At Unbabel we have a unique approach to translation: each text submitted by a customer is translated by our Machine Translation system, and then corrected by our community of editors in an online platform. By editing the output of the software, the editors ensure the quality of the translations and confirm that the message is accurate (i.e., has the same meaning as the original), fluent (i.e., can be easily understood and sounds natural) and is in line with the style requested by the clients (i.e. respects their register and terminology). In order to help editors do the best job possible, we provide various types of information:

Customer instructions, which include the identification of the client and his requests to personalize the translation, such as the register that must be used to address the recipient of the message. Following these instructions is vital to deliver translations that match the client’s expectations.
Glossaries, which correspond to specific vocabulary and expressions used by the client, and that must be respected by the editors.
Translation Memories, which correspond to stored segments (expressions, sentences or paragraphs) that have previously been translated and accepted for customer usage. They are useful for ensuring consistency across translations.

We also have Smartcheck, which is an application that checks the grammar, morphology, orthography and style of the translations while being edited. By using a large set of rules, Smartcheck flags words or groups of words that may present some kind of issue.

Finally, in order to deliver the best possible translation, we also provide these guidelines about your language specifications. Please, read them carefully and always follow these instructions in your editions.

2. Grammar

2.1. Agreement

2.1.1. Tense, mood, aspect, person (for verbs)

Verbs must agree with their subjects in person, gender and number. Pay special attention to coordinated and subordinated constructions when there is no overt subject in the clause, and the verb must agree with the subject from another clause. These are the most problematic cases for Machine Translation (MT). Make sure to review and correct such errors.

Example

Source text: I collected all the information and reported this to the development team.

✘ Я собрал всю информацию и сообщили об этом команде разработчиков.

✓ Я собрал всю информацию и сообщил об этом команде разработчиков.

2.1.2. Gender and number (nouns and adjectives)

Adjectives modifying nouns must agree with them in gender, number and case. Sometimes (especially for proper names and glossary terms), MT makes agreement errors. Make sure to correct them.

Examples

Source text: Dear Marina!

✘ Уважаемый Марина!

✓ Уважаемая Марина!

Source text: I cannot find your account.

✘ Я не могу найти Ваш учётную запись.

✓ Я не могу найти вашу учётную запись.

2.1.3. Case (nouns and prepositions)

Verb arguments must be marked with either a certain case or preposition. Usually, subject is in Nominative; direct object in Accusative; recipient in Dative, and so on. But each verb has its own government model that describes which arguments are marked with which case/preposition. This model might not correspond to that of the original English verb. Please make sure to check that the case/preposition selection for the verb arguments is correct. Sometimes, you have to reorder the elements of the phrase because the Russian verb does not have a slot for a particular argument.

Example

Source text: Please reply to me with your order number.

✘ Пожалуйста, ответьте мне с вашим номером заказа.

✓ Пожалуйста, пришлите мне в ответ ваш номер заказа.

Prepositions also require assignment of a particular case to a dependent noun phrase. The most common problem of MT (especially for glossary terms) is that the noun phrase is kept in Nominative instead of getting the right case assignment from the verb or preposition. Please make sure to correct such errors.

Example

Source text: I apologize for this error and the inconvenience.

✘ Я сожалею об этой ошибке и неудобства.

✓ Я сожалею об этой ошибке и неудобствах.

2.2. Determiners

Russian does not have articles to mark definiteness status of a noun phrase. Usually, articles do not have to be translated. In rare cases, when this can lead to ambiguities, you can use demonstrative pronouns (этот, тот) to mark definiteness.

English texts may require personal possessive pronouns (‘your’, ‘his’, etc.) to be present; however, they may not be necessary in Russian. In such cases, it is better to remove them to make the sentence sound more natural (if it does not lead to ambiguities).

Example

Source text: We will refund the amount you paid while making your purchase.

✘ Мы вернём вам сумму, которую вы заплатили, когда делали вашу/свою покупку.

