English speakers of the fedi.
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English speakers of the fedi. In a software with the interface in English, Reading a menu with verbs such as Save, Open, Close, Edit, Format etc., do you read them as imperative (an order: "do this") or as an infinitive (the "base form" of the verb, like "to do this")?
Are you a native speaker or have English as a second language?
#Dev #ux #ui #software #interface #translation #uiux #uxui #gui
@eltonfc I don't know if I speak English at all, because I have no idea what imperative or infinitive should mean in that context
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English speakers of the fedi. In a software with the interface in English, Reading a menu with verbs such as Save, Open, Close, Edit, Format etc., do you read them as imperative (an order: "do this") or as an infinitive (the "base form" of the verb, like "to do this")?
Are you a native speaker or have English as a second language?
#Dev #ux #ui #software #interface #translation #uiux #uxui #gui
@eltonfc Oooooo.
I come from the generation in Britain that wasn't formally taught any advanced grammar in our native language.
I *think* I go by imperative. I will answer the poll in that way shortly.
But also, these menu items are so abstracted, and often shown with only a symbol, that I often don't think of them with the meanings of the words, really.
Save: I won't lose my work.
Open: browse through my folder structure to find what I want.
Close: "I don't want this" -
@eltonfc Oooooo.
I come from the generation in Britain that wasn't formally taught any advanced grammar in our native language.
I *think* I go by imperative. I will answer the poll in that way shortly.
But also, these menu items are so abstracted, and often shown with only a symbol, that I often don't think of them with the meanings of the words, really.
Save: I won't lose my work.
Open: browse through my folder structure to find what I want.
Close: "I don't want this"@eltonfc oddly if I am thinking about software in German, I think I expect the infinitive
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English speakers of the fedi. In a software with the interface in English, Reading a menu with verbs such as Save, Open, Close, Edit, Format etc., do you read them as imperative (an order: "do this") or as an infinitive (the "base form" of the verb, like "to do this")?
Are you a native speaker or have English as a second language?
#Dev #ux #ui #software #interface #translation #uiux #uxui #gui
But there’s confusion within the question: I click save to save my changes which is imperative - computer do this.
When I look at the menu it offers me choices - this is how to…What I want is to know how to so that I can issue the command.
So I don’t even know if my answer is the same from one minute to the next.
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Iff English is your second language, how are these verbs tusually translated to *your* language in software interfaces?
@eltonfc I've chosen "infinitive in my language", which is mostly true, but sometimes they are translated as nouns.
And I hope "second language" which sounds very vague for me means plainly "foreign", i.e. "not unconsciously learned in childhood".
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English speakers of the fedi. In a software with the interface in English, Reading a menu with verbs such as Save, Open, Close, Edit, Format etc., do you read them as imperative (an order: "do this") or as an infinitive (the "base form" of the verb, like "to do this")?
Are you a native speaker or have English as a second language?
#Dev #ux #ui #software #interface #translation #uiux #uxui #gui
@eltonfc @santi It's funny, if you made me just answer quickly, I'd say imperative is the closer of the two. But, thinking of infinitives as “verbal nouns," that noun-ish sense is probably how I think of it. I suspect that's a shift over decades from “I'm telling the computer to do this" to “This is the place where certain things are done.”
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Iff English is your second language, how are these verbs tusually translated to *your* language in software interfaces?
@eltonfc Interesting yet unsurprising results already. I suspect the reason translations at least in Latin languages went for the infinitive is because they just wouldn’t know what form/person to use.
French would look weird in imperative:
(Tu) Enregistre
(Vous) Enregistrez
Recently French online shops decided to go with « Je confirme » or « Je commande », as in present tense for “I confirm” , “I order” for actions.
Anyways as always when it gets too complicated latin languages settle down on infinitive (Enregistrer). -
Iff English is your second language, how are these verbs tusually translated to *your* language in software interfaces?
@eltonfc oh, that's an interesting question. I never really thought about it and I think it... explains some things?
Do I understand correctly, the question is whether I interpret "close" as "i want (the computer) to close the file" versus "computer, close the file"?
Because now I realize i've never ever talked to a computer the way people talk to chatbots and maybe that's one of the reasons it feels really weird. Well, in addition to all those other reasons.
So yeah, infinitive in every case and every language for me. I'm communicating a desire for a thing to be done, not giving orders.
Edit: and yeah, at least in Latvian and Russian it is and always was infinitive. Saglabāt, сохранить, etc. Never even crossed my mind it's completely ambiguous in English.
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English speakers of the fedi. In a software with the interface in English, Reading a menu with verbs such as Save, Open, Close, Edit, Format etc., do you read them as imperative (an order: "do this") or as an infinitive (the "base form" of the verb, like "to do this")?
Are you a native speaker or have English as a second language?
#Dev #ux #ui #software #interface #translation #uiux #uxui #gui
@eltonfc Second language here.
In Norwegian the menu item verbs are imperative, and it never occurred to me that the English menu items weren't.
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@eltonfc oh, that's an interesting question. I never really thought about it and I think it... explains some things?
