Lionbridge French Canadian Style Guide (English version)

Transcription

Lionbridge Style Guide
French Canadian
Lionbridge Technologies
WW Language Excellence
© 2016 Lionbridge Technologies, Inc. - CONFIDENTIAL
1
© Copyright 2005–2016 Lionbridge Technologies. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this material is
prohibited without prior permission of Lionbridge.
Revision History

2015/08/26 – Style guide reformat and update of certain sections for consistency with new style
guide template

2009/11/01 – Review of entire document

2005/10/03 – Spellchecked, other corrections and created pdf file
Important Note
If a client's preferences do not comply with the Lionbridge French Canadian Style Guide, this will be clearly
marked in the glossary header or specifications. The project glossary and specifications overrule the style
guide!
If the style guide and project specifications are not followed, Lionbridge reserves the right to deduct
expenses to correct the errors, or to require the translator/editor to correct the errors.
2
Table of Contents
I.
A.
B.
II.
A.
B.
Writing Style
Language General Style
5
5
Grammar and syntax
5
Possessive adjectives
5
Canada-centric examples
5
Numbered lists
5
Bulleted lists
5
Verb syntax
6
Tense
7
Translation of Help and Documentation
7
Titles and Chapters Names in Help/Documentation
7
Index entries
7
Proper verb form in software, help and doc
8
Language Rules
Capitalization Rules
8
8
Accents on Capital Vowels
9
Numbers, Dates and Address formats
10
Numbers
10
Ordinal numbers
10
Dates
10
Calendar
10
Standard phone number format
11
Standard Address Format
11
Currency and Units of Measurement
12
Currency
12
Units of Measurement
12
Punctuation Rules
13
Punctuation Marks and Spacing
13
E.
Special Symbols
17
F.
Suggested Standard Translations
17
Daily terminology
17
IT and Telecommunications
18
Tourism
18
C.
D.
3
III.
A.
B.
Marketing and advertising
18
Law
18
Automotive
19
References
Platform Glossaries
19
19
Other Reference Material
19
4
I.
Writing Style
A. Language General Style
Grammar and syntax
There are no major grammatical or syntactical differences between European French and
Canadian French. Grammatical structures are common to the two variants. Both use the same
reference books (Grevisse, Bescherelle, le Petit Robert, etc).
Possessive adjectives
Even though the English often uses possessive adjectives, it is better to use the definite article
in French.
English: your computer
French: l'ordinateur
Canada-centric examples
The translator should refer to the project instructions in order to know whether to localize
specific examples in the document. For example: It is possible that a reference to the US
Congress should be changed to an example relevant to Canada.
Numbered lists
Numbered lists are useful for sequential steps and are often meant to show a hierarchical
relationship. Most numbered lists are introduced by a main clause followed by a colon. The first
word of each item should be capitalized (because of the period after the number). If an item is a
complete sentence, it should also have ending punctuation.
Pour créer un répertoire, procédez comme suit :
1. Mettez l'ordinateur sous tension.
2. À l'invite du système, tapez « md style » et appuyez sur Entrée.
Bulleted lists
Bulleted lists generally fall into three categories. The examples below show the most common
bulleted lists and how to punctuate and capitalize each one.
Unbroken syntax: main clause followed by a colon (preceded by a hard space), each item
followed by a semi-colon, the last one followed by a period. The items are usually not
capitalized.
Un système informatique comprend généralement :
 un ordinateur
 un périphérique
5

