BR Portuguese Style Guide
BRASILIAN PORTUGUESE LOCALIZATION STYLE GUIDE FOR SECONDLIFE and XStreetSL
Introduction
The purpose of this guide is to provide stylistic guidelines for in-house translators and volunteers working on the Viewer, web pages, KB articles, e-mails and wiki pages of Second Life and XStreetSL. By style, we refer to preferred writing techniques to be used on various content types. By tone, we refer to the way Second Life residents should be addressed. Both the style guide and the glossary should be used at all times.
Punctuation
The purpose of this section is to list the most important rules as well as rules that are specific to Second Life.
1. Commas
Use commas to separate elements in a series consisting of three or more elements with a similar grammatical function. When one of the coordinating conjunctions “e”, “ou” joins the last two elements in a series, do not use a comma before the conjunction. Use a comma before the coordinating conjunction only if it is repeated in the sentence or if the elements do not have the same grammatical function.
Example:
Quando estiver dentro do Second Life, você vai descobrir um mundo virtual ativo, cheio de pessoas, experiências e oportunidades únicas.
2. Colons
Colons should be used before lists and explanations.
Do not use a capital letter after the colon, even after “Nota” or “Aviso”, "Atenção", "Administração" etc., except if the text is at the beginning of a paragraph.
Example:
Nota: a lista das faturas pendentes não é a lista de pedidos de compra.
3. Quotation Marks
Please use brasilian portuguese quotation marks (abre e fecha aspas, «»).
For nested quotations, use English double quotation marks (“…”).
Non-breaking spaces should be used between the chevrons and the quoted text.
Punctuation marks that do not belong to the quoted text are always placed outside the quotation marks.
Example:
No Second Life, você pode criar e personalizar o seu personagem 3D, também chamado de "avatar".
4. Spacing/Non-breaking spaces
- All double punctuation marks (quotation marks, colons, semi colons, question marks and exclamation marks) must be preceded by a non-breaking space.
To insert a non-breaking space, press CTRL+SHIFT+SPACEBAR, type ALT+0160 in a word doc; In html, enter &+nbsp+;
Example 1: Quais são os itens para os quais Linden Lab não cobra IVA?
Example 2: O nosso número de IVA é: EU826011179.
Example 3: Benvindo a Second Life!
Example 4: Se o seu avatar não aparece totalmente carregado, parecido com uma nuvem, um fenômeno chamado "being Ruthed".
- Use non-breaking spaces between words that should not carry over different lines.
If two words are connected by a non-breaking space, most programs will keep them together, even if subsequent editing causes line breaks to change.
- Use non-breaking spaces in the cases below:
- As a thousand separator
- Between a unit of measure or currency and the corresponding number
- Between any items that should not carry across separate lines
Example: Pedidos de um montante superior a US$ 10.000 não pode ser processado pela loja.
5. Lists
Bulleted and numbering lists should follow the style of brasilian portuguese lists, e.g., a semi-colon should be inserted at the end of each segment of the list except for the last item, which ends with a period.
The first letter of each item should start with a lower case, unless all segments of the list form a complete sentence.
Use parallel structure, e.g., if one segment starts with a verb, all should begin with a verb.
Example 1:
O histórico de sua conta mostra:
- Todas as transações que você fez;
- Se você ainda não pagou o IVA;
- A taxa de IVA aplicável no momento;
- O montante do IVA cobrado, para cada transação.
But…
Example 2:
Nota:
- A região passará a ser de propriedade da Universidade e o avatar que dirige a ilha no Second Life deve ser um funcionário certificado.
- A atividade deve incidir sobre a educação em relação a "atividade" que a universidade possui na ilha.
- Como mencionado acima, não são aplicados descontos individuais, tais são também incluídos educadores que querem comprar uma ilha para uso pessoal, e desenvolvedores que desejam adquirir uma ilha para a instituição.
6. Abbreviations
Only very common abbreviations should be used. Insert a space before measurement symbols. Here is a list of the most common abbreviations which can be used:
ex. exemplo
etc. etcetera
Sr. Senhor
Sra. Senhora
Srta Senhorita
n°. número
pág. página
Soc. Sociedade
1 ° primeiro
1º, 2º primeiro, segundo
km kilômetro
m metro
m² metro quadrado
cm centimetro
mm milimetro
kg kilograma
g grama
Kb kilobyte
Mb megabyte
MHz megahertz
h hora
min. minuto
sec. segundo
r. rua
Av. avenida
Lgo. Largo
Par. Parágrafo
For abbreviations of days, months and currencies please see the Formatting section below.
