Full name: Republic of Austria. Note that the Austrian Bundesländer are called ‘provinces’ in English. Official language: German. Geography Cities Write Vienna for Wien. Otherwise, retain the original spelling, including any accents (e.g. Sankt Pölten). Lakes Write Lake Constance for … Read More
The translation process can be divided into three successive phases: Understanding: assimilation of the meaning conveyed by the text, the meaning of a writer, etc.; Deverbalisation: forgetting words and conservation of meaning: “the process by which the subject becomes aware … Read More
1 British spelling. Follow standard British usage, but remember that influences are crossing the Atlantic all the time (for example, the spellings program and disk have become normal British usage in information technology, while sulfur has replaced sulphur in scientific … Read More
Language usage. The language used should be understandable to speakers of British English (defined in the introduction to this Guide as the standard usage of Britain and Ireland). As a general rule, British English should be preferred, and Americanisms that … Read More
False friends (or faux amis) are pairs of words in two languages that look similar but differ in meaning. In a multilingual environment like the European Commission, we often mix up our languages. Borrowing between French end English is common. … Read More
Another easy step to dear writing is to useverbs in the active voice (‘the car hit a tree’) rather than the passive (‘a tree was hit by the car‘). Compare these: BAD: New guidelines have been laid downbythe President in … Read More
Concrete messages are clear – abstract language canbe vague and off-putting. Too much abstract language might even lead your reader to think either that you don’t know what you are writing about or that your motives for writingare suspect. Unless … Read More
One simple way to write more dearly is to change … this (BAD)… => … to this (GOOD): by the destruction of => by destroying for the maximisation of => for maximising of the introduction of => of introducing … Read More
You may have to write (or improve) a text containing a mass of facts and ideas. Here are some ways of untangling the information so that readers will understand each sentence straight away. Name the agents of each action and … Read More
Short… The value of a document does not increase the longer it gets. Your readers will not respect you more because you have written 20 pages instead of 10, especially when they realise that you could have written what you … Read More
When you start If your outline include a summary, begin with that: you may find it is enough! Put it at the beginning because that is the first (and sometimes the only) part that people will read. Pay particular attention … Read More
Due to Western colonialism and cultural dominance in recent centuries, Western translation traditions have largely replaced other traditions. The Western traditions draw on both ancient and medieval traditions, and on more recent European innovations. Though earlier approaches to translation are … Read More
