- How to convert
I’m not talking about converting a currency (for which you can use https://bit.ly/3cvNFg6). I’m referring to sizes of shoes, of clothes, square meters, inches, weights…
I have one or two links saved:
- https://bit.ly/2U0Afm7 were you find several types of measurements
- https://bit.ly/2Mm6acu for #shoes and #clothing
Especially for linguists working in areas such as fashion, sportswear, apparel and equipment for outdoors adventures a table with size conversion it’s always handy!
2) Colours
We no longer have only the seven colours of the rainbow do describe a garment. We have plenty of shades, not just «50 shades of grey».
And we need to know the correct & matching colour/shade to adapt to Portuguese.
A good way to confirm the colour of a dress, a shoe, an ornament or accessory, etc., in Portuguese may be by checking lists like:
- the Barbot colour chart https://bit.ly/2AOAx91
- this Wikipedia list https://bit.ly/3f7iHgg
3) Online counter of words
For situations where we are asked for a quote with some urgency – or even to compare numbers we get – and, for some reason, we cannot use our CAT tool to analyse the file(s), there are online counters, like this T9ncounter: https://t9ncounter.com/
It’s easy to use and it counts words, numbers and repetitions, and supports formats as .DOCX, .XLS, .XLSX, .PPTX, .PDF.
The files will not be stored on the server, so there’s no NDA issue.
You just need to click to select the file and to upload. Wait a few seconds and… you get: words and numbers; words without numbers; numbers; repetitions in the file. Then you insert your rate and/or rate for repetitions and you get your quote!
The founder and coder of this free online tool is Vadim Kadyrov, a Russian freelance translator.
4) Onomatopoeia
Are used to
represent a sound. Water sounds (splash), vocal sound (laughing), animal sounds
(oink oink). But, like people, animals also speak different languages.
So, depending on the country where you are, or the language, onomatopoeia can
be different. For example, in EN the rooster crows ‘cock-a-doodle-doo’, in ES
‘kikirikí’ and in PT ‘có có ró có có’ (correct me if I’m wrong).
Onomatopoeia are particularly used in children books, because are a good way
for them to learn the sounds of language. And they are fun!
But, once again, this is another topic that requires research and should be
done by professional linguists, capable to accurately adapt the text and its
sounds to their native language.
Here are some examples of PT onomatopeias:
5) Guides to write clearly
Not only European Commission staff, but also linguists need to know how to write clearly.
To help us with some doubts, one can consult Publications Office of the EU.
Here we find guides in our own language or other official languages.
Like it’s stated in their page “These are hints, not rules, and when applying them you should take account of your target readers and the purpose of your document.”
- How to write clearly: https://bit.ly/3erHHOC
- Style guide: https://bit.ly/3gQaOg2