un ou plusieurs lecteurs de CD
Typical list: main clause followed by a colon (preceded by a hard space), each item followed by
a semi-colon or a comma (if the list is made up of one or two-word items) with a final
punctuation (period). The items are usually not capitalized.
Vous pouvez réaliser rapidement les opérations suivantes :
 édition
 impression
 rédaction
If the list is a series of headings, punctuations may be omitted and items are capitalized.
Services offerts :
 Traduction
 Rédaction
 Révision
Complex list: main clause followed by colon (preceded by a hard space), each item followed by
semi-colon and not capitalized. If the list consists of complete sentences, they start with a
capital letter and end with a period.
Les macros permettent :
 d'éviter le réglage systématique des marges;
 de corriger des erreurs typographiques automatiquement;
 d'insérer des titres automatiquement.
Avant de remettre votre travail :
 Assurez-vous d'avoir répondu à toutes les questions.
 Relisez le texte et vérifiez vos calculs.
 Vérifiez si tous les tableaux sont annexés au document.
Verb syntax
Usually, the imperative form of the verbs is used rather than the infinitive. However, please
read the special instructions for verb forms in the header of the glossary you receive with a
project.
6
Most projects:
Appuyez sur la touche Entrée.
Veuillez patienter.
Most medical projects:
Appuyer sur la touche Entrée.
Patienter.
Please avoid using sentences starting with “on” e.g. “On peut enregistrer le fichier...”, etc.
Tense
As a general rule, avoid the future tense even if it appears in the English, and use the present.
B. Translation of Help and Documentation
Titles and Chapters Names in Help/Documentation
In French, whenever possible, the title of a Section or chapter should start with a noun
preceded by an article.
For example:
Les réseaux locaux
La configuration ….
L’évaluation des taches
Index entries
When translating index entries, it is very important to respect the following points:
– Formatting: A first level index entry must start with a capital letter.
French: Second and further level entries start with a lowercase character.
– Order and meaning of translated index entries: ensure that the entry is meaningful when
inverting the order of words.
Examples:
English
Save As dialog box (1st level
entry)
menu option (2nd level
entry)

French Incorrect
Boîte de dialogue Enregistrer
sous (1st level entry)
option de menu (2nd level
entry)
French correct
Enregistrer sous (1st level entry)
boîte de dialogue (2nd level
entry)
option de menu (2nd level
entry)
Consistently use the singular form or the plural form. Avoid mixing both which would result in
misleading duplicate entries:
Examples:
English
Buttons (1st level entry)
French correct
Boutons (1st level entry)
7
Open (2nd level entry)
Ouvrir (2nd level entry)
OR:
Bouton Ouvrir (1st level entry)
NOTE: DO NOT USE BOTH !
English
Suppose, further in the US index,
you now have:
Open, button
Open, dialog box
images
files
French Incorrect
Ouvrir, bouton (1st
level entry)
Ouvrir, boîte de
dialogue (1st level
entry)
French correct
You need to have ONLY ONE
1st level entry with several 2nd
level entries:
Ouvrir (1st level entry)
bouton (2nd level entry)
images (2nd level
entry)
fichiers (2nd level entry)
boîte de dialogue
(2nd level entry)
images (2nd level
entry)
fichiers (2nd level
entry)
NOTE: Although this may seem fastidious, it will save you a lot of time at the end, when you are
finished and realize many entries need to be changed back in the files.
Proper verb form in software, help and doc




II.
Documentation and Help: formal imperative
Commands in software: infinitive (in drop-down menus) or noun (main menus)
Prompts in software: infinitive, noun or 3rd person singular
Medical project: infinitive
Language Rules
A. Capitalization Rules
The English language has a more widespread use of capital letters than French. In French, only
the names of persons or of places, and the first letter of a sentence should be capitalized, unless
you capitalize a whole word or sentence for emphasis. Use only initial capital letters in the
following cases:
 proper names

command names and keywords (menus, modes, dialog boxes)

first word of a sentence or title

cross-references:
8
Voir le manuel « Guide de l'utilisateur »
Voir Chapitre 2 but Voir le chapitre « Impressions de documents »
Voir Figure 3-4 but Voir la figure 3-4

after a colon when:

the English text uses the words: Note, Caution, Warning, etc.
Remarque : Les normes ne sont pas fiables. Veuillez consulter une documentation plus
complète.

there is a numbered list or the beginning of a paragraph (see "Numbered and bulleted
lists")

there is a quotation:
Il dit d'un ton calme : « J'ai manqué mon train ».

