RE: writing for translation

["Steve Hudson" <sh1448291904 -at- gmail -dot- com>]

If a target language is Asian, I would avoid the "not" versions of words.
That is:

   - a is unable to do b * > * a is not able to do b
   - x is unsuccessful * > * x is not successful

Rationale:

Many machine translations have difficulty associating the 'not' with the
correct word, and often end up missing the not altogether, which is very
dangerous.

There are also a bunch of other tips, such as being very rigid with the
order of time, place and so on, and keeping phrases punctuated and simple.

I noticed many of the replies were actually answering "Best way to write
this" and missed the "for translation"...

Steve Hudson
Word Heretic

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