✓ Мы вернём вам сумму, которую вы заплатили, когда делали покупку.

2.3. Prepositions

Pay attention to the preposition government. Each preposition requires a particular case to be assigned to the dependent noun phrase. Some prepositions (в, за) allow different case assignment but with different meaning. Make sure that the case assignment corresponds to the intended meaning.

Example

Source text: We are glad that you play our game.

✘ Мы рады, что вы играете в нашей игре.

✓ Мы рады, что вы играете в нашу игру.

2.4. Pronouns

Pronouns usually need to be translated. One exclusion from this rule are personal possessive pronouns (see section “2. Determiners”). Another type of pronouns that can be omitted is the first person pronouns (я, мы) serving as a subject for verbs in the Present or Future tense. Please note that the usage of first person pronouns should be decided on a case-by-case basis. Sometimes, they should be present, sometimes (especially in idiomatic constructions), it is better to remove them.

Examples

Source text: I will tell the development team about your problem.

✘ Сообщу команде разработчиков о вашей проблеме.

✓ Я сообщу команде разработчиков о вашей проблеме.

Source text: We apologize for any inconvenience caused.

✘ Мы приносим извинения за доставленные неудобства.

✓ Приносим извинения за доставленные неудобства.

Please, also take into account that subject pronouns must not be dropped for verbs in the Past tense. Also, third person pronouns must not be dropped unless they are dummy (expletive) pronouns. In such case they should not be translated.

Example

Source text: It's possible that the notifications have been sent to the spam folder.

✘ Это возможно, что уведомления ушли в папку со спамом.

✓ Возможно, (что) уведомления ушли в папку со спамом.

2.5. Verbs

Please pay attention to the tense and aspect of verbs when they are translated by MT. Normally the verb tense in Russian should correspond to that in the original English sentence. Translate Past into Past, Present into Present and so on. When MT does not follow this correspondence, please make sure to correct it. For example, MT often translates Future Perfect tense into Past, but it must be Future instead.

Example

Source text: Once the parcel has been dispatched from the warehouse, I will let you know.

✘ Когда посылку отправили со склада, я пришлю вам уведомление.

✓ Когда посылку отправят со склада, я пришлю вам уведомление.

Present tense in conditional clauses (after ‘if’ or ‘when’) corresponds in Russian to either Present or Future. Selecting the right tense depends on the context.

Example

Source text: Pack the goods to return when UPS delivers a new parcel to you.

✘ Упакуйте товар для возврата к моменту, когда UPS доставляет вам новую посылку.

✓ Упакуйте товар для возврата к моменту, когда UPS доставит вам новую посылку.

Source text: Let me know if you have any additional questions.

✘ Сообщите мне, если у Вас возникнут дополнительные вопросы.

✓ Сообщите мне, если у Вас есть дополнительные вопросы.

Also, select the right aspect of the verb carefully. Usually, Perfect tenses should be translated with Perfect aspect, and Continuous tenses with Imperfect aspect. Aspect for other tenses should be selected depending on the context. Please correct MT when it puts wrong aspect on the verb.

Example

Source text: I refunded 10% of your order as compensation.

✘ Я возмещал 10% вашего заказа в качестве компенсации.

✓ Я возместил 10% вашего заказа в качестве компенсации.

3. Orthography

3.1. Abbreviations

There are three general methods of abbreviating words in Russian.

Keep the beginning of the word (up to a vowel) and replace the rest with a dot. For well-known measure names the dot is not used.

Examples

Source text: Continued on p. 11 (on page 11)

✘ Продолжение на с 11

✓ Продолжение на с. 11 (на странице 11)

✓ Продолжение на стр. 11

Source text: 23 m long (23 meters)

✘ 23 м. длиной

✓ 23 м длиной (23 метра)

Some abbreviations should be expanded because there is no standard abbreviation for the corresponding Russian word.

Example

Source text: 2 oz. (ounces)

✘ 2 ун.

✘ 2 унц.

✓ 2 унции

Keep the beginning and the ending of the word and replace the middle with a hyphen.

