Guidance for Polish

[PMtranslator]

Last update: January 20, 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 Polish, but you should also consider the guidance for all languages.

1. Capitalization

• Capitalize only the first letter of a sentence and the names of people or products.
• 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)
  Otwórz, Zapisz, Zapisz jako
• First word of a sentence, title or subtitle
  Wybierz kolor etykiety
• In UI items made up of 2 alternative commands separated by a slash, both are capitalized
  Importuj/Eksportuj plik
• Capitalize in bullet lists where each point is a sentence
  Wykonaj następujące kroki:
  • Otwórz plik.
  • Wprowadź zmiany.
  • Zapisz plik.

Do not capitalize
In lists where each bullet point is not a complete sentence
Oferujemy:

• usługi bankowe,
• transakcje walutowe,
• płatności internetowe.
• Words after colon when in the same line
  Możesz przechowywać: pliki, foldery…
• Language names
  polski
  angielski
• Names of days, months, and seasons
  poniedziałek
  kwiecień
  wiosna
• After salutation in an Email
  Szanowny Użytkowniku, dziękujemy za odpowiedź…

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, use the neutral indirect form (istnieje możliwość…).

English	We avoid	We prefer
I am happy to help you.	Z przyjemnością Panu pomogę.	Służymy pomocą.
If you are interested in Proton Mail…	Jeśli jesteś zainteresowany Proton Mail…	Jeśli zainteresował Cię Proton Mail…
I am not used to this tool.	Nie jestem przyzwyczajony do tego narzędzia.	Brakuje mi przyzwyczajenia w korzystaniu z tego narzędzia

• 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.
• Choose the plural form, if you are unable to find a gender neutral way to translate a string.

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
• Examples:
  • Skracanie Skrac.
  • Wizualizacja Wizual.

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

English	Translation	Abbreviation
Monday	poniedziałek	pon. (pn.)
Tuesday	wtorek	wt.
Wednesday	środa	śr.
Thursday	czwartek	czw.
Friday	piątek	pt.
Saturday	sobota	sob. (sb.)
Sunday	niedziela	niedz. (nd.).

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

English	Translation	Abbreviation
January	styczeń	sty
February	luty	lut
March	marzec	mar
April	kwiecień	kwi
May	maj	maj
June	czerwiec	cze
July	lipiec	lip
August	sierpień	sie
September	wrzesień	wrz
October	październik	paź
November	listopad	lis
December	grudzień	gru

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.
• For fluency reasons, and when the exact meaning of the governing noun of the acronym is known, you can use the translation of the defining noun of the acronym in front of it.
  The API is Interfejs API.
• Globally used acronyms do not need explanations (DVD, LED, TV…).
• When an acronym is repeated several times in the same section, include its extended form in parentheses only for its first occurrence.

5. Pronouns

• Avoid the use of possessive pronouns when possible.
  Make sure to save your edits once you’re done Pamiętaj o zapisaniu zmian po zakończeniu pracy
• Omit pronoun subjects such as “we” and “you".
• The final form of the translated text should reflect the current structure for your language.

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	Generują się klucze	Generowanie kluczy

7. Punctuation

The general rule is to follow your language standard grammar rules. As a reference, the below resources can be consulted:

• SŁOWNIK JĘZYKA POLSKIEGO
• A. Wolański, Edycja tekstów. Praktyczny poradnik

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 you 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 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…	Resetowanie motywu! Trwa przekierowywanie…	Resetowanie motywu. Trwa przekierowywanie…
Importing contacts complete!	Zakończono importowanie kontaktów!	Zakończono importowanie kontaktów.

7.3 Parentheses

• Parentheses are used to clarify statements or provide additional information.
• Closing parenthesis goes after the full stop.

English	We avoid	We prefer
Please choose a display name to finish setting up your account. (Other people will see this.)	Wybierz wyświetlaną nazwę, aby zakończyć konfigurację konta. (Inne osoby będą ją widzieć.)	Wybierz wyświetlaną nazwę, aby zakończyć konfigurację konta. (Inne osoby będą ją widzieć).

