📹 Rob Watts tells about Grammar rules you can stop sticking to (24 mins):

😁 Don’t split the infinitive
😁 Don’t use double negatives
😁 “None” is always singular
😁 Don’t end a sentence with a preposition
😁 Don’t use “less” when you mean “fewer”
😁 “Hopefully” has only one meaning

#English #grammar

🌐 A few slang abbreviations from the localization field. All of them are based on the principle of “taking the first and last letters of a word, cutting out the middle, and writing the number of the cut out letters instead.”

😃 T9N = Translation: Conveying the meaning in another language.
😃 L10N = Localization: Adaptation to local requirements and traditions.
😃 I18N = Internationalization: The process of adapting a product and its design to make L10N easy.
😃 G11N = Globalization: The process by which a company begins to operate on an international scale.

These terms are vague, and their meanings sometimes overlap. Nevertheless, these abbreviations are popular in our market.

* * *
Another three are less common:

😃 C13N = Culturalization: Adaptation to the norms accepted in a particular culture.
😃 M17N = Multilingualization: Adding new languages to a program or website.
😃 V8N = Validation: Verification of correctness, making a product officially acceptable.

#translatorprofession #terminology

🆎 Some abbreviations of Latin origin used in books (most often in footnotes) and bibliographic descriptions:

😁 cf. (abbr. from confer): «compare» — stands for «see»
😁 et al. (abbr. from et alii): «and others» — used to avoid listing a long list of authors.
😁 ibid., ib., ibd. (abbr. from ibidem): «the same reference» — a reference to a source that has already been mentioned before
😁 loc. cit. (abbr. from loco citato): «in place of citing».
😁 op. cit. (abbr. from opere citato): «works cited».
😁 sq. (abbr. from et sequens): «and the next [page]».
😁 sqq. (abbr. from et sequentes): «and next [pages]».

#Latin #abbreviations

💻 September Linguistic News

😃 Tools

😁 Release of Trados Studio 2024 SR1.
😁 Updates at Matecat: an option to customise a similarity threshold and Lara Glossary added.
😁 Release of Poedit 3.7.
😁 Release of Service Pack 18 для Transit/TermStar NXT.
😁 August updates at CrowdIn.
😁 Release of Across Translator Edition v8.8.

😃 Publications

😁 September edition of Multilingual.
😁 August edition of The Slator Tool Box.
😁 July edition of JoSTrans.
😁 August edition of GlobalSaké Newsletter

#across #crowdin #grammarly #subtitle_edit #transtools #poedit

🗣 A quick overview of the 10 most popular subtitling tools on the Freelanceverse channel (15 min):

😁 Amara
😁 Zubtitle
😁 CaptionHub
😁 Kapwing
😁 Ooona
😁 Subtitle Edit
😁 Subtitle Workshop
😁 Jubler
😁 Descript
😁 Aegisub

Spoiler: humanity has not yet invented anything better than Subtitle Edit.

* * *
→ Some links related to subtitling
→ Aegisub has been updated after a 10 year hiatus
→ Subtitle Workshop was replaced with Tero Subtitler

#programsfortranslators #subtitles

🔣 A little bit on how and is different from &:

The ampersand is a ligature that the Latin conjunction et, which means and, has been transformed into.

Once upon a time, the ampersand was even considered the 27th letter of the alphabet. When pronouncing letters in the alphabet, it was ended with the words and per se and (and “and” as such), which is where the word “ampersand” came from.

In general, the ampersand implies a somewhat closer relationship than and. When translating into English, the default is to use and, but there are a few cases where the ampersand is more appropriate.

* * *
😃 In the names of trademarks and companies (usually those that have historically been formed by combining several others):

😁 Dolce & Gabbana
😁 Procter & Gamble

—as well as abbreviations formed from them:

😁 AT&T (American Telephone and Telegraph)
😁 H&M (Hennes & Mauritz AB).

