We are often
approached to provide guidance on what is the most common way of using decimal
dividers and thousand separators for the various languages that we translate
into.
While everyone
is aware of US English using periods for decimal division and commas to
separate thousands in big numbers, the issue is somehow obscure when it comes
to all the different languages used in Europe.
Diacritical mayhem
In US English, the value of pi
is 3.14 while a million is written as 1,000,000 with comma separators. This
system is also used widely throughout Asia and in almost all English speaking
countries. In Spain, pi is written like “3,14” and everyone would like to win
“1.000.000” Euro in a lottery. Many other European countries apply similar
punctuation in numbers, but there are exceptions. In Germanic languages, i.e.
German, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, the decimal comma is also
standard and pi is written as “3,14”. However, while a million can be written
like what is the custom in e.g. Spain, there is now a general trend to instead
use nonbreaking spaces and people like to win “1 000 000” Euro instead on the
lottery. To complicate things, for the Germanic (and also Slavic) languages
there is also a general preference to not use any divider in single thousand
numbers. So you would e.g. pay “€1500” for a very good bicycle and “€9000” for
a decent car. If you add German value added tax of 19%, the final price becomes
“€10 710” (yes with a space) for the same car.Solution? idioma QA style sheet
This trend of
omitting the separator is also picking up in many other European countries, and
it is a commonplace practice today. We have learned that many of our clients
are not aware of this. As a result, we have developed special QA style sheets
in which we have recommendations for all the 70+ languages we translate into.
Clients can
accept these recommendations or enter their own preference for the various
languages that projects should be translated into. It is even possible to enter
non-standard practices, e.g. to omit all dividers in thousands and larger, for
example when translating very technical documents where numbers should simply
remain the same in disregard of what language they are translated into. The
information in the style sheets is passed on to our translators and
proofreaders as ‘mini rules’ so they can adhere to your preferences while
handling your projects.
Please contact our
project manager for more information on these style sheets and how you best can
use them to your advantage.
