimeter		 킬로미터
미터
센티미터
밀리미터		 km
m
cm
m
MASS Ton
Kilogram
Pound		 톤
킬로그램
파운드		 t
kg
lb
IMPERIAL Inch
Feet
Mile
Gallon		 인치
피트
마일
갤런		 in
ft
mi
gal
COMPUTING Byte
Megabyte
Gigabyte
Terabyte		 바이트
메가바이트
기가바이트
테라바이트		 B
MB
GB
TB

13 English/US terms

  • Please 제발
  • Now 현재
  • Successfully 성공
  • Failed 실패

14 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.

15 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) :point_right: 닉네임을 정해주세요 (e.g. 홍길동)
  • Do not localize real persons’ names.
    Bart Butler is a senior engineer at Proton Mail :point_right: Bart Butler는 Proton Mail의 시니어 엔지니어입니다.

16 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@ :point_right: 사용자@
  • Translate the domain name
    yourdomain.com :point_right: 내도메인.kr
  • Use your target country code at the end
    .com :point_right: .kr
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