Serbian (Cyrillic, Bosnia and Herzegovina) style guide¶
Use this page with the house guide and localization review. Examples use Cyrillic and ijekavian Serbian for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Check the product glossary, actual labels and substituted values before using them. Source acknowledgments are in credits.
Voice and locale¶
Write natural standard Serbian for the task and audience. Technical help needs precise instructions; marketing can be playful when the claim and context support it. Errors and possible-loss warnings need clear facts and supported next steps. Do not add theatrical introductions, reassurance or familiarity at the expense of accuracy.
Keep the chosen language variety consistent: вријеме, ријеч, сљедеће, одјељак, налијево. In this locale, use у одјељку, rather than mixing it with the ekavian у одељку. Ijekavian is not an error to be corrected automatically to ekavian. Preserve an exact quotation or protected label even when its wording differs from the surrounding prose.
Use approved terms consistently. Апликација, програм and услуга identify different things in context; an English preference for “app” cannot choose the Serbian term. A disk is not every type of drive. Датотека is used in these examples. A shorter form such as таблет is useful when the omitted word adds no needed distinction.
Prefer a familiar expression when it keeps the meaning. Моћи can replace a wordy expression of ability, but having an opportunity is not always being able to act. Провјерити means checking; it does not automatically replace ensuring that a condition becomes true. Do not translate an English word-preference list into mandatory Serbian substitutions.
Address the reader with the formal plural in ordinary instructions: Отворите датотеку. A command label can use the singular imperative: Отвори. Use lowercase ви and ваш in general interface prose; personally addressed correspondence can follow its own agreed convention. Omit unnecessary pronouns when the verb identifies the actor, while retaining contrasts and ownership.
Sentence fragments, conjunctions, passive constructions and impersonal wording all have legitimate uses. Датотека је сачувана. reports a result clearly without inventing an actor. Literal translation is acceptable when it is accurate and natural. Colloquialisms and contractions such as Је л’ require an appropriate voice; they are not a default recipe for friendly technical help.
Preserve the task¶
After rewriting, compare the action, object, actor, condition, scope and timing with the source. Fluent wording can still change what the reader should do.
- Keep case sensitivity distinct from a requirement to include both letter cases: Лозинка није тачна. Покушајте поново. Разликују се мала и велика слова.
- A failed key operation does not prove an invalid key. Кључ производа није било могуће употријебити. Провјерите га и покушајте поново. retains the attempted operation and recovery.
- Restart the specified component. Програм за инсталацију мора поново да се покрене. does not say that the program restarts the updates. Keep the installed updates, required restart and continuation as separate facts.
- If a verified Откажи button returns to editing, Изаберите Откажи, довршите уређивање и сачувајте свој рад. retains the final save. Cancel does not save by itself.
- A maximum of 100 MB includes the boundary: Највећа дозвољена величина датотеке је 100 MB. Do not change it to “less than 100 MB.”
- Keep Discard and the following edit consistent: Одбаците измјене и уредите најновију верзију. Both verbs address the reader directly. Keep “now” when immediate timing is part of an instruction to download a licence.
A restart warning must retain the possibility of losing unsaved work for the reader and other people using the computer. Do not narrow the warning to one application or turn possible loss into certain loss. Preserve a restart requirement without inventing who will initiate it.
Keep permission in requests to allow personalized content. Preserve the computer’s name, rather than changing it to the reader’s name, and retain each data category. A distinctive picture password is not a guarantee that only the reader knows it. Keep the touchscreen computer as the protected object and preserve the number of gestures.
Watching a replay and performing the demonstrated gestures are different actions. Погледајте снимак и поновите приказане покрете. is suitable when both are required; wording that only means watching or following the demonstration is insufficient.
Preserve prerequisites and destinations. Moving a document after correcting invalid or missing properties must not become an immediate move. A library and a folder are not alternatives merely because или makes the sentence shorter. An error about creating bootable USB media must retain the bootable purpose.
Do not replace an explanation of a display setting with an invitation to choose or create schemes unless that is the actual feature. A capability available when several languages are installed is not necessarily an instruction to install them now. Preserve irreversible-action warnings and the intended audience without inventing additional restrictions.
Grammar, names and possession¶
Match adjectives to their nouns in gender, case and number: нови документ, нова датотека, ново окно. Ново is not a safe default for every resource whose context is unknown. Supply the missing noun or separate messages for different objects.
For coordinated objects, retain the intended scope of a modifier. Отпремите ажурирани видео или ажурирану слику. makes it explicit that either object is updated. A single adjective before two differently gendered nouns can obscure that relationship.
