Ukrainian localization guide¶
Use these rules with the localization principles, Qt interface rules and Ukrainian language guide.
Locale and register¶
Ukrainian for Ukraine, Qt locale uk_UA, Cyrillic script, 2019 orthography
(проєкт, вебсайт). Address the reader as ви, lowercase inside a
sentence, never ти. The interface names no one, so the vocative is never
needed. The tone is plain and professional: no будь ласка for please, no
exclamation marks, no first person for the application. Use
sentence case, Показати смугу фільтрів (Show Filter Bar), never English
title case.
Grammar of interface strings¶
Localized macOS, Windows and Qt name a command with the infinitive, not the imperative. Aspect carries meaning: perfective for a one-time action, imperfective for a lasting setting.
| Element | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Menu command | perfective infinitive | Додати шрифти… (Add Fonts…) |
| Button | perfective infinitive | Зберегти (Save), Скасувати (Cancel) |
| Checkbox, lasting option | imperfective infinitive or noun phrase | Показувати зразок каскадом (Show Waterfall Sample) |
| Panel, dialog or group title | noun, nominative | Вбудовування (Embedding) |
| Status, in progress | verbal noun and ellipsis | Перевірка шрифтів… (Validating fonts…) |
| Success | impersonal form in -но, -то | Стандартні шрифти відновлено. (Standard fonts were restored.) |
| Failed attempt | Не вдалося + infinitive | Не вдалося інсталювати шрифт. (Could not install font.) |
| Present inability | Не вдається, Неможливо or Не можна + infinitive | Не вдається перейменувати колекцію (Cannot Rename Collection) |
| Confirmation | Справді + infinitive | Справді видалити «%1»? (Are you sure you want to delete “%1”?) |
| Tooltip that describes | third person, present | Скидає змінений зразок до типового значення. (Resets the edited sample to the default value.) |
| Tooltip or step that instructs | imperative, ви form | Виберіть шрифти для інсталювання в «%1» (Select fonts to be installed in “%1”) |
The table's examples come from Font Book, with placeholders in Qt syntax and the describing tooltip shortened; some examples below are constructed. A tooltip that only names its command repeats the command's infinitive.
Ukrainian reports a result with the impersonal form, not with a passive participle: Файл збережено, never Файл був збережений. Its object stands in the accusative (Колекцію видалено), and it takes no agent in the instrumental. An object of a command takes the accusative (Видалити папку); a label names its object in the nominative (Папка). Inanimate: вибрати майстер, not майстра.
The genitive singular of a masculine noun ends in -у for a process, a collective or an abstraction and in -а for a countable object: файлу, шрифту, формату, стилю, контуру, класу, шару, кернінгу, but гліфа, вузла, сегмента, елемента, компонента, параметра. Apple and Microsoft write файлу, not файла.
Compact labels¶
Shorten by dropping what the screen already says, by choosing the shorter synonym, and by label and value (Гліфів: %1). Never drop a case ending, a preposition or the agreement of an adjective: a label stays a grammatical phrase.
Euphony holds in labels too. Write у at the start of a label, after a consonant and before в or ф; write в after a vowel: Усі шрифти, Показати у Finder, Зберегти в папці. Join words with і or та after a consonant and й after a vowel. Words with a fixed form do not alternate: вставити, вбудувати, вліво, вправо, умова.
Abbreviate only where the control is too narrow, and only with established forms: мін., макс., гор., верт., дод., див. A truncated word takes a period; a unit takes none: пт, мм, МБ. Never abbreviate a glossary term or a command verb.
Plurals and placeholders¶
A Qt numerus string has three forms. Fill all three, each with %n:
| Form | Selected by | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ends in 1, except 11: 1, 21, 101 | %n файл |
| 2 | ends in 2 to 4, except 12 to 14: 2, 22 | %n файли |
| 3 | all other integers: 0, 5, 11, 12, 25, 111 | %n файлів |
Form 1 covers 21 and 101, so never write один or a literal 1 in it. Form 2
is the nominative plural, and an adjective in it is plural too: %n активний
стиль, %n активні стилі, %n активних стилів. This differs from Russian.
An impersonal form before the count fits all three and puts form 1 in the
accusative: Виявлено %n серйозну помилку, %n серйозні помилки, %n
серйозних помилок. Test 1, 2, 5, 11, 21, 22, 25 and 101. Qt has no form for
fractions. When a count arrives in a plain %1, write label and value:
Файлів: %1.
