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Whats the hive opinion on this one?
I have been asked to translate text from German for a new website in conjunction with the winning of a big client in America. The question is spellings etc etc etc...
The site will also be accessible for English speaking global clients....
Is it required to do both "English" and American English (color, optimization, behavior), or is OED English good for everyone and its accepted in the States ?
We're owned by Americans at work. It seems generally expected/accepted that we adapt to their ways as frustrating as it it.
I assume it's because we can understand color whereas Americans get confused by colour.
Everyone accepts US English, but the US object to UK English.
Note that the differences go beyond spelling but include how you handle abbreviations, speech etc.
If the client is Merkan then speak Merkan. I think they would be mighty peeved of you wrote in actual English.
They get quite funny about it in my experience. When I was at university there I was told all my essays etc had to be in Merkan. I pointed out that I didn't know a lot of the incorrect spellings they used so that would be unfair.
They relented eventually but were not happy about the concession.
Just ask the client what they want.
Just ask "How is it spelt?"
That'll confuse them 😀
(I suspect the correct answer is to do it in Merkin or do both and serve via browser-language detect)
Write the content in Word and use the US spell / grammar checker, then C&P as plaintext to your web editor du jour.
Thanks folks, good pointers there.
More research ahoy....
American spellings, avoid the passive, and where possible you should use 3 long Latinate words where in the UK you would just use one.
Is it possible to use the Accept-Language header to return the translation the end-user would prefer?
https://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec14.html#sec14.4
Similarly, you would think it would be possible to do something similar for the date formatting.
I'm not a web expert, but it seems that in this day and age it ought to be possible. You're going to have to do something similar (only more so) if you ever get any chinese customers.