it is to define a word:
Logiciel : Ensemble des programmes, procédés et règles... (Larousse).
But note that when the colon is part of the sentence, capitalization should not be used.
Le singe : un homme qui n'a pas réussi
Accents on Capital Vowels
In European French, upper case characters can be either accented or non-accented. In Canadian
French, upper case characters are systematically accented, except acronyms.
Examples
FR-FR
FR-CA
UN BISCUIT SALE or UN BISCUIT SALÉ
A propos de or À propos de
UN BISCUIT SALÉ
À propos de
In FR-CA, vowels keep their accents when capitalized (ASCII codes - ALT+):
A = À (192) - Â (194)
E = È (200) - É (201) - Ê 202) - Ë (203)
I = Î (206) - Ï (207)
O = Ô (212) - Ö (214)
U = Ù (217) - Ü (220) - Û (219)
In Word 6.0 and Word 7.0, the above codes must be preceded by ALT-0 to display the desired
character. The use of a French keyboard would greatly facilitate the task.
9
NOTE: In addition to the above vowels, the letter "Ç" (199) also keeps its cedilla when capitalized.
B. Numbers, Dates and Address formats
Numbers
Spell out numbers from zero through nine when used in text if they are used for non technical
passages. For technical passages, including all measurements, use numerals for all numbers.
Ensure that numbers are specified with appropriate spacing. Measurements will need to be
converted to metric. It is suggested to put metric first then imperial in parenthesis.
Examples:
Vous pouvez connecter deux magnétoscopes à votre système.
Vous pouvez connecter 16 sites…
Vous devriez recevoir deux câbles de 3 mètres (10 pieds)
In French decimal points become decimal commas.
Examples: 10.25 becomes 10,25
The thousands separator is replaced by a hard space.
1,500.55 becomes 1 500,55
Note that both 1500 and 1 500 are correct.
Ordinal numbers
The correct abbreviation in French for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. is 1er, 1re, 2e, 3e, 4e, etc.
The version 2ième, even used in magazines, is incorrect, except for "Nième".
Dates
The date format "mm/dd/yy" becomes "dd/mm/yy".
April 18, 1990 = 18 avril 1990

NOTE:
Months are not capitalized (18 avril 1990).

