snapshot of https://github.com/zulip/zulip.git @ 48c69911c7dd4e03b20552eb3bd77ad8151c1357 (2026-09-15)

docs/translating/german.md

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+# German translation style guide (Richtlinien für die deutsche Übersetzung)
+
+Thank you for considering to contribute to the German translation!
+Before you start writing, please make sure that you have read the
+following general translation rules.
+
+## Rules
+
+### Formal or informal?
+
+**Informal.**
+
+Although written German tends to be quite formal, websites in German are
+usually following informal netiquette. As Zulip's guides are written
+in a more colloquial style, German translations should be rather informal as well.
+
+**Don't use slang or regional phrases in the German translation:**
+
+- Instead of _"So'n Dreck kann jedem mal passieren."_, you could
+  say _"Dieser Fehler tritt häufiger auf."_
+
+- "Das ist die Seite, wo der Quelltext steht." - the "_wo_" is regional,
+  say _"Das ist die Seite, auf der Quelltext steht."_ instead.
+
+### Gender-inclusive language
+
+**Use gender-inclusive language, placing a _gender colon_
+([Gender-Doppelpunkt](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-Doppelpunkt))
+where necessary.**
+
+Place the gender colon between the word stem and the feminine ending.
+
+- Instead of _Nutzer_, use _Nutzer:innen_
+- Instead of _dieser Nutzer_, use _diese:r Nutzer:in_
+
+**Try to find gender-neutral alternatives before using the gender colon.**
+
+- Instead of _jede:r_, try to use _alle_.
+
+**If a gender-neutral term is readily available, consider using it.**
+
+- Instead of _benutzerdefiniert_, consider using _eigen_.
+
+**In compound nouns, only use the gender colon in the last element, if appropriate.**
+
+- Instead of _Nutzer:innengruppe_ or _Nutzer:innen-Gruppe_, use _Nutzergruppe_.
+
+### Form of address
+
+**Use "Du" instead of "Sie".**
+
+For the reasons provided in [the previous section](#formal-or-informal),
+stick to _Du_ (informal) instead of _Sie_ (formal) when addressing
+the reader and remember to capitalize _Du_.
+
+### Form of instruction
+
+**Prefer imperative over constructions with auxiliary verbs.**
+
+For instructions, try to use the imperative (e.g., _"Gehe auf die Seite"_ -
+_"Go to the page"_) instead of constructions with auxiliary verbs
+(e.g., _"Du musst auf die Seite ... gehen"_ - _"You have to go the page ..."_).
+This keeps the phrases short, less stiff and avoids unnecessary addressing
+of the reader.
+
+### Rules for labels
+
+**Use continuous labels with verbs in infinitive form**
+
+To be consistent with other online platforms, use continuous labels for buttons,
+item titles, etc. with verbs in infinitive form,
+e.g., _Manage streams_ - _Kanäle verwalten_ instead of _Verwalte Kanäle_.
+
+### Concatenation of words
+
+**Try to avoid it.**
+
+German is famous for its concatenations of nouns
+(e.g., _Heizölrückstoßdämpfung_, which means _fuel oil recoil attenuation_).
+For the sake of correct rendering and simplicity, you should try to avoid such
+concatenations whenever possible, since they can break the layout of the Zulip
+frontend. Try to stick to a maximum length of 20 characters and follow your
+intuition.
+
+- A term like _Tastaturkürzel_ for _Keyboard shortcuts_ is fine - it is
+  shorter than 20 characters and commonly used in web applications.
+
+- A term like _Benachrichtigungsstichwörter_ for _Alert words_ should
+  not be used, it sounds odd and is longer than 20 characters.
+  You could use "_Stichwörter, die mich benachrichtigen_" instead.
+
+### Anglicisms
+
+**Use them if other web apps do so and a teenager could understand the term.**
+
+Unlike other languages, German happily adapts modern words from English.
+This becomes even more evident in internet applications,
+so you should not be afraid of using them if they provide an advantage over
+the German equivalent. Take the following two examples as a reference:
+
+- Translating _Bot_: Use _Bot_, as a completely accurate German
+  equivalent **doesn't** exist (e.g., _Roboter_) and the term _Bot_ is not
+  unknown to German speakers.
+
+### Special characters
+
+**Use "ä, ö, ü" and "ß" consistently.**
+
+While _ä, ö, ü_ and _ß_ are more and more being replaced by _ae, oe, ue_
+and _ss_ in chats, forums and even websites, German translations
+containing umlauts have a more trustworthy appearance.
+For capitalizations, you can replace the _ß_ by _ss_.
