Re[2]: Translating (formerly Non-American English)

[beth_staats -at- ARTISOFT -dot- COM]

  snip:
  >And consider the "n't" contraction. Would it be better to say
  >"Do not touch that button" instead of "Don't touch that button"
  >because the "not" is very important...I'd hate to have them skip
  >over that very important word.

     Gina,

     We hire translators who know English very well; well enough
     to recognize the context and understand what the contraction
     means. They then translate it as they see fit. In other words,
     we leave it up to them to determine whether the speakers of
     that language, in that culture, learn the product better by
     reading informally or formally phrased text. We believe that
     in the U.S., readers are more comfortable reading text with
     contractions.

     FYI -- In the newspaper business, they tell you to use a
     contraction whenever the NOT is very important, because
     there's a possibility the word NOT could be accidentally
     deleted or cut out during paste-up, thereby changing the
     entire meaning of the sentence. I believe it's true that
     when the NOT becomes part of the same word, the verb,
     there's less possibility that someone will find a way to
     interpret it as DO.

     Beth
     bstaats -at- artisoft -dot- com

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