When using “between” to specify a date or number range, we must replace the hyphen with and. Incorrect: Demirkent served in senior executive roles between 1936-68. Correct: Demirkent served in senior executive roles between 1936 and 68. So, please do not add a hyphen between numbers or dates, if you are constructing the phrase with “between”. You may find a related article on dashes in here.
Dragoman prefers preceding initialisms with a definite article. An initialism is an abbreviation formed from initial letters. They require “the”, because they are pronounced letter by letter. Incorrect: Trump told world leaders to support overhauling U.N. Correct: Trump told world leaders to support overhauling the U.N. An acronym, on the other hand, is a word made up from the first letters of the name of something such as an organization. For example, NATO is an acronym for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Because they are pronounced as words, there is no need to precede them with definite article: […]
Only is often misplaced in a sentence. We must be careful about its usage to avoid confusing our readers. Learning correct usage of grammatical modifiers is a hard work and it is worth all the effort. Only should go right before the word or phrase it modifies. “Only I said I cannot attend the party” means that I was the only one to decline the invitation. “I only said I cannot attend the party” means that I said nothing but […]
Never begin a sentence with a numeral. There is one exception: a numeral that identifies a calendar year. When translating press releases or annual reports, we occasionally come across situations where we have to place the percentage at the beginning of the sentence. E.g.: Twenty-eight percent of the participants passed the test last year. Although this sentence is correct, it looks odd. Where possible, recast the sentence so that the numbers are expressed in figures. Better: Last year, 28 percent […]
Dragoman translators know that using “-tion of” endings will only result in clunky sentences. It also violates EU Guidelines on Clear Writing. The acquisition of a new language will help you improve your job prospects. Better: Acquiring a new language will help you improve your job prospects. You can further explore how you can avoid nominalizations and cast more active sentences here. Nominalization, or using a hidden verb as a noun is a common problem with uninitiated Turkish to English […]
American English and British English may have quite odd differences. Learning diferences is spelling and punctuation is hard work and requires a lof of reading and practise. One of these differences is about using punctuation with quotation marks. Here is a comparison. Dragoman translators know that in American English, punctuation goes inside the quotation marks, regardless of whether it is part of the quoted sentence or not, and in British English, punctuation that is not part of the quoted sentence […]
If you are building a bullet list in English, you also need to build a parallel construction in your bullet list. Now the source text may not always have it. This means you are expect to be a little creative to change the sentence structure. You do not have to delete or omit any part of the message. Check out this example: Incorrect: Our state-of-the-art hotel offers: Unparalleled location Matchless views of the Pacific You can check in anytime Correct: Our […]
Turkish source texts often end with “vardır, sahiptir, olmaktadır, bulunmaktadır, bulunur” etc. Some translators tend to start their translations with “There is…” which is usually unnecessary. We expect Dragoman translators to not to use “there” as a subject in order to avoid verbosity. The word “there” in the beginning of a sentence, almost always makes our sentences sloppy and wordy. Wordy: There is a 45 percent likelihood your store will be broken into. Better: Your store is 45-percent likely to be […]
When translating into English, we want Dragoman translators to check which English spelling style will be used in the translation. Your NUBUTO inbox shows UK or US English, so please pay attention to the target variety of English. English has many varieties, the most common being British English and American English. Although prefers American English in most of its Turkish to English translations, we also translate into British English (e.g. The British Council). We do not expect our translators to have a comprehensive grasp of […]
Dragoman translators prefer ordering elements of series in a sentence from short to long in order to make them easier to read. McKinsey has offices in 120+ cities in 60+ countries including the Czech Republic, Greece, United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Better: McKinsey has offices in 120+ cities in 60+ countries including Qatar, Greece, the Czech Republic and the United Arab Emirates. Goldman Sachs offers services in investment management, securities, asset management, prime brokerage, and securities underwriting. Better: Goldman Sachs […]
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