Here, the ampersand not only contributes to brand recognition, but also helps to save space.

😃 In stage names, movie titles, etc.:

😁 Lilo & Stitch
😁 Simon & Garfunkel

😃 Ampersands are used to form abbreviations. In this case, the & indicates that the elements it combines form a single concept:

😁 R&D (Research and Development)
😁 R&B (Rhythm and Blues)
😁 &c is an additionally abbreviated etc., i.e. et cetera (“and so on”).

😃 In the titles of books, research papers, articles, etc., ampersands indicate that the authors have worked closely with each other:

😁 Joanna Muller & Jennifer Maul: worked closely as a team, helped each other, etc.
😁 Joanna Muller, Jennifer Maul: for example, they wrote different parts of the book, or one wrote it and the other proofread it. Technically, they may even be strangers.

😃 In addresses, the spouses are indicated with the ampersand:

😁 Mr. & Mrs Holloway
😁 Esther & Abi Ofarim

😃 And, of course, the ampersand is used in informal texts (for example, in chats) for shortening.

* * *
A few notes:

😃 In abbreviations, the ampersand is written close together, without spaces.

😃 The Oxford comma is not placed before the ampersand.

😃 A note for technical translators: in HTML, the ampersand + code + semicolon structure is the code of a character. For example,   is the code for a non-breaking space.

#english #abbreviations #typography

🤖 Some News about AI

😃 The AI Can Probably Do Some of Your Work Tasks. That Doesn't Mean It Can Do Your Job article on the CNET website. It mentions the same infamous Microsoft report. Key citation:

Professional translators are generally experts not only in language, but in their specific field [which suggest that what they do is accurate] <...> You don't want a translation that makes a good guess <...> when your money or your life is on the line. You want a translation that understands the nuances that vary between the languages. And you want someone who'll be accountable if it's wrong. If AI makes a mistake, who's going to be responsible for that?

😃 The results of a new study: if a model is unable to apply what it has learned during training to new input data that it has not yet encountered, then none of carefully formulated prompts will improve its performance.

😃 It seems that Google Translate is planning to compete with Duolingo: a pilot version of a new feature — language practice — has been launched.

😃 At the same time, Google warns that the AI ​​translation estimates are significantly overestimated, since the dataset on which it was trained already contained "correct" translations of test fragments.

😃 WhatsApp is testing an AI tool called Writing Help that allows you to change the tone and style of a message before sending it.

😃 The Why Using LLMs for Quality Estimation Is Challenging and Complex article on the TAUS website about how checking the quality of translations (QA) using large language models is not such a simple matter: they are unpredictable, biased, prone to hallucinations, and require fine-tuning. The article is semi-advertising: TAUS advertises its EPIC technology.

#artificialintelligence #AI #language_services_market #googletranslate #duolingo

💻 October Linguistic News

😃 Tools

😁 Version 2.7 of TransTools+ has been released. It contains a useful addition to Tracked Changes Assistant: convert “false” tracked changes to real tracked changes tool. More details here.
😁 September updates at CrowdIn.

😃 Publications

😁 September edition of Slator Tool Box.
😁 October edition of Multilingual.
😁 Autumn edition of The Linguist.

😃 Other Related

😁 Release of Unicode 17.0.0. It adds 4,803 characters, for a total of 159,801 characters.

#transtools #crowdin

🎓 Related resources for those who master or plan to master Passolo:

* * *
😃 Developer's Website

😁 Installation Kit (Free Translator edition)
😁 Help Articles
😁 Passolo Documentation
😁 Keyboard Shortcuts

* * *
😃 Educational Resources

😁 RWS: eLearning for Passolo: Getting started
😁 RWS: Passolo Getting Started
😁 RWS: Trainer-led training for Passolo

* * *
😃 Additional Resources

😁 Group for discussions on Passolo at ProZ
😁 Passolo Translator at L10n Software
😁 Machine translation API integrations in Passolo

#passolo #tutorials #educationalresources