Calendar
Neither days nor months take an initial capital in French (unless the word is the first in a
sentence). The abbreviations of the months and days of the week are as follows:
Months:
janv. févr. mars avr. mai juin juil. août sept. oct. nov.
déc.
10
Days:
lun. mar. mer. jeu. ven. sam. dim.
When three-letter abbreviations are called for in order to follow the U.S. layout (such as in
software), the names of the months are abbreviated as follows:
Months:
jan fév mar avr mai jun jul aoû sep oct nov déc
The calendar week in Canada starts with Sunday and ends with Saturday.
Standard phone number format
As a general rule, the following should be respected with regards to phone numbers:
Telephone: 514 672-5513
1 800 number: 1 800 672-5513
Note that there is no hyphen between the area code and the actual number.
Note that there is no hyphen between the 1 and 800 and between 800 and 672. There is only a
hyphen between the parts of the actual number.
Standard Address Format
In Canada, the address format is as follows:
The name and the title of the recipient (Madame, Monsieur, Docteur, etc.) should be written
without abbreviation.
As a general rule, a comma ( , ) separates the house number and the street name.
Abbreviations may be used (av., boul.).
The Canada postal code, placed after the province, consists of a six alphanumerical code.
The standard format to be used for addresses is as follows:
<<First Name>> <<Last Name>>
<<Company>>
<<Address>>
<<City, Province, Postal code >>
Madame Lucie XXX
Agence ABCr
34, rue Bidon
Montréal (Québec) A1A 1A1
(Note that the province is always in
parenthesis)
Each translator must refer the Office de la langue française – Le français au bureau – Le guide
du rédacteur for specific instructions. You will find the abbreviations for each Province.
For an international address, normally the address is written in the language of the receiving
country.
11
C. Currency and Units of Measurement
Currency
To indicate an amount of money followed by the currency, it is recommended to indicate this
symbol on the same line (hard space required) at the right of the number and separate this
number by a space.
Examples: 50 000 $; 1000 $ CA; 2000 $ US; 50 000,25 $
Please note that for the Canadian dollar, both currency symbols, CA and CAN, are correct in
French Canadian : 1000 $ CA; 2000 $ CAN.
If translating from another currency than dollars, please consult the project instructions to
know if currency requires conversion or not.
Units of Measurement
As a general rule, units of measurement should be localized. The metric system (SI) is usually
used in FR-CA projects. As specified in the “Numbers” section, the translator must first specify
the number in metric and put the imperial in parenthesis.
The translator must refer to specific project instructions regarding conversion of measurements
or not. If no specific rule is provided, then the above should be used.
French: Abbreviations of units of measure don’t generally have a period (.)
List of standard abbreviations: This is not a complete list. Each translator must refer to the
standards set forth by the Office de la langue française or other body for accuracy.
Refer to the Punctuation Marks and Spacing section for information regarding spacing.
English
French (full)
French (abbreviation
or symbol)
degree
degré
°
Celsius degree
degré Celsius
°C
kilobyte
kilo-octet
ko (lower case k)
megabyte
méga-octet
Mo (capital M)
kilometer
kilomètre
km
meter
mètre
m
centimeter
centimètre
cm
millimeter
millimètre
mm
12
kilogramm
kilgramme
kg
foot
pied
pi
Indicate metric value
and imperial in
parenthesis.
inch
pouce
po
Indicate metric value
and imperial in
parenthesis.
liter
litre
L ou l
hour
heure
h
minute
minute
min
second
seconde
s
D. Punctuation Rules
Punctuation Marks and Spacing
In typography, please use the following rules as dictated by the Office de la langue française.
BEFORE
PUNCTUATION
SYMBOL
AFTER
PUNCTUATION
No space
Comma (in a text)
One space
,
Les microordinateurs, les
photocopieurs…
No space
Comma (in numbers)
No space
,
1,5 million
No space
Period
One space
.
La télécopie est maintenant devenue
indispensable. Cette technique…
One space
Colon
One space
:
Les étapes sont les suivantes :
13
planification, répartition…
No space
Semi-Colon
One space
;
L’essentiel est résolu; il ne reste…
No space
Exclamation mark
One space
!
Félicitations! Nous sommes
No space
Question mark
One space
?
Pourriez-vous m’en faire parvenir
deux exemplaires? J’en aurais besoin.
-
Suspension periods (at the beginning
of a sentence or replacing the
beginning of a text)
One space
…
… Cette énumération n’est sûrement
pas exhaustive.
No space
Suspension periods (in the middle or
at the end of a sentence)
One space
…
Inutile d’en dire plus… Je sais que
vous avez compris.
No space
Hyphen
No space
L’Abitibi-Témiscamingue est la
région administration…
One space
Dash
One space
Tout le monde dit – mais, je n’en
crois rien – que ce sera demain.
No space
Slash
No space
/
N/Ref. et V/Réf. Sont des
abréviations conventionnelles
One space
Opening parenthesis
No space
(
Les ouvrages de références
14
(encyclopédies…
No space
Closing Parenthesis
One space
)
… grammaires, codes
typographiques, etc.) sont
indispensables.
One space
Opening bracket
No space
[
No space
Closing bracket¸
One space
]
One space
Opening Quotation mark
One space
«
Le texte précise bien que « tout le
personnel…
One space
Closing Quotation mark
One space
»
… est visé par cette mesure ».
One space
Curly quote
One space
“”
No space within these quotes
Le texte précise que « tout le
personnel “staff” est visé…
No space
Apostrophe
No space
’
J’ai l’honneur de …
One space
Asterisk (when placed before the
word)
No space
*
Les mots *handicap et *haricot
commencent par un h aspiré.
No space
Asterisk (when placed after the
word)
One space
*
Son emploi est traité sous
ponctuation* et sous astérisque*.
15
One space
Percent
One space
%
des augmentations de 8 % et de 7,25
%.
One space
Currency Unit
One space
$
$ CA
$ US
One space
SI Unit or other
One space
Kg cm A h
58 kg
14 h 30
64 Mo
One space
Mathematics symbol
One space
+-x=
12 x 12 = 144