Example

Source text: qty (quantity)

✘ кво

✓ кол-во (количество)

✓ к-во (количество)

✓ кол.

For acronyms, keep the first letter of each word and capitalize them. Some acronyms are translated (i.e. abbreviated from the Russian translation of the full name), others are transliterated letter by letter.

Examples

Source text: UN (United Nations)

✘ ЮН

✓ ООН (Организация объединённых наций)

Source text: NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)

✘ ОСАД (Организация североатлантического договора)

✓ НАТО

Always try to find the official translation of the acronym. If there is none, or you are in doubt, keep the acronym untranslated and add the full translation of the expanded acronym in parentheses.

Some information about abbreviations in Russian can be found here.

3.2. Capitalization

Capitalization in Russian should apply to proper names only (i.e. names of people, organizations, geographical entities, etc.). Common names normally should not be capitalized. Note that in English certain common names (such as weekdays, months, nationalities, languages, cardinal points, etc.) are written with capital letter. These must not be capitalized in Russian.

Example

Source text: We sent you a letter on October 4, 2017.

✘ Мы отправили вам письмо 4 Октября 2017 года.

✓ Мы отправили вам письмо 4 октября 2017 года.

Capitalization can be used to highlight certain words in the text. When you encounter non-standard capitalization in the original text make sure to preserve it in the translation.

Example

Source text: Specify YOUR address on the envelope.

✘ Укажите свой адрес на конверте.

✓ Укажите СВОЙ адрес на конверте.

3.3. Compounds

Russian compounds are usually written together or with a hyphen. For exact rules please check this document.

Example

Source text: extraordinary

✘ экстра-ординарный

✘ экстра ординарный

✓ экстраординарный

Source text: half a meter

✘ пол-метра

✘ пол метра

✓ полметра

Source text: red brown color

✘ краснокоричневый цвет

✘ красно коричневый цвет

✓ красно-коричневый цвет

3.4. Foreign words

Names of brands and products can be kept in English even if there is a well-known Russian translation. They should be written without quotation marks. But please follow the customer guidelines and the glossary. MT often puts quotation marks around foreign words or terms from the glossary. Make sure to remove them. But keep quotation marks if they are present in the original text.

Example

Source text: More about Rovio

✘ Подробнее о "Rovio"

✓ Подробнее о Rovio

3.5. Numerals

Regarding numerals format (written in numbers or words), you must always respect the source text: if they are written as digits in the source text, this should be maintained in the translation; on the other hand, if they are written as words, they should be translated to the target language.

The official norm in Russian is to use a comma as a decimal separator. Even though it is common to use a dot with the influence of English, please avoid it in order to prevent any possible confusion or inconsistency.

Example

Source text: The value of pi is 3.14.

✘ Значение pi равно 3.14.

✓ Значение pi равно 3,14.

Also to avoid confusion, please use whitespaces to indicate groups of thousands.

Example

Source text: The total cost will be about 18,700 rubles both ways.

✘ Общая стоимость будет около 18,700 р. туда-обратно

✓ Общая стоимость будет около 18 700 р. туда-обратно

Also note that the Russian term for “billion” is “миллиард”, not “биллион”. “Dozens” (plural) usually should be translated as “десятки”, not “дюжины”.

3.6. Symbols

Although names of units of measure (м, р., кВт) require a whitespace between the number and the unit, certain special symbols such as percent (%), degree (°), minutes (') or seconds (‘') are written without a whitespace.

Example

Source text: I refunded 10% of your order as compensation.

✘ Я возместил 10 % вашего заказа в качестве компенсации.

✓ Я возместил 10% вашего заказа в качестве компенсации.

Separators such as slash (/) also do not require a whitespace on either side while symbols that are written before the number (e.g. №, §) do require a whitespace after them.