Use a descriptor to preserve a literal name: у програму FontLab, поставка програма FontLab. The descriptor must identify the actual object. Whether software arrives in an .exe file does not establish every aspect of its product type, and a web service can have a version.
Keep a control’s name and its type distinct. Изаберите дугме Уметни. applies when the control is a button; у одјељку Уметање applies when it is a section. Checking and clearing a checkbox are opposite actions. Do not force menu names, commands and dialog titles into one grammatical pattern.
A common word can be a product name, but do not invent that interpretation. “Start Call” might mean starting a call or launching an application named Call. Resolve the context before translating it as Упути позив or describing the application. “Tint font color” does not mean “title font color”; verify the source term rather than adding a title that was never specified.
Serbian has no English-style articles. Изаберите опцију са листе. does not need a demonstrative corresponding to “the.” Add неку only when an unspecified choice is relevant, not as a mandatory translation of every “a.” English compounds can become case relationships or descriptive phrases: у формату .rtf is a usable alternative to placing the format before the noun.
Use свој for possession by the sentence’s subject: Сачувајте своју датотеку. When another subject acts on the reader’s property, use the appropriate possessive: Сервер је одбио ваше корисничко име. Omit possession only when the same owner remains clear. Do not add a spatial instruction such as “below” merely while changing a pronoun.
Respect the grammatical treatment of nonhuman objects. Покрените чаробњак за увоз. treats the wizard as software; Додајте контакт. names a contact entry. Do not transfer animate-object endings mechanically from a term’s meaning outside the interface.
Choose case and prepositions for each verb. Уређујте фотографије и управљајте њима. keeps the different complements needed by editing and managing. A chain of verbs does not necessarily share one noun form. Likewise, информације and a collective noun such as дугмад need their own agreement rather than a copied English singular or plural.
Aspect distinguishes how an action is presented, not simply whether it happens once or repeatedly. Читати and прочитати, or штампати and одштампати, distinguish process and completion in context. Use tense to preserve what has happened, is happening or will happen.
Counts and message states¶
Use complete message variants when the number changes agreement. A standalone count is not a reusable fragment for every case.
| Standalone count | Serbian example |
|---|---|
| One | 1 датотека |
| Two, three or four | 2 датотеке; 3 датотеке; 4 датотеке |
| Zero or five | 0 датотека; 5 датотека |
| Eleven through fourteen | 11 датотека; 12 датотека; 14 датотека |
| Twenty-one or twenty-two | 21 датотека; 22 датотеке |
Једна датотека је сачувана. Двије датотеке су сачуване. Сачувано је пет датотека. Identical spelling in some count forms does not make their grammatical roles identical.
Serbian cardinal selection has one, few and other categories. Integer endings in 1 and 2–4 exclude 11 and 12–14 respectively; fractional digits also matter. Test 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 11, 12, 14, 21 and 22, plus supported decimals and visible trailing zeros. Use the project’s locale-aware plural mechanism; a category does not supply all the grammar of the sentence.
| Purpose | Serbian example |
|---|---|
| Command | Сачувај датотеку |
| Instruction | Сачувајте датотеку. |
| Activity title | Чување датотеке |
| In progress | Датотека се чува. |
| Completed | Датотека је сачувана. |
| Attempt failed | Чување датотеке није успјело. |
| Currently unavailable | Датотеку није могуће сачувати. |
Keep past failure distinct from present inability. Није било могуће отворити датотеку. reports a failed attempt; Није могуће отворити датотеку. describes current inability. Standardizing “could not” and “cannot” to one phrase can erase that distinction.
An error need not stop the whole application or require a reboot. Name the known condition and give a supported recovery step. Нема довољно меморије. is not the same as insufficient disk space. Do not turn a missing value into a guessed cause or blame the reader.
Preserve placeholders exactly. If %s is known to contain a filename, Није могуће отворити датотеку %s. supplies the noun without altering the placeholder. A string is not always a filename, and %c is a character, not necessarily a letter. Keep positional and formatting syntax such as %1!d! intact, and test long values, punctuation and substitutions with different grammatical roles.
Typography and literal text¶
Keep the locale’s Cyrillic characters intact: ђ, ј, љ, њ, ћ, џ and Ђ, Ј, Љ, Њ, Ћ, Џ. Latin a and Cyrillic а can look alike but are different characters. Preserve Latin-script product names, code, URLs and abbreviations when those are their required forms.
