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Language General Style

Sentence Structure

Many, if not most, English sentences must be re-structured or re-phrased when translating into Romanian. Examples:

EN: The value entry already exists. Please enter a new name.

Correct: Valoarea introdusă există deja. Introduceţi un nume nou.

Incorrect: Valoarea introdusă deja există. Introduceţi un nume nou.

EN:The machine configuration has changed and should be restarted before this operation is attempted.

Correct: Configuraţia maşinii s-a modificat. Reporniţi înainte de a încerca această operaţie.

Incorrect: Configuraţia maşinii s-a modificat şi reporniţi înainte de a încerca această operaţie.

Use of Foreign Words

When there is a good Romanian word for something, use it! “Desktop” is “spaţiu de lucru”, “data processing” is “prelucrare date” etc. Filenames, applications etc. often keep their original names. Also, beware of new foreign words introduced in Romanian like “mouse” which has become “mouse” or “computer” which has become “computer”.

Numbered and Bulleted Lists

Numbered lists are useful for sequential steps and are often meant to show a hierarchical relationship. Most numbered lists are introduced by a main clause followed by a colon. If an item is a complete sentence, it should have ending punctuation. Example:

Pentru a converti marcatorii în numere şi invers:

1. Selectaţi elementele care conţin marcatorii sau numerele pe care doriţi să le modificaţi.

The examples below show the most common bulleted lists and how to punctuate and capitalize each one.

1. A main clause followed by colon, semicolon after the item, except the final one, which ends in period, items usually not capitalized.

    

   Textul poate fi aliniat:

                 – la stânga;

                 – la dreapta;

                 – centrat.

2. A main clause followed by colon, possible final punctuation of items when these are complete sentences and not a continuation of the main clause. This style is also used for listing a set of sections following.

Pentru a converti marcatorii în numere şi invers

1. Selectaţi elementele care conţin marcatorii sau numerele pe care doriţi să le modificaţi.
2. Pe bara de instrumente Formatting (Stabilire formate), executaţi una dintre operaţiile următoare:

• Pentru a converti marcatorii în numere, faceţi clic pe butonul Numbering (Numerotare).
• Pentru a converti numerele în marcatori, faceţi clic pe butonul Bullets (Marcatori).

          Word înlocuieşte marcatorii cu formatul de număr implicit.

In the above example, even if preceding a numbered list, the first sentence does not end with a colon because it is a heading.

Capitalization Rules

Use capitalization in the following cases:

• Proper names
• The first letter of a sentence, paragraph, heading, header, and footer,
• The first letter of a brand name/ proper name (for example, Excel, Microsoft).

Numbers, Date and Address Formats

Numbers

For Romanian, the decimal separator is a comma (1,54). For numbers smaller than 1, you must always put 0 before the decimal comma (0,15). The thousands separator is a period (1.500).

Days and Months

The names of days and months are not capitalized like in English. The Romanian week starts on Mondays. Also, sequential week numbers are commonly used. Example: luni din săptămâna 45 (Monday of week 45)

• Days of the week: luni, marţi, miercuri, joi, vineri, sâmbătă, duminică
• Months of the year: ianuarie, februarie, martie, aprilie, mai, iunie, iulie, august, septembrie, octombrie, noiembrie, decembrie
• Abbreviations are as follows: ian., feb., mar., apr., mai, iun., iul., aug., sep., oct., nov., dec. (these abbreviations are all followed by a period except mai)

The days of the week have no official three letters abbreviations.

Time

The traditional format for time in Romanian is the 24-hour clock. A colon should be used to separate hours, minutes, and seconds and a dash (hyphen) to indicate intervals. Examples:

• 8:35
• 17:20
• 9:30-18:00

Standard Date Format

• The short date format is d.MM.yyyy, example: 8.05.2015
• The long date format is dd. MMMM.yyyy, example: 8 mai 2015

  Note: Months are not capitalized (18 aprilie 2010)
  

Standard Phone Number Format

Telephone numbers are written in the following manner:

0040-21-1661199 (Country code- City Code- Local Number)

Standard Address Format

Romanian addresses are written in the following manner:

1. FirstName LastName
2. CompanyName
3. Street Name + number
4. PostalCode City/Street
5. Province
6. Country

Example:

1. Eugen Popescu
2. Prima Group
3. Calea Murgului nr. 18
4. 2400 Sibiu
5. Judeţul Sibiu
6. Romania

Units of Measurement

Units of Measurement

There should be a space after the value, before the unit, i.e. 2 cm (Note that mm = millimeter and m = med mera.) and 10 %, except for after a degree number 9(0°) when not followed by C or F (90 °C).