A placeholder that stands for a name or a noun has unknown gender, number and case. Never guess and never attach an ending to it. Use one of two constructions:
- A generic noun before the placeholder carries case and agreement; the value stays in the nominative inside quotation marks: Активувати шрифти в колекції «%1», Не вдалося переглянути шрифт «%1», з файлу «%1».
- Label, colon, value with an impersonal form: Додано: %1.
The generic noun also settles euphony: у файлі «%1», not a bare в %1.
Numbers, punctuation and spacing¶
- Decimal comma and no-break space between thousands:
1 234,5. Leave numbers formatted at runtime as they arrive. - The percent sign follows the number without a space, as CLDR and
QLocaleformat it:25%. A unit takes a no-break space:12 пт. The degree sign of an angle takes none:45°. - Quotation marks are «…», with „…“ inside them. Straight quotes stay in code.
- The dash is an em dash with a space on each side, the first one no-break:
Курсив — це накреслення. A numeric range takes an en dash without spaces:
10–20. - A label has no final period; a sentence has one.
Mnemonics and key names¶
Qt's own Ukrainian catalog puts the ampersand before a Cyrillic letter of the
translation: &Зберегти, &Скасувати, Закри&ти, Т&ак, &Ні. Do not
append a Latin letter in parentheses. Use one & per label where the source
has one, on a letter unique within the menu or dialog, never before the
apostrophe. Avoid letters whose descender hides the underline (д р у ф ц щ)
unless no other letter is free.
Key names stay in Latin script, as the keycaps and Qt print them: Shift, Ctrl, Alt, Cmd, Option, Esc, Tab, Enter, Backspace, Delete. Space is Пробіл; the arrows are стрілка вгору, вниз, вліво, вправо. Join keys with a plus sign: Ctrl+Shift+S. In a sentence the word клавіша carries the case: Утримуйте клавішу Shift.
Names and loans¶
Product and company names, OpenType tags, table, format and glyph names, file
extensions and code stay in Latin script, never transliterated: FontLab,
liga, OS/2, TrueType. A Latin name takes no Ukrainian ending. Put a generic
noun before it to carry case and agreement: файл AFM, назва PostScript,
шрифти Apple, у програмі FontLab. Loans are spelled with г, not ґ:
гліф, кернінг, тег.
Script-specific rules¶
The apostrophe is the letter U+02BC (ʼ), as in CLDR and macOS: обʼєкт, зʼєднання, імʼя. Never type U+0027 or U+2019 inside a Ukrainian word. Ukrainian has і, ї, є, ґ and no ы, э, ъ, ё: any of those four marks a Russian word left in. Never mix alphabets inside a word: Cyrillic а с е о р х у і look like Latin letters, and a tag, glyph name or placeholder is pure Latin.
False friends and traps¶
- A counter is the enclosed space of a letter, never лічильник; letter case is never випадок.
- An English noun stack reverses: Export Options is Параметри експорту.
- Calques a Russian-trained model produces: слідуючий (write наступний, or такий for “the following”), являється (є), приймати участь (брати участь), на протязі (протягом), по замовчуванню (типово, типовий; in a sentence за замовчуванням), співпадати (збігатися), вірний (правильний), любий (будь-який), у якості (як), при збереженні (під час збереження), включити (увімкнути), даний (цей).
- Avoid active participles in -учий, -ючий: наявний, not існуючий; otherwise a clause with що or який.
- Machine errors: an imperative on a command or checkbox (Збережіть); a first-person status (Завантажую…); capitals copied from English; Ви впевнені, що…; більш точний for точніший.
- Cancel and Undo must stay two different labels.
Review¶
Check first: the three numerus forms against the test numbers; infinitive and aspect on every command and option; -но, -то in results; agreement around each placeholder; Russian letters and calques; the apostrophe character; у/в; «…»; unique Cyrillic mnemonics; sentence case; then terminology and length.
FontLab terminology and compact labels¶
Preserve deliberately uppercase source labels using the language’s case rules. Keep numeric controls compact with UPM, PPM and LSB/RSB (French AG/AD); explain the full terms in help. The Family Dimensions “Units Per eM:” label is an intentional expanded exception.
Use the current core memory and its approval status. OpenType lookup defaults to the translation of procedure, with a different term only when strong OpenType-specific evidence supports it. Explicit choices are German Lookup, French lookup, Polish procedura and Russian процедура. Ordinary searches, individual rules and OpenType features are separate concepts. Preserve literal code keywords and identifiers.