For ordinary quotations, this page uses „{filename}“, with low opening and high closing marks. Keep code’s required straight quotes. Use house emphasis for literal control labels; correct a source typo such as Корипирај rather than making it an approved translation of Copy. A verified command can be Копирај.
Use sentence case for headings and labels, preserving proper names. Common names such as понедјељак and српски are lowercase inside a sentence. Do not change an existing label’s capitalization or ellipsis while referring to it.
Use punctuation for the sentence structure. Ако желите да наставите, сачувајте датотеку. has a comma after the preceding condition. Сачувајте датотеку да бисте наставили. does not need one before its following purpose clause. This is not a universal ban on commas before every following subordinate clause.
A colon can introduce an explanation or list; do not place one mechanically between a verb and its complement. Keep a list’s punctuation consistent with whether its items complete the lead-in or form separate sentences. Parentheses need no spaces inside their boundaries. Use the house mechanics rules for list structure and emphasis.
Distinguish the hyphen in ауто-пут, an unspaced numeric range such as 36–78, and mathematical minus in −18 °C. A prose dash must not be deleted when it marks a relationship needed by the sentence; rephrase with a colon, comma or separate sentence. Keep automatic line breaking from changing literal filenames or identifiers.
Use a decimal comma in ordinary numeric prose: 12,5 mm, 15,21%. Keep values with unit or currency symbols, as in 100 USD. A currency code can resolve an ambiguous symbol; currency symbols are not categorically forbidden. Machine-readable numbers retain their required syntax. A nonbreaking space is a space character, not a degree sign, even if an editor displays a marker for it.
Keep established abbreviation punctuation and spacing: нпр., итд., и сл. Do not invent a shortened product name. An initialism can have an established case ending, as in у XML-у, or take a descriptor, as in у формату XML. Check its actual treatment rather than forcing every abbreviation to decline or remain unchanged. DNS expands to Domain Name System.
Versions, paths, identifiers, copyright strings and names need the applicable product conventions. Верзија 4.2 preserves that version’s syntax; it does not mean all versions must contain a period. Do not translate a protected name or mechanically transcribe every Latin token into Cyrillic.
Keyboard, accessibility and speech¶
Distinguish access keys, key tips and command shortcuts. Their resource syntax and behavior depend on the platform. Test supported Serbian keyboard layouts; do not assume Cyrillic letters cause technical problems, forbid letters solely because of descenders, or assign duplicate access keys as an automatic fallback.
Keep actual key labels and distinguish held combinations from sequences: Shift+F10 and Alt, F describe different kinds of input. Стрелица налијево and стрелица надоље should remain consistent with the locale’s wording. Identify тастер 5 на нумеричкој тастатури when the action requires that key. Test focus movement and exit paths rather than assuming every control group has the same arrow-key behavior.
Small capitals are a typography feature, distinct from lowercase. Мала слова does not identify small caps merely because the English name includes “small.” Use the approved FontLab term and verify the operation.
Check Serbian text with suitable fonts and language settings, including italic text. OpenType localized forms can select Serbian glyph variants when the font and application support them. Changing the underlying letters to imitate another glyph shape corrupts the text. Check language metadata and rendered forms separately from character copying.
Use descriptive links, meaningful headings and control labels that work beyond color or position. Verify assistive output and alternative input methods in the actual product. Изаберите can cover several methods, while кликните is useful for a specifically mouse-based instruction. Preserve required gestures and check actual feature availability instead of assuming that an accessibility feature is unavailable in this market.
Avoid assigning gender from a username or grammatical ending. Rephrase an unknown person’s reference without changing their number, role, ownership or permissions. A plural rewrite is not appropriate when exactly one person is involved. Preserve uncertainty when a contact’s Away status only suggests that a reply may be delayed. Use a known person’s stated name and form of address.
For narration, use natural Serbian with the chosen ijekavian variety. Verify unfamiliar names and acronyms individually; a single Serbian sound does not substitute for every occurrence of an English spelling. Keep written names intact even when their spoken realization differs.
Read literal addresses and special characters clearly enough for the listener to recover them. Do not automatically omit a protocol, path or dot. Align narration, captions and demonstrated actions, and choose timing for the medium. A fixed ten-second introduction or a ban on recaps is not a language rule.
Have a proficient Serbian reviewer check terminology, complete substituted messages, case, counts and agreement. Check narrow layouts, keyboard access, glyph forms and assistive output separately. A matching translation-memory entry or a related locale’s wording does not establish that this page’s target text is ready.