+
+### False friends
+
+**Watch out!**
+
+A false friend is a word in another language that is spelled
+or sounds similar to a word in one's own language,
+yet has a different meaning.
+False friends for the translation from German to English include
+_actually_ - _eigentlich_, _eventually_ - _schließlich_, _map_ - _Karte_, etc.
+Make sure to not walk into such a trap.
+
+### Other
+
+- Try to keep words and phrases short and understandable. The front-end
+  developers will thank you ;)
+
+- Be consistent. Use the same terms for the same things, even if that
+  means repeating. Have a look at other German translations on Zulip
+  to get a feeling for the vocabulary.
+
+- Balance common verbs and nouns with specific IT-related translations
+  of English terms - this can be tricky, try to check how other resources
+  were translated (e.g., Gmail, Microsoft websites, Facebook) to decide
+  what wouldn't sound awkward / rude in German.
+
+- For additional translation information, feel free to check out
+  [this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Translating_German_WP) Wikipedia guide
+  on translating German Wikipedia articles into English.
+
+Some terms are very tricky to translate, so be sure to communicate with other German
+speakers in the community. It's all about making Zulip friendly and usable.
+
+## Terms (Begriffe)
+
+- Message - **Nachricht**
+
+_"Nachricht" (Facebook, WhatsApp, Transifex)_
+
+- Direct Message (DM), Direct Messages (DMs) - **Direktnachricht (DM), Direktnachrichten (DMs)**
+
+While we try to avoid concatenating words whenever possible, "Direktnachricht" is used
+by many other platforms (e.g., X/Twitter, Slack, Discord).
+Use _DM_ with its plural form _DMs_ rather than DN/DNs in line with other services.
+
+_"Direktnachricht" (X/Twitter, Slack)_
+
+- Starred Message - **Markierte Nachricht**
+
+We go with "markiert" instead of "gesternt" (which is not even a proper
+German word) here, since it comes closer to the original meaning of "starred".
+
+_"Markierte Nachricht" (Gmail, Transifex),
+"Nachricht mit Stern" (WhatsApp)_
+
+_"Bereich" (Transifex), "Community" (Google+)_
+
+- Stream - **Stream**
+
+Even though the term **Stream** is not commonly used in German web applications,
+it is both understood well enough by many Germans with only little English
+skills, and the best choice for describing Zulip's chat hierarchy. The term
+"Kanal" wouldn't fit here, since it translates to "channel" - these are used
+by other chat applications with a simple, flat chat hierarchy, that is,
+no differentiation between streams and topics.
+
+_"Stream" (Transifex), "Kanal" (KDE IRC documentation, various
+small German forums)_
+
+- Topic - **Thema**
+
+_(Gmail - for email subjects, Transifex)_
+
+- Public Stream - **Öffentlicher Stream**
+
+While some might find this direct translation a tad long, the alternative
+"Offener Stream" can be ambiguous - especially users who are inexperienced
+with Zulip could think of this as streams that are online.
+
+_"Öffentlicher Stream" (Transifex)_
+
+- Bot - **Bot**
+
+Not only is "bot" a short and easily memorable term, it is also widely used
+in German technology magazines, forums, etc.
+
+_"Bot" (Transifex, Heise, Die Zeit)_
+
+- Integration - **Integration**
+
+While the German translation of "Integration" is spelled just like the English
+version, the translation is referring to the German term. For this reason,
+use "Integrationen" instead of "Integrations" when speaking of multiple
+integrations in German. There aren't many German sources available for this
+translation, but "Integration" has the same meaning in German and English.
+
+_"Integration/-en" (Transifex)_
+
+- Notification - **Benachrichtigung**
+
+Nice and easy. Other translations for "notification" like
+"Erwähnung", "Bescheid" or "Notiz" don't fit here.
+
+_"Benachrichtigung" (Facebook, Gmail, Transifex, Wikipedia)_
+
+- Alert Word - **Signalwort**
+
+This one is tricky, since one might initially think of "Alarmwort" as a proper
+translation. "Alarm", however, has a negative connotation, people link it to
+unpleasant events. "Signal", on the other hand, is neutral, just like
+"alert word". Nevertheless, [Linguee](https://www.linguee.de/deutsch-englisch/search?source=auto&query=alert+word)
+shows that some websites misuse "Alarm" for the translation.
+
+_"Signalwort" (Transifex), "Wort-Alarm" (Linguee)_
+
+- View - **View** (Developer documentation)
+
+Since this is a Zulip-specific term for
+
+> every path that the Zulip server supports (doesn’t show a 404 page for),
+
+and there is no German equivalent, talking of "Views" is preferable in the
+developer documentation and makes it easier to rely on parts of the German
+_and_ parts of the English documentation.