4. Punctuation

4.1. How to use punctuation marks

Almost any punctuation mark (except hyphen) should be followed by a whitespace. The most problematic punctuation mark is the comma. Please pay attention to the following rules:

Subordinate clauses must be always enclosed in commas. Clauses starting with subordinating conjunctions (что, который, etc.) must have a comma in the beginning as well as at the end. Do not forget to put the comma at the end of the clause. This also applies for participial modifiers (причастные и деепричастные обороты).

Examples

Source text: The reason you are faced with these difficulties is the erroneous operation of our spam control system.

✘ Причина, по которой вы столкнулись с этими трудностями заключается в ошибочной работе нашей системы контроля спама.

✓ Причина, по которой вы столкнулись с этими трудностями, заключается в ошибочной работе нашей системы контроля спама.

Source text: To make it easier for us to process your parcel when it arrives.

✘ Чтобы нам было легче обрабатывать вашу посылку когда она поступит.

✓ Чтобы нам было легче обрабатывать вашу посылку, когда она поступит.

Coordinated clauses with different subjects must be separated by a comma even if they are connected by a coordinated conjunction. On the other hand, coordination within the clause (однородные члены предложения) with a single coordinating conjunction is written without a comma.

Example

Source text: Let me know and I will be happy to help.

✘ Дайте мне знать и я буду рад помочь.

✓ Дайте мне знать, и я буду рад помочь.

Source text: I apologize for any inconvenience and wish you a good day.

✘ Приношу извинения за доставленные неудобства, и желаю вам удачного дня.

✓ Приношу извинения за доставленные неудобства и желаю вам удачного дня.

Parenthetic constructions (вводные слова) such as “например” must be enclosed in commas. This is also a rule for “пожалуйста”, which (unlike its English counterpart “please”), always requires commas on both sides.

Example

Source text: Please let me know if there is anything else I can help you with.

✘ Пожалуйста сообщите мне, если я могу ещё чем-то вам помочь.

✓ Пожалуйста, сообщите мне, если я могу ещё чем-то вам помочь.

Em dashes (—), en dashes (–) and hyphens (-) are not interchangeable and have fixed rules of use.

Em Dash (—)

Used to indicate a pause or break in thought, set off phrases or clauses, or create emphasis. It requires a space on either side.

An em dash can be used to separate a nominal predicate from its subject (in addition or instead of это).

Example

Source text: Time is the best healer.

✘ Время - лучший лекарь.

✓ Время — лучший лекарь.

Source text: The primary purpose of a business is to maximize profits.

✘ Основная цель бизнеса - получение максимальной прибыли.

✘ Основная цель бизнеса получение максимальной прибыли.

✓ Основная цель бизнеса — получение максимальной прибыли.

Source text: My elder sister is a teacher.

✘ Моя старшая сестра учительница.

✓ Моя старшая сестра — учительница.

Source text: Romance is walking under the moon.

✘ Романтика это прогулки под луной.

✓ Романтика — это прогулки под луной.

En Dash (–)

Used to indicate a range of numbers, such as inclusive values, dates, or pages. No spaces before and after are required.

Example

Source text: I work 30–40 hour work weeks.

✘ Я работаю по 30-40 часов в неделю.

✓ Я работаю по 30–40 часов в неделю.

Source text: The analysis of the sales in the years 2015–2018.

✘ Анализ продаж за 2015-2018 гг.

✓ Анализ продаж за 2015–2018 гг.

Hyphen (-)

Used to connect compound words. No spaces before and after are required.

Example

Source text: bright red

✘ ярко красный

✘ ярко – красный

✓ ярко-красный

Source text: invisible man

✘ человек невидимка

✘ человек — невидимка

✓ человек-невидимка

The rules for other punctuation marks are pretty much similar to English so they can be transferred as is. Please make sure not to put a period instead of an exclamation mark and vice versa.

4.2. Punctuation in greetings and closings

In Russian, after a greeting, you should use an exclamation mark. We can observe a high frequency of occurrence of a comma, imitating the English source text. However, according to the classical Russian grammar rules, an exclamation mark is required. After the greeting, you should start the new sentence with a capital letter.

