Serbian (Cyrillic, Serbia) style guide¶
Use this page with the house guide and localization review. Examples use Cyrillic and ekavian Serbian. Check actual product behavior, labels and substituted values before using them. Source acknowledgments and licenses are in credits.
Voice and locale¶
Write natural standard Serbian for the task and audience. Use precise terms in technical help and a suitable conversational voice elsewhere. Errors and possible-loss warnings need clear facts and supported next steps. Shorter words and sentences help only when they preserve the meaning.
Keep the chosen variety consistent: време, реч, следеће, одељак, налево. Ekavian and ijekavian are both standard Serbian forms; this page’s examples choose ekavian. Do not automatically change an exact quotation or protected label to match the surrounding prose. For the related regional examples, see Serbian for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Use approved terms, not automatic substitutions from an English preference list. Апликација, програм and услуга depend on the actual product. A disk is not every type of drive. Providing information, giving instructions and helping are different actions. Проверити means checking; it does not necessarily mean ensuring that a condition becomes true.
A shorter form such as таблет is useful when the omitted word is unnecessary. Do not introduce an unexplained English word into a Cyrillic list solely to shorten it. Familiar technical borrowings can be appropriate, but translation-memory matches still need a meaning and context check.
Use the formal plural for ordinary instructions: Отворите датотеку. A button can use the singular imperative: Отвори. General interface prose uses lowercase ви, вама and ваш; personally addressed correspondence can follow an agreed convention. Сачекајте. is usually enough without an added polite preface, when waiting is the supported action.
Omit redundant pronouns when the verb identifies the actor, but retain contrasts and ownership. A first-person control such as Запамти моју лозинку expresses the reader’s choice only if that is what the control does. Do not use “we” to invent a personal actor for every system operation.
Literal translation, passive constructions, impersonal wording, fragments and conjunctions are all useful in context. For a completed save, use Датотека је сачувана. A playful contraction such as Је л’ does not belong automatically in a failure message. Preserve the intended information instead of copying the English sentence shape or forcing informality.
Preserve the task¶
Compare the action, object, actor, scope, condition, value and timing after every rewrite. Tone must not change the operation or promise.
- A 105 GB upload limit is not 15 GB. Највећа дозвољена величина датотеке је 105 GB. keeps the value and includes the boundary. Preserve the actual unit too; do not silently substitute GiB.
- Saving a workspace is not reducing its size. Чување радног простора and уштеда простора describe different benefits. Retain a qualification such as “if possible” when the source contains it.
- A correct-date prerequisite must still name the date: Подесите тачан датум на рачунару пре него што наставите. A vague instruction to adjust the clock can lose that requirement.
- Case sensitivity does not require mixed-case passwords: Лозинка није исправна. Покушајте поново. У лозинкама се разликују мала и велика слова.
- A failed key operation does not establish an invalid key: Кључ производа није било могуће употребити. Проверите га и покушајте поново.
- For a verified Откажи button that returns to editing, Изаберите Откажи, довршите уређивање и сачувајте свој рад. keeps the final save as a separate action.
Keep coordinated instructions grammatical: Одбаците измене и уредите најновију верзију. If referring to a particular Discard control, preserve its actual label. A failed licence download, the most recent attempt and downloading now are separate facts; do not remove the timing while deleting possessives.
A picture password protects the specified computer, not just its touchscreen. Keep the number of gestures and the difference between watching a demonstration and performing it: Погледајте снимак и поновите приказане покрете. Do not turn a distinctive password into a guarantee that nobody else knows it.
Keep permission in requests for personalized content. The computer’s location and name, an account picture and domain information are distinct data categories. Do not make “name” refer to the person accidentally or turn permission into an unconditional feature claim.
A restart warning must retain the reader, other affected people, unsaved work and possible loss. “Work” is not necessarily limited to documents. Preserve automatic movement only after its stated prerequisite, and retain both the library and folder when both are destinations. И and или do not express the same relationship.
Preserve the actual objects in technical examples. Row and column fields are not row and table fields. Moving to another document window can mean switching focus; Пређите у други прозор документа. does not instruct the reader to move an unspecified object. If dragging an object is intended, name it.
Keep recovery conditions exact: Ако се проблем настави, обратите се администратору. preserves persistence of the problem without making the reader’s inability to solve it the condition. A too-many-open-files error, bootable-media purpose and a requirement affecting both participants must retain those details. Do not add speed, safety or compatibility claims while adapting an idiom.