7. Acronyms and abbreviations
- Acronyms:
An acronym is a group of initials, each representing a word. They should be written in capital letters without periods or spaces. Acronyms should not be translated. Only the most common acronyms should be used in Italian and should be followed by their full spelling in parentheses the first time they appear on a page or an e-mail.
Here are some Italian acronyms commonly found on the Italian site, viewer and KB articles:
«IVA» imposto sobre o valor acrescentado
MI Mensagem Instantânea (IM - Instant Message)
FAQ Frequently Asked Questions
S.A. Sociedade Anônima
Ltda sociedade Limitada
Cep Código Postal
Nota Nota:
- Abbreviations:
Abbreviations such as "SL" or "inworld", "av" or "avi", "tp" should be avoided as they may confuse users (especially new ones!) They should be replaced by regular expressions such as "Second Life", "no mundo virtual", "'avatar'", "teletransporte".
8. Brackets (parentheses)
- Parentheses should be used to clarify statements or provide additional information.
Example:
O Second Life tem muitas lojas onde se pode comprar tudo o que você precisa para personalizar o seu avatar (cabelo, silhueta, pele, etc.)
- Use only regular parentheses () for parenthetical notes. Do not use braces [] or curly braces {}.
- Angled brakets <> are used to show snippets of code within text.
9. Capital letters
The source text uses capital letters to convey important messages. In Portuguese, such messages would be perceived as rude and should be avoided.
Example:
English: The Basic Access Account is FREE.
To be avoided: a conta básica é GRATUITA.
Preferred: a conta básica é gratuita.
10. SECOND LIFE specific punctuation rules
When referring to a Second Life page or feature, a button, or a link, do not use quotation mark as in the English. Instead, start the name of the page, link or functionality with a capital letter.
Example:
English: Go into SL and click on the "Find" button
To be avoided: Entre no SL e clique o botão de "Busca"
Preferred: Entre no SL e clique o botão de Busca
Formatting
1. Dates
- In portuguese, the date format is DD MM YYYY and not MM DD YYYY as in English.
Example: 28 março 2009
- For the abbreviated from, use slashes (/) as separators, and use zeroes (0) for days and months from 1 to 9.
Example: 24/06/04
- Days and months take an initial capital in Portuguese.
The abbreviations of the months and days of the week are as follows.
Example:
Jan. Feb. Mar. Abr. Mar. Jun. Jul. Ago. Set. Out. Nov. Dez.
Seg. Ter. Qua. Qui. Sex. Sab. Dom.
2. Time
Time should be expressed following the rules in your target language.
English examples: at 8:00 a.m. at 8 p.m. 12 noon
Brasilian portuguese examples: às 8:00h às 21:00h ao meio-dia (or 12:00h ao meio dia)
Please note that 9:00h da noite for 21:00h is also an acceptable format, but the 24 hours system is preferred
3. Numbers
Follow portuguese conventions for numbers with four or more digits.
English examples: 1,000 10,000 25,389,572
Portuguese examples: 1000 10.000 100 256 865
Please note that in portuguese a period separates each group of three digits 1.000 but is common a straight four digits if the number is not exceeding that length. Comma are just used for decimal separators.
4. Currencies
- Currency symbols should be placed before the amount and preceded by a non-breaking space.
English example: USD 50
Portuguese example: USD 50 (or US$ 50)
- Use a period for thousand separators and a comma for decimal separators.
English example: USD 2000.50
Portuguese example: USD 2.000,50
Viewer, web pages, e-mails
1. Style and tone
- The style of the viewer, web pages, and e-mails should simple, direct, and clear.
- The tone should be engaging and friendly.
- The 2nd person of the singular, in non formal form ("você" form) should be used.
- Both style and tone should be consistent throughout the application, and all web and KB articles, as well as e-mails.
RULE 1:
Use "real world" language, and not overly "techie" or "robot-like".
If the source English is too technical, unclear, or confusing, do not hesitate to simplify it.
Example 1:
English: Inventory fetch from server timed out. Retry?
portuguese (to be avoided): O período de extração do inventário a partir do servidor excedido. Tentar novamente?
Italian (preferred): O carregamento do inventário a partir do servidor excedeu o tempo normal. Tentar novamente?
RULE 2:
The tone should not be overly formal but not too casual or too colloquial. It should always be polite.