Do I understand correctly, the question is whether I interpret "close" as "i want (the computer) to close the file" versus "computer, close the file"?
Because now I realize i've never ever talked to a computer the way people talk to chatbots and maybe that's one of the reasons it feels really weird. Well, in addition to all those other reasons.
So yeah, infinitive in every case and every language for me. I'm communicating a desire for a thing to be done, not giving orders.
Edit: and yeah, at least in Latvian and Russian it is and always was infinitive. Saglabāt, сохранить, etc. Never even crossed my mind it's completely ambiguous in English.
@eltonfc and for some verbs imperative makes no sense to me at all.
Surely, when I click "rename file" the actual command is "present me with an input field to enter a new name"? I'm the one doing the renaming. The stupid piece of metal is just logging my actions to the best of its ability.
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English speakers of the fedi. In a software with the interface in English, Reading a menu with verbs such as Save, Open, Close, Edit, Format etc., do you read them as imperative (an order: "do this") or as an infinitive (the "base form" of the verb, like "to do this")?
Are you a native speaker or have English as a second language?
#Dev #ux #ui #software #interface #translation #uiux #uxui #gui
@eltonfc I'm not sure I think of them as words of any form, but rather as labels on a button/menu to be activated (clicking or pressing a key) to initiate an action.
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@eltonfc and for some verbs imperative makes no sense to me at all.
Surely, when I click "rename file" the actual command is "present me with an input field to enter a new name"? I'm the one doing the renaming. The stupid piece of metal is just logging my actions to the best of its ability.
To me:
"Rename file [to a name I will provide]."
I wonder how much this has to do with growing up with command-line interfaces vs graphical ones.
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@eltonfc Depends to some degree - if the menu is hierarchical then non-leaf options or those leading to dialogues (usually marked with an ellipsis) are infinitive and leaf options without an ellipsis are imperative, to me.
Oh, that's very true. Or not even verbs. The "File" menu is a collection of commands which relate to file handling (open, close, etc.), not a command _to file_.
(Although it occurs to me that reading Edit as a verb may be how "Preferences" got stuck there in some standards, even though it doesn't have much to do with other Edit operations cut/copy/paste.)
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English speakers of the fedi. In a software with the interface in English, Reading a menu with verbs such as Save, Open, Close, Edit, Format etc., do you read them as imperative (an order: "do this") or as an infinitive (the "base form" of the verb, like "to do this")?
Are you a native speaker or have English as a second language?
#Dev #ux #ui #software #interface #translation #uiux #uxui #gui
@eltonfc Looking at my mail software right now, the "Compose" button is translated as "Opstellen" which would translate back as "to compose".
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R relay@relay.infosec.exchange shared this topic
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English speakers of the fedi. In a software with the interface in English, Reading a menu with verbs such as Save, Open, Close, Edit, Format etc., do you read them as imperative (an order: "do this") or as an infinitive (the "base form" of the verb, like "to do this")?
Are you a native speaker or have English as a second language?
#Dev #ux #ui #software #interface #translation #uiux #uxui #gui
@eltonfc Native speaker. I had a hard time answering this as neither seemed to fit quite right. If I am *reading* the menu, then infinitive seems closest if I know what I want to do and am just trying to find the right option to click. “I want to save”. If I am browsing the menu to see what’s available, “I can save” or “I am able to save”. When I click on the menu item, though, it is first person present tense: “I am saving”.
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English speakers of the fedi. In a software with the interface in English, Reading a menu with verbs such as Save, Open, Close, Edit, Format etc., do you read them as imperative (an order: "do this") or as an infinitive (the "base form" of the verb, like "to do this")?
Are you a native speaker or have English as a second language?
#Dev #ux #ui #software #interface #translation #uiux #uxui #gui
@eltonfc Native English speaker here, I consider them imperative because they historically are also called *commands* in this context. Less common examples are more illustrative of them being imperative, e.g. "Paste and go" in a browser, "to paste and to go" would not make sense.
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English speakers of the fedi. In a software with the interface in English, Reading a menu with verbs such as Save, Open, Close, Edit, Format etc., do you read them as imperative (an order: "do this") or as an infinitive (the "base form" of the verb, like "to do this")?
Are you a native speaker or have English as a second language?
#Dev #ux #ui #software #interface #translation #uiux #uxui #gui
@eltonfc I'm not a linguist but I'm pretty sure in English the infinitive form of save is literally "to save", so the idea that just "save" could be infinitive is confusing to me. And writing "to save" on a button seems like it wouldn't make any sense? I guess I don't really understand the question.
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English speakers of the fedi. In a software with the interface in English, Reading a menu with verbs such as Save, Open, Close, Edit, Format etc., do you read them as imperative (an order: "do this") or as an infinitive (the "base form" of the verb, like "to do this")?
Are you a native speaker or have English as a second language?
#Dev #ux #ui #software #interface #translation #uiux #uxui #gui
@eltonfc imperative, because when translated in Italian we use the imperative. Open becomes Apri and not Aprire. Save → Salva, not Salvare. Edit → Modifica, not Modificare and so on