Example

Source text: Dear Andrey,

Thank you for your reply.

✘ Уважаемый Андрей,

спасибо за ваш ответ.

✓ Уважаемый Андрей!

Cпасибо за ваш ответ.

5. Register

5.1. Grammatical and Lexical Registers

"Register" refers to the level of formality used in a text. The selection of either formal or informal register shows how our clients address their customers and represents the voice of the brand. Register may vary depending on the company, the brand, the service they offer, the customers, and the target language.

We make a distinction between grammatical and lexical register.

"Lexical register" is about which words or expressions we use in a given context, since some words and expressions do have a degree of formality or colloquialism. For example greetings differ in many languages according to the formality of a situation.
"Grammatical register" refers to the pronouns and verb conjugation we use. Many languages – other than English – have 2 or more different grammatical registers. In Russian, a distinction between вы and ты does exist, however ты is restricted merely to very intimate communication between friends, family and to address children, therefore it is not relevant in customer service communication and we do not use it at Unbabel. Even for "business informal" register, we will use the pronoun вы and the corresponding verb conjugation.

5.2. Formal Register

Category	Examples	Type of Register
Personal pronouns	вы (lowercase)	Grammatical
Verbs (person used to conjugate the verb)	Second person plural	Grammatical
Possessive pronouns	ваш (lowercase)	Grammatical
Greetings	Здравствуйте, Добрый день, Уважаемый/ая … (Dear …)	Lexical
Closings	До свидания, Всего хорошего, С уважением	Lexical

Although some Russians would capitalize Вы in some very formal contexts, at Unbabel we will only use the uncapitalized version.

5.3. Informal Register

Category	Examples	Type of Register
Personal pronouns	вы (lowercase)	Grammatical
Verbs (person used to conjugate the verb)	Second person plural	Grammatical
Possessive pronouns	ваш (lowercase)	Grammatical
Greetings	Добрый день, Здравствуйте	Lexical
Closings	До свидания, Всего хорошего	Lexical

A genuinely informal pronoun does exist in Russian (ты), but as it is restricted only to communication among friends, peers or with children, it will be perceived as offensive in customer service communication, therefore we do not use it at Unbabel.

6. Localization challenges

6.1. Proper nouns

Proper nouns refer to unique entities, such as persons, places, organizations, brands, events, etc. As foreign proper nouns are concerned, languages may adopt different rules regarding whether they should be translated or kept in the original language. When editing a text, you should follow your languages rules for all different types of proper nouns listed below. However, please note that if there is a glossary provided by the client that includes these types of units, you should always apply the glossary items.

6.1.1. Persons

Persons’ names and surnames of Russian origin should be transliterated; all other names and surnames should be left in their original script.

Examples

Source text: Dear Andrey!
✘ Уважаемый Andrey!
✓ Уважаемый Андрей!

Source text: Hello, Julie
✘ Здравствуйте, Жули
✓ Здравствуйте, Julie

Source text: Good day, Julie
✘ Добрый день, Жули
✓ Добрый день, Julie

6.1.2. Places

Place names that have an equivalent in Russian must be translated. Otherwise they can be transliterated or kept in English.
Regarding addresses:

Country names should be translated, as this could help the postal services in the origin country.
The rest of the address should be left untranslated.

Examples

✘ Ленинградская обл., Гатчинский р-н, Сиверский

✓ Leningradskaya obl., Gatshinskiy r-n, Siverskiy

✘ улица кастильо 52 1250-069 Лиссабон Португалия

✘ улица Castilho 52 1250-069 Лиссабон Португалия

✘ Rua Castilho 52 1250-069 Lisboa Portugal

✓ Rua Castilho 52 1250-069 Lisboa Португалия

6.1.3. Organizations

Organization complex names (e.g. University of Birmingham) normally should be translated. Try to find an official translation of the organization name into Russian. If it does not exist provide your own translation. Note that this does not apply to brand names such as Microsoft or Sony.

