Mastodawn

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 Mar 18 at 3:59am.

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Elton Carvalho Mar 11

Iff English is your second language, how are these verbs tusually translated to *your* language in software interfaces?

Imperative in English, Imperative in my language

19.3%

Imperative in English, Infinitive in my language

24.6%

Infinitive in English, Imperative in my language

4.2%

Infinitive in English, Infinitive in my language

51.9%

Poll ended at Mar 18 at 4:08am.

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Santiago, né ?

👾Mar 11

@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).

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Chtixof 🦊🚲🌻🐝

@santi @eltonfc
Interesting to realize that the UI can be seen on one side or the other. Usually, it is seen on the machine side: you tell the machine what you want IT to do (eg. "Enregistrer"). But in the recent example you gave, it is seen on the user side: you tell the machine what YOU want to do (eg. "Je confirme"), which actually makes more sense.