Inclusive and accessible wording¶
Use a known person’s stated name and form of address. Do not infer gender from a username or a noun ending. Rephrase an unknown person’s reference without changing their number, role, ownership or permissions. A plural subject is unsuitable when exactly one person is intended.
Особа са одговарајућим правима може да постави лозинке других корисника. retains both permission and the affected accounts. Када отворите свој документ… preserves the reader’s ownership when direct address fits. Changing “her document” to “this document” does not necessarily preserve who owns it.
Keep ordered actions when removing gendered references. Choosing a person’s name, choosing the call command and then choosing a number are three separate steps. Do not replace the first name selection with number selection merely to avoid a pronoun.
Keep neutral technical terms precise. A primary/secondary distinction is not always a superior/subordinate relationship. A DMZ needs its network role preserved; replacing terminology must not invent a different architecture. Descriptions of disability should be relevant and precise, with no implication that people without disabilities are the “normal” group.
Use descriptive links, meaningful headings and control labels that work beyond color or position. Изаберите can cover several input methods; кликните remains useful when teaching a mouse-specific action. Do not erase required gestures. A one-verb limit and a blanket ban on +, & or ~ do not establish accessibility. Preserve literal syntax and test assistive output in context.
Grammar, possession and counts¶
Match adjectives to their actual nouns: нови документ, нова датотека, ново окно. Ново is not a universal translation for unknown context. For coordinated objects, make the modifier’s scope clear: Отпремите ажурирану фотографију или ажурирани видео.
Use a descriptor when it helps preserve a literal name: у програму FontLab, подешавања програма FontLab. Choose the descriptor from the actual object. An installer file does not determine every product category, and a service can have a version. Keep button labels, menu names and section titles distinct.
English noun sequences can become case relationships or descriptive phrases. Информације о налогу identifies information about an account. Документ програма FontLab is not wrong merely because English puts the product name first. A common word such as Call can be an action or an application name; resolve that ambiguity before translating it.
Serbian has no English-style articles. Изаберите опцију са листе. does not require a demonstrative corresponding to “the.” Add неку when the unspecified choice matters, not for every occurrence of “a.” Keep protected names and their approved localized parts intact.
Use свој when the possessor is the sentence’s subject: Прегледајте своја писма. A different subject can require another possessive: Сервер је одбио ваше корисничко име. The subject need not be the same entity as the object. Omit possession only when the same owner remains clear.
Respect the grammatical treatment of nonhuman objects: Покрените чаробњак за увоз. and Додајте контакт. describe software and a contact entry. Do not transfer animate-object endings mechanically. Collective nouns such as дугмад also need their own agreement.
Use the case and preposition required by each verb: Уређујте фотографије и управљајте њима. A chain of verbs does not necessarily share one complement. Поделите износ бројем из овог поља. expresses division without copying an English preposition. Product names containing “for” still follow their approved naming rules; do not translate a protected token automatically.
Aspect is not simply “once” versus “repeatedly.” Читати and прочитати, or штампати and одштампати, present process and completion differently. Preserve tense and conditions instead of forcing every message into the present.
| 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. Две датотеке су сачуване. Сачувано је пет датотека. Identical spelling in some count forms does not make their grammatical roles identical. Use full message variants where counts change agreement.
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. The project’s plural mechanism selects a variant; it does not supply the whole sentence’s grammar.
Interface wording and message states¶
Choose the form for the surface and actual event. Commands, activity titles and statuses are not interchangeable.
| 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 успело. |
| Currently unavailable | Датотеку није могуће сачувати. |
For a failed attempt, use Није било могуће отворити датотеку. For current inability, use Није могуће отворити датотеку. 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 next step. An insufficient-memory message can say Нема довољно меморије. Insufficient disk space needs a different message. Do not substitute a guessed cause, blame the reader or imply that waiting will resolve a persistent failure.
Preserve placeholders and their formatting syntax exactly. If %s is known to contain a filename, Није могуће отворити датотеку %s. supplies the noun without changing the placeholder. A string is not always a filename, and %c is a character rather than necessarily a letter. Keep positional forms such as %1!d! and precision syntax intact. Test complete substitutions, including long names, punctuation and different grammatical roles.
Follow the actual control hierarchy when giving a procedure: У менију Датотека изаберите Сачувај. This is useful when those labels and that menu exist. Checking, clearing, choosing, dragging and switching windows need different verbs. An ellipsis or an English gerund alone cannot decide the Serbian grammatical form.