7.4 Comma

• Do not place a comma before “i” and “lub” when the conjunction is used to link two related terms.
• The comma should be used when the conjunction is preceded by a parenthetical phrase.

English	We avoid	We prefer
You can also add, delete, and edit them by clicking…	Możesz także dodawać, usuwać, i edytować je, klikając…	Możesz także dodawać, usuwać i edytować je, klikając…
Assign permissions to users, or groups	Przypisz uprawnienia użytkownikom, lub grupom	Przypisz uprawnienia użytkownikom lub grupom

7.5 Colon and semicolon

• Colons and semicolons come immediately after the preceding word, with no space in between, and the following word should not be capitalized.
  Date: Old to new Data: od najstarszej do najnowszej

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

*In English an Em or En dash is used to demarcate an isolated element or to introduce an item that is not essential to the meaning of the sentence.

• Please use en dashes (alt+0151), without spacing, in number ranges: 500–1500, and with spacing – in sentences.
  September 10 - 20 10–20 września (but September 10 ⎯ 10 września ⎯)

7.7 Quotation marks

• Use your language quotation marks: „” (alt+0132 and alt+0148).
• The period should go outside the closing quotation mark.
• The same applies to brackets.
  Kliknij łącze „Przewodnik wprowadzający”.

7.8 Apostrophes

Use straight apostrophes

7.9 Ampersand (&)

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

8 Spacing

• Never insert blank spaces before a comma.
• Space between words or after punctuation is always a single.
• Use space between numbers and units (remember that % is an exception).
• Use non-breaking spaces to prevent improper division of elements such as product names, part numbers, numbers, dates, etc.
• 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.
    10 EUR, 2 m, etc.

9 Numbers

• 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. Example 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, rok 2015
• 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 o godzinie 21:25
  • The date format is “dd/mm/yyyy”.
    01-31-22 (mm/dd/yy) 31/01/2022

10 Ordinal numbers

• Ordinal numbers may be written in with digits and a period after a digit (example: Zajął 1. miejsce) or with a full word (example: Zajął pierwsze miejsce).
• A period after a digit is not required when the context clearly indicates the use of an ordinal number (example: Rok szkolny zaczyna się 1 września). Please see here for more details.

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.
  Amount of €30 Kwota 30 EUR (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	kilometr metr centymetr milimetr	km m cm mm
MASS	ton kilogram pound	tona kilogram funt	t kg lb
IMPERIAL	inch feet mile gallon	cal stopa mila galon	in ft mi gal
COMPUTING	Byte (B) Megabyte (MB) Gigabyte (GB) Terabyte (TB)	bajt megabajt gigabajt terabajt	B MB GB TB

13 Form of address

• Use an informal second-person singular (“ty”) form of address.
• Once accepted mostly in colloquial, familiar style, now it is common in online communication.
  Open navigation Otwórz nawigację

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”). The translation usually does not contain the “please”.
  Please try again later Spróbuj ponownie później.

15 Foreign words

• The decision about the use of foreign words (keeping it in English) instead of the equivalent terms 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. Julia Smith) Wybierz nazwę wyświetlaną (np. Julia Nowak)
• Do not localize real persons’ names.
  Bart Butler is a senior engineer at Proton Mail Bart Butler jest starszym inżynierem w 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@ użytkownik@
• Translate the domain name
  yourdomain.com twojadomena.pl
• Use your target country code at the end
  .com .pl

English	Translation
Proton Mail allows you to keep your business email address (you@yourcompany.com)	Proton Mail umożliwia zachowanie firmowego adresu e-mail (ty@twojafirma.pl)
Receive all email sent to addresses in your domain that do not exist (e.g., Mistake@yourdomain.com)	Odbieraj wszystkie wiadomości wysłane na nieistniejące adresy w Twojej domenie (np. nieprawidlowyadres@twojadomena.pl)

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
Aby zresetować hasło skrzynki pocztowej, skorzystaj ze strony proton.me

18 Plural forms

• Some strings may have plural forms.
• There are 4 plural forms (one, few, many, and other).
• When a string has multiple plural forms, all variants of the string are shown in the section where you type in translations.
• Enter translations in the corresponding tabs that depict plural forms of the target language