Punctuation Rules

Quotation Marks

Romanian typographical quotation marks (and their ALT codes) are:

• „ (0132) Opening quote
• ” (0148) Closing quote

Example: Pentru detalii referitoare la şabloane, vezi „Creare şi deschidere documente”, pag. 18.

Single quotation marks (‘ and ’) do not exist in Romanian.

Parentheses and Brackets

When a whole sentence is between parentheses, quotation marks or brackets, the period is placed inside. If only part of the sentence is between parentheses or quotation marks, the period is placed outside. Examples:

Dacă în caseta de dialog vedeţi afişat Word, faceţi clic pe butonul Eliminare. (Nu vă fie teamă să apăsaţi acest buton; el vă permite să adăugaţi sau să eliminaţi componente din Word sau să reinstalaţi sau să dezinstalaţi Word.)

Comutând în vizualizarea înaintea imprimării, se poate corecta aspectul vizual al documentului (vezi şi secţiunea anterioară „Salvarea, examinarea şi imprimarea unui document”).

Period and Commas

Periods and commas are followed by one space, not two. Example:

Pentru detalii, vezi „Crearea primului document Word”, pag. 26.

Spacing Before and After Punctuation

In typography, commas, periods, colons, semicolons, exclamation points, question marks and ellipsis immediately follow the word and are not preceded by a blank space. Romanian style does not allow two spaces after a period or any other punctuation mark.

Note: An en-dash (-) is separated from the words before and after it by a space.

Capitalization After Punctuation

The first word after period is always capitalized since it marks the beginning of a new sentence. However, it is unusual to capitalize a word after a colon or a semicolon. Examples:

EN: Note: These units have 2 USB ports only.

Correct: Notă: aceste unităţi au doar două porturi USB.

Incorrect: Notă: Aceste unităţi au doar două porturi USB.

EN: You have completed all the levels of this game; click here to start a new game.

Correct: Aţi finalizat toate nivelurile acestui joc; faceţi clic aici pentru a începe un joc nou.

Incorrect: Aţi finalizat toate nivelurile acestui joc; Faceţi clic aici pentru a începe un joc nou.

Compound Words

English often “stacks” several words, for example “a mail address data field”. Make sure you put the right words together and double-check its Romanian meaning. Example:

EN: Choose the Setup button to select a mail address data field.

RO: Alegeţi butonul Instalare pentru a selecta câmpul de date adresă corespondenţă.

Common Misspelled Words

The list below includes some of the most common misspelled words in Romanian. Please note that the list is not exhaustive and illustrates only some frequent examples. The linguist should always do thorough research when he/she is not sure about the correct spelling of a word. Examples:

1. Client Style Guides – Please refer to the specific instructions of the project, which should contain information on how to obtain client-specific style guides for Romanian.
2. Other Reference Materials – This section includes a list of useful dictionaries and translation references for the Romanian language. Please note that the list is not exhaustive and includes only some helpful language resources.

    

   Monolingual Dictionaries

   • Cambridge Dictionaries Online
   • Encyclopædia Britannica
   • yourDictionary.com
   • FOLDOC, Free On-line Dictionary of Computing

    

   Romanian References

   • DEX – Only rely on entries from the DEX 09 and DOOM 3.
   • Take all other sources as suggestions. Latest print versions of DEX, DOOM and
     Gramatica Academiei

    

   Other Helpful Dictionaries, Databases or Language Portals

   • Microsoft Language Portal
   • IATE, InterActive Terminology for Europe
   • EUR-Lex
   • linguee.com
   • proz.com