Datasheet

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Estonian error messages (except questions) always finish with the period. Exclamation marks and other
punctuation marks are used only in exceptional cases.
English
Estonian
Gathering required information...
Kogub soovitud teavet ...
Congratulations! You have successfully installed the
selected device!
Õnnitlused! Olete edukalt installinud valitud draivi.
Please note that exclamation mark is used only after interjections and exclamative sentences. Descriptive and
declarative sentences end with full stop.
Personification
Do not use the first person (except for creatures like the Office Assistant). If possible, use the generic third person
or the Passive voice (especially in negative expressions). In the rare cases where this is not possible, rephrase
using nominalizations, etc.
Examples:
English
Estonian
Unable to save the file
Faili ei saa salvestada.
Faili salvestamine pole võimalik.
Deleting file [2]
Kustutab faili [2].
Avoiding Pronouns
Wherever possible, avoid pronouns in error messages.
Examples:
English
Estonian
Do you want to...
Kas soovite ...
Standard Phrases in Error Messages
When translating standard phrases, standardize. Note that sometimes the US uses different forms to express the
same thing.
In a number of cases different synonymous English phrases might have the same equivalents in Estonian, or, the
same phrase might be translated differently depending on the context.