Example

Source text: I studied at the University of Birmingham.

✘ Я учился в University of Birmingham.

✓ Я учился в Бирмингемском университете.

6.1.4. Brands and products

Brands and products should be kept in English even when there is a well-known Russian equivalent.

Example

Source text: More information on Rovio

✘ Подробнее о Ровио

✓ Подробнее о Rovio

6.1.5. Other entities

Names of other entities such as art (paintings), events (festivals, theatre plays, etc.), names of boats (e.g. Titanic) should be translated if possible. Some names can (or should) be transliterated.

Examples

Source text: The famous Dali painting “The Persistence of Memory”

✘ Знаменитая картина Дали “The Persistence of Memory”

✓ Знаменитая картина Дали “Постоянство памяти”

Source text: Oktoberfest

✘ Oktoberfest

✘ Октябрьский праздник

✓ Октоберфест

6.2. Acronyms and initials

When the target acronyms exist in Russian, you should translate it (for example: AIDS → СПИД). On the other hand, when the acronym doesn’t exist in Russian, you should keep the source abbreviation.

6.3. Date format

Short date format in English is generally “mm/dd/yyyy”. When translating into Russian it should be changed to “dd.mm.yyyy” (dd for day, mm for month number, yyyy for year).

Example

Source text: 10/04/2017 (October 4, 2017)

✘ 10/04/2017

✓ 04.10.2017

Long date format in English is generally “Month dd, yyyy”. When translating into Russian, it should be changed to “d month yyyy г.” Note that the month name in Russian must not be capitalized, and the year should be followed by “г.” or “года”.

Example

Source text: We sent you a letter on October 4, 2017.

✘ Мы отправили вам письмо в Октябре 04, 2017.

✓ Мы отправили вам письмо 4 октября 2017 г.

6.4. Time format

Time format in English is usually 12-hour with am/pm modifiers. It should be changed to Russian 24-hour format without modifiers. Use a colon to separate the hours from the minutes.

Example

Source text: We work from 8 am to 5 pm.

✘ Мы работаем с 8 утра до 5 вечера.

✓ Мы работаем с 8:00 до 17:00.

6.5. Measures

Measures should never be converted into any other measure unit, unless expressly requested by the client.

Measure unit names and symbols should be translated if there is an equivalent term in Russian. There should be a whitespace between the number and the measure unit.

Example

Source text: You ordered a 32 mm watch.

✘ Вы заказали часы размером 32mm.

✓ Вы заказали часы размером 32 мм.

6.6. Currency

Currency values should be left as they are in the source text, only translating the currency: for example, 100 euros → 100 евро.

Example

Source text: The price for two will be 200 euros.

✘ Цена за двоих составит 200 euro.

✘ Цена за двоих составит 14 000 рублей.

✓ Цена за двоих составит 200 евро.

Currency symbols (€, $, £, р., ₽, etc.) are written after the number and should be preceded by a whitespace.

Example

Source text: $100

✘ $100

✓ 100 $

Do not translate currency initials (USD, GBP, RUB, INR, DKK, NOK, etc.) as they are a convention accepted worldwide. They are also written after the number and should be preceded by a whitespace.

Example

Source text: 100 USD

✘ 100USD

✓ 100 USD

7. Tricky cases

English “any”

The English word“any” in negative sentences corresponds to Russian “никакой”, not “какой-либо” or “какой-нибудь”. MT rarely follows this rule and usually translates “any” as “никакой”. Make sure to change “какой-либо” to “никакой” when appropriate.

Example

Source text: I do not have any more questions.

✘ У меня больше нет каких-либо вопросов.

✓ У меня больше нет никаких вопросов.

The use of "ё"

Please note that "ё" is a separate letter from "е". Although it is allowed to write "е" instead of "ё" in any word, note that the other way around is not possible. It is however recommended to use "ё" in case "е" can lead to ambiguities, such as "всё" (everything) and "все" (everybody).

On the other hand, the use of "ё" instead of "е" is an error.