Elton CarvalhoMar 11

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

Native speaker, imperative
25.7%
Native speaker, infinitve
18.2%
Second Language, imperative
20.9%
Second Language, infinitive
35.2%
Poll ended at .
Show threadDan Veditz
@eltonfc
before GUI we had a "command line interface" where you quite literally gave the computer "commands". How could they be anything other than imperative?
Mar 11 at 7:07amWeb
Show threadLRMar 11
@dveditz @eltonfc a lot of these menu options lead to places though, dialogs. so you're figuratively entering a conversation. a command line rarely does that. your instructions are expected to be complete.
Show threadDan VeditzMar 11

@lritter @eltonfc

fair point. in English those items use the imperative followed by "..." (an incomplete command?). An infinitive would make sense in that context and I could imagine a "To Print" or similar menu, but I've never seen one. The English form used is imperative.