NOTE : In European French, the semi-colon, question mark, and exclamation mark are preceded
by a space. In Canadian French there is no space before these punctuation marks.
In European French, the slash and colon are preceded and followed by a space. In Canadian
there is no space before or after the slash.
Examples
FR-FR
FR-CA
Comment allez-vous ?
Comment allez-vous?
Félicitations !
Félicitations!
Travailler de jour / nuit
Travailler de jour/nuit
To add a hard space manually, hold CTRL+SHIFT+SPACEBAR keys (this symbol ° will appear in
your file but will not appear on a printout or running software). You will want to add a hard
space especially when a symbol or punctuation mark is at the end of the line. This will prevent
any possibility of ending up with a symbol or punctuation mark alone on the following line.
16
E. Special Symbols
In English, it is not rare to see special symbols like #, & or @ in technical documents. These
symbols should not be kept in French.
Instead of: #, &, @
use: n°, et, à, unless they have a very specific meaning (such as @
in an Internet address, for example).
F. Suggested Standard Translations
Some terms are used in almost all technical documents to draw the reader's attention to
specific points. To avoid inconsistency, please use the following translations:
Addendum = Addenda *
Appendix = Annexe
Caution = Attention
Contents = Table des matières
Important = Important
Index = Index
Indice = Index
Note = Remarque / Nota *
Warning = Avertissement
Example = Exemple
Tip = Suggestion/Conseil/Truc *
See also = Voir aussi *
Related topics = Rubriques associées *
(* It depends on the project)
Daily terminology
European French has adopted many English words. These English words have been
systematically translated in Québec.
Examples
English
FR-FR
FR-CA
Living-room
Shopping
Week-end
Crisps
Living
Shopping
Week-end
Chips
Salon
Magasinage
Fin de semaine
Croustilles
17
IT and Telecommunications
Examples
English
FR-FR
FR-CA
Firewall
Proxy server
E-mail
Firewall / Pare-feu
Serveur proxy
E-mail / Mail
Gateway
Gateway / Passerelle
Barrière pare-feu
Serveur mandataire
Courrier
électronique/Courriel
Passerelle
Tourism
In France, the tourism industry has retained many English terms that have been translated in
Canadian French.
Examples
English
FR-FR
Charter flight
Baby-sitting
Parking
Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner
Vol charter
Baby-sitting
Parking
Petit-déjeuner,
dîner
Jet-ski
Jet-ski
FR-CA
Vol nolisé
Service de garde d'enfants
Stationnement
déjeuner, Déjeuner, dîner, souper
Motomarine
Marketing and advertising
In France, marketing and advertising material often retains an English or American flavour.
In Quebec, marketing and advertising material is adapted to reflect the Quebecer socio-cultural
background. Humour and word-plays are often used as marketing gimmicks.
Examples
English
FR-FR
FR-CA
KFC (Kentucky Fried
Chicken)
Diet Coke
KFC (Kentucky Fried
Chicken)
Coca-cola light
PFK (Poulet frit Kentucky)
Coke Diète
Law
In Quebec, the legal system is based on both the English Common Law system and the French
Code Napoléon. Quebec has its own system which is distinct from the rest of Canada.
As a result, legal terminology in Quebec is different from that of France. The terminology
differences extend to other areas as well, such as Insurance and Accounting.
Examples
18
English
FR-FR
Agreement
Bank/services charges
Capital gain
To reverse an entry
Accord
Agio(s)
Plus-value
Contrepasser
écriture
FR-CA
Entente
Frais bancaires
Gain sur capital
une Renverser une écriture
Automotive
There are many differences between the variants.
Examples
English
FR-FR
FR-CA
Airbag
Choke
Options Pack
Wood finish
Airbag
Starter
Pack d’options
Finition façon bois
Coussin gonflable
Étrangleur
Groupe d’options
Fini bois
III.
References
A. Platform Glossaries
Each translator should refer to the appropriate Microsoft Windows Platform and Application
glossary for appropriate terminology pertaining to the document to be translated.
You can find this glossary at the following address : Microsoft Language Portal
Translators also must have access to TermStudio, via the TRES interface. To access it, you have
to have a MS partner account.
Refer to the standard Windows terminology for all standard names for buttons, pull-down
menus, etc.
B. Other Reference Material
The translator should also refer to the following tools:
-
Le Français au bureau
-
Le guide du rédacteur
-
L’Office québécois de la langue française (http://www.granddictionnaire.com/)
-
Le Bureau de la traduction du gouvernement du Canada
(http://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/)
19

Lionbridge French Canadian Style Guide (English version)

Transcription

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