+
+- View - **Ansicht** (User-facing documentation)
+
+For user-facing documentation, we want to use "Ansicht" instead of "view",
+as "Ansicht" provides a translated description for what you think of when
+hearing "view". "Ansicht" is not desirable for the developer documentation,
+since it does not emphasize the developing aspects of views (in contrast to
+anglicisms, which Germans often link to IT-related definitions).
+
+_"Ansicht" (Transifex)_
+
+- Home - **Startseite**
+
+Nice and easy. "Zuhause" obviously doesn't fit here ;).
+
+_"Startseite" (Facebook, Transifex)_
+
+- Emoji - **Emoji**
+
+"Emoji" is the standard term for Emojis. Any other Germanized translation like
+"Bildschriftzeichen" (which exists!) would sound stiff and outdated. "Emoticon"
+works as well, but is not that common in German.
+
+_"Emoji" (Facebook, WhatsApp), "Emoticon" (Google+)_
+
+## Phrases (Ausdrücke)
+
+- Subscribe/Unsubscribe - **Abonnieren/Deabonnieren**
+
+This translation is unambiguous.
+
+_"Deabonnieren" (YouTube, Transifex)_
+
+- Narrow to - **Begrenzen auf**
+
+Transifex has two different translations for "Narrow to" -
+"Schränke auf ... ein." and "Begrenze auf ... ." Both sound a bit strange to a
+German speaker, since they would expect grammatically correct sentences when
+using the imperative (e.g., "Schränke diesen Stream ein auf ... .") Since this
+would be too long for many labels, the infinitive "begrenzen auf" is preferable.
+"einschränken auf" sounds equally good, but Transifex shows more use cases for
+"begrenzen auf".
+
+_"Schränke auf ... ein." (Transifex) "Begrenze auf ... ." (Transifex)_
+
+- Filter - **Filtern**
+
+A direct translation is fine here. Watch out to use the infinitive instead
+of the imperative, e.g., "Nachrichten filtern" instead of "Filtere Nachrichten".
+
+_"Filtern" (Thunderbird, LinkedIn)_
+
+- Mute/Unmute - **Stummschalten/Lautschalten**
+
+"Lautschalten" is rarely used in German, but so is "Stummschaltung
+deaktivieren". Since anyone can understand the idea behind "Lautschalten", it is
+preferable due to its brevity.
+
+- Deactivate/Reactivate - **Deaktivieren/Reaktivieren**
+
+_"Deaktivieren/Reaktivieren" (Transifex)_
+
+- Search - **Suchen**
+
+_"Suchen" (YouTube, Google, Facebook, Transifex)_
+
+- Pin/Unpin - **Anpinnen/Loslösen**
+
+While "pinnen" is shorter than "anpinnen", "anpinnen" sweeps any ambiguity out of
+the way. This term is not used too often on Zulip, so the length shouldn't be a
+problem.
+
+_"Anpinnen/Ablösen" (Transifex), "Pinnen" (Pinterest)_
+
+- Mention/@mention - **Erwähnen/@-erwähnen**
+
+Make sure to say "@-erwähnen", but "die @-Erwähnung" (capitalized).
+
+_"Erwähnen/@-Erwähnen" (Transifex)_
+
+- Invalid - **Ungültig**
+
+_"Ungültig" (Transifex)_
+
+- Customization - **Anpassen**
+
+The literal translation "Anpassung" would sound weird in most cases, so we use
+the infinitive form "anpassen".
+
+- I want - **Ich möchte**
+
+"Ich möchte" is the polite form of "Ich will".
+
+_"Ich möchte" - (Transifex, general sense of politeness)_
+
+- User - **Nutzer:in**
+
+"Benutzer:in" would work as well, but "Nutzer:in" is shorter and more commonly
+used in web applications.
+
+_"Nutzer\*innen" (Figma, Facebook), "Benutzer\*innen" (GitHub,
+Airtable), "Nutzer" (Facebook, Gmail), "Benutzer" (Transifex)_
+
+- Person/People - Personen
+
+We use "Personen" instead of plural "Nutzer:innen" for "people".
+
+_"Nutzer/Personen" (Transifex)_
+
+## Other (Verschiedenes)
+
+- You - **Du**
+
+Why not "Sie"? In brief, Zulip and other web applications tend to use a rather
+informal language. If you would like to read more about the reasoning behind
+this, refer to the [general notes](#formal-or-informal) for
+translating German.
+
+_"Du" (Google, Facebook), "Sie" (Transifex)_
+
+- We - **Wir** (rarely used)
+
+German guides don't use "wir" very often - they tend to reformulate the
+phrases instead.
+
+_"Wir" (Google, Transifex)_