Example:
English: Oops!You tried to wear a [TYPE] and it did not load. Don't panic. Try again in a minute to give things a chance to settle down
portuguese (to be avoided): Opa! Você tentou usar um [tipo], mas não foi carregado. Não entre em pânico. Tente novamente em um minuto, para ver se o problema foi resolvido.
portuguese (preferred): Desculpe. Você tentou usar um vestido / objeto ([tipo]), mas não foi carregado. Tente novamente em um minuto.
Rule 3:
The content should be accurate, precise, encouraging, and user focused.
When the source English is unclear, or "complicated", try to make your translation simpler and "accessible" to a broad audience.
We are addressing residents from all levels of experience, and not Second Life experts.
Always try to put yourself in the shoes of a new user.
Example:
English: Simulator primitive usage
Portuguese (to be avoided): Utilização dos "primitivos" no simulador
Portuguese (preferred): Primitivos usados no terreno
2. User interface
RULE 1:
When steps to follow are given, UI elements should be separated by a > symbol.
English example: Invite People to this Group using the 'Invite New Person...' button in the Members & Roles tab > Members sub-tab.
portuguese example: Convide outros residentes neste grupo clicando na opção Convide um novo residente na aba de membros e funções> na sub-aba Membros
RULE 2:
Buttons should be kept short. If a verb is used, the second person form should be used.
English example: Invite New Person...
Portuguese example: Convide um residente...
RULE 3:
When referring to a UI element, in Italian, only the first letter of the UI element should be capitalized
English example: Create New Notice
Portuguese example: Crias uma notícia
RULE 4:
In Portuguese, localization results in text expansion (about 30%), which means that many Second Life menus, windows, buttons etc. might end up truncated.
While translating UI elements, try to use the shortest possible translation (no longer than English) when possible and if doing so does not affect the quality of the translation.
3. Rules about Terminology
Expired terminology
As Second Life has matured, Linden-favored terms have changed as well. When translating, please sure to be consistant in the terminology that is used and do not use "expired" terminology.
Use:
- "Região" ("regions") instead of "sims" or "simulators" when referring to a single region.
- "Residentes” ("residents") instead of "usuários" (users), "assinantes" ("subscribers"), "clientes" ("customers"), "avatars", etc.
- "Região Privada" ("private regions") instead of "ilha" ("islands"), “ilha privada” (private islands), etc.
- "Linden Dollars" instead of "dinheiro" ("money"), "dollares","lindens", etc.
- "L$" instead of "$", when denoting Linden Dollars.
- "US$" instead of "$" when denoting US dollars.
Second Life specific terminology
A few terms were "invented" for Second Life and are not part of the English vocabulary.
Here is how to translate them for now:
- To rez: rezzar
- Rezzed: rezzado
- In-world (also used: inworld, iw): no mundo virtual
Note about the use of the expression "real world":
In English, the term "real world" is often used to refer to the "physical" world (as opposed to the virtual world).
In portuguese we will use the same terminology: no mundo real
In the same way, when the source English refers to residents' real first and last name, in portuguese we'll talk about "o seu nome e sobrenome no mundo real".
What to capitalize?
- Proper nouns: Second Life, Linden Lab.
- Acronyms: IM, IVA etc.
- The first letter of Second Life Region names: Ahern
- The first letter of each term that identifies a particular button or menu item within the Second Life client: menu Modificar, botão de IM etc.
Menus, pie menus, windows, dialogs, tabs, buttons, fields
- Menu (Menu in portuguese): appear at the top of the Second Life window.
- Pie Menu (Menus em pizza in portuguese): wheel of selections that shows up whenever you right-click on something in-world.
- Window (Janela in portuguese): window that appears internally within the Second Life window, i.e. The Inventory window or the Search window.
- Dialog (Janela de Diálogo in portuguese): blue box that appears in the corner whenever something happens in Second Life (when someone or something tries to give you inventory or if it turns out you can't sit on that thing you wanted to sit on etc.)
- Tab (Aba in portuguese): tab that lives inside the windows in Second Life.
- Button (Botão in portuguese): button that appears in the UI.
- Fields (Campos in portuguese): pretty much anything used to provide input to Second Life that's not a button is a field.
Knowledge Base articles
There are two basic types of Knowledge Base article: the ones that answer a specific question ("Come criar vestimenta?") and the ones that give some general knowledge about a topic ("FAQ para novos proprietários de terra").
The rules governing the tone and style of Knowledge Base articles are the same as the ones for the Viewer.
Note that the style of KB articles can be very familiar and unclear at times.
Please keep in mind that residents reading these articles are looking for an answer to a question they have. Therefore, try to be as clear and concise as possible, even if you use humour here and there.