Typography, units and literal text¶
Preserve Cyrillic ђ, ј, љ, њ, ћ, џ and Ђ, Ј, Љ, Њ, Ћ, Џ. Latin j and Cyrillic ј, like Latin a and Cyrillic а, are different characters. Свој must not contain a Latin final letter. Preserve required Latin product names, code and identifiers without introducing lookalikes into ordinary Cyrillic words.
Use sentence case for headings and labels. Common names such as понедељак and српски are lowercase inside a sentence; proper names retain their capitalization. An existing control’s exact label is not rewritten merely to match a preference for sentence case.
This page uses „{filename}“ for ordinary quotations. Keep the straight quotes required by code. Nested quotations need a distinct, consistent treatment. Preserve the actual punctuation in literal UI labels and use house emphasis when referring to them.
Use punctuation for the sentence relationship. Ако желите да наставите, сачувајте датотеку. has a comma after the preceding condition. Сачувајте датотеку да бисте наставили. does not need one before its purpose clause. Do not generalize that pattern to every subordinate clause. A colon can introduce a list or explanation; do not insert it mechanically between a verb and its complement.
Keep list punctuation consistent with its sentence structure. Use Serbian Cyrillic order for alphabetic labels: а), б), в), г), д). Hyphens, range dashes and mathematical minus have different functions: 8-битни, 11–23, −18 °C. Rephrase a prose dash with a colon or a sentence break when that reads better, while preserving the relationship. A nonbreaking space is not a degree sign.
International measurement symbols retain their specified letters, case and upright form even in Cyrillic prose: 12,5 mm, 5 s, 2 min, 1 h. Unit names can be written in Cyrillic and inflected; symbols do not take case or plural endings. Do not convert Latin m to Cyrillic м or s to с in an international symbol. Keep the value and symbol together, with a space; plane-angle marks are an exception, as in 90°. A sentence may still end with a period after a symbol.
Keep unit magnitudes distinct: kB and KiB are not interchangeable, nor are MB and MiB. Bits and bytes differ; use an unambiguous symbol such as kbit for kilobits. Preserve exact product displays when quoting them and resolve a misleading unit in the source rather than silently changing its value.
Use a decimal comma in ordinary numeric prose and the required syntax in machine-readable values. 15,21% follows the ordinary locale percentage pattern; a technical document using a specified notation convention should apply that convention consistently. Abbreviations such as нпр., итд. and и сл. keep their own punctuation and spaces.
An initialism can take a conventional ending, as in у XML-у, or a descriptor, as in у формату XML. Keep the ending’s Cyrillic characters intact. DNS means Domain Name System. ISO is the short name of the International Organization for Standardization, not an acronym formed from its English initials.
Keep protected names, paths, copyright strings and version identifiers in their required form. Верзија 4.2 is one valid version example, not proof that every version contains a period. Use approved translations for translatable parts without transcribing the entire identifier.
Keyboard, speech and review¶
Distinguish access keys, key tips and command shortcuts. Their resource syntax and behavior depend on the platform. Test supported Serbian keyboard layouts; Cyrillic text does not make this review unnecessary. Do not inherit an old shortcut table or swap keys automatically because a different keyboard layout exists.
Alt+Esc is a held combination; Alt, F is a sequence of separate presses. Keep actual key labels, and use consistent localized descriptions such as стрелица налево and стрелица надоле. Identify тастер Del на нумеричкој тастатури when the operation requires it. Test focus movement, available commands and ways to leave a control group.
Small capitals are distinct from lowercase: Мала слова does not identify a small-caps feature merely because its English name includes “small.” Use the approved FontLab term. Check Serbian glyph forms in suitable fonts and language settings, including italic text; localized forms must not be imitated by changing the underlying letters.
For narration, use natural Serbian with the chosen ekavian variety. Verify names, acronyms and numbers individually rather than copying a phonetic catalog or substituting one sound for every English spelling. Keep written product names intact. Read literal URLs and characters clearly enough to recover the value; do not automatically omit a protocol, path or dot.
Align narration, captions and demonstrated actions. Choose pace and length for the medium; a fixed word rate, ten-second introduction or ban on recaps is not a language rule. Verify the task before recording, particularly when the script describes complex operations.
Have a proficient Serbian reviewer check terminology, complete substitutions, case, counts and agreement. Verify narrow layouts, exact character copying, keyboard access and assistive output separately. A related locale or a translation-memory match does not establish that the text is ready.