Translate Fusion with the fallback Welder. Use the core's phonetic FontAudit transliteration in non-Latin scripts, including Chinese; preserve FontAudit in code. Proposed spellings remain proposed. Before rebuilding a QPH, recover team edits and import their terms and notes into the core memory.
Compare mnemonic-split terms with unmarked labels. Keep labels compact, aiming for 120% of the English length in Dimensions and Glyph Window preferences without losing meaning. Omit redundant font, color or command wording when context supplies it. TTH labels can omit “use” and abbreviate TrueType hinting; help can explain more. A full harmonization requires three complete catalog reviews, then reconciliation of help with the final UI and verification of generated resources.
Current terminology¶
The Ukrainian term table, generated from localization/uk-core.tmx, is the
terminology authority. Use its definitions to select the right concept and its notes for grammar and
usage. Check each entry’s status: team-approved decisions and proposed translations are distinct.
A proposed term still stays consistent across the interface and help; consistency does not confer approval.
For a missing term, translate the fallback original term and record the proposal with its reason.
The terms that other strings are built from:
| English | Ukrainian |
|---|---|
| glyph | гліф |
| character | символ |
| family dimensions | розміри родини |
| master | майстер |
| instance | екземпляр |
| interpolation | інтерполяція |
| axis | вісь |
| variable font | варіативний шрифт |
| kerning | кернінг |
| kerning pair | кернінгова пара |
| kerning class | клас кернінгу |
| tracking | трекінг |
| metrics | метрики |
| sidebearing | напівапрош |
| left sidebearing | лівий напівапрош |
| right sidebearing | правий напівапрош |
| advance width | ширина кроку |
| UPM | UPM |
| font unit | одиниця шрифту |
| baseline | базова лінія |
| x-height | висота малих літер |
| cap height | висота великих літер |
| ascender | верхній виносний елемент |
| descender | нижній виносний елемент |
| overshoot | звисання |
| stem | основний штрих |
| counter | внутрішньолітерний просвіт |
| serif | засічка |
| terminal | кінцевий елемент |
| contour | контур |
| node | вузол |
| handle | вус |
| segment | сегмент |
| extremum | екстремум |
| element | елемент |
| component | компонент |
| reference | посилання |
| layer | шар |
| anchor | якір |
| guide | напрямна |
| hint | гінт |
| hinting | гінтування |
| autohinting | автогінтування |
| feature | функція |
| lookup | процедура |
| OpenType class | клас OpenType |
| mark | діакритик |
| ligature | лігатура |
| smart | хитрий |
| Smart Corner | хитрий кут |
| Power Brush | Могутній пензель |
| Power Guide | Могутня напрямна |
| Power Nudge | Могутній поштовх |
| Power Stroke | Могутнє обведення |
| Nudge | Поштовх |
| Servant node | ведений вузол |
| Genius node | вузол-геній |
| Tunni line | лінія Тунні |
| cousins | рідня |
| Sketchboard | Ескізник |
| Skin | Шкірка |
| Matchmaker | Сват |
| match | узгодити |
| True Fill | У всій красі |
| Dream Up | Начаклувати |
| Remove Overlap | вилучити перекриття |
| decompose | розкласти |
| panel | панель |
| property bar | панель властивостей |
Smart Filter uses розумний фільтр, with natural inflection. This team-approved exception applies only to the glyph-selection feature; retain the established adjective for other Smart names.
Rapid tool and Quick Help references¶
The tool name is Рапід. Use Малювання інструментом «Рапід» for Rapid draw and Редагування інструментом «Рапід» for Rapid edit. Keep the name distinct from ordinary descriptions of speed and from the Vertical rapid and Horizontal rapid contrast classifications. Do not use Rapidograph as the tool name.
This is the local-script transliteration of Rapid. Its spelling follows the current TS catalog; the core records its review status separately.
For Quick Help, match tool, panel, option and command references to the current
TS catalog in the same control context. Keep inflection natural in sentences.
If a core entry differs, reconcile it with the catalog before regenerating
phrasebooks. A compact UI label and its full prose explanation can differ.
Check the current English conditions and consequences: disabling Cloud also
disables mark/mkmk generation, and mark generation requires Cloud. Preserve
mark and mkmk as literal OpenType feature tags.