Here’s a rotting tooth, extracted from the mouth of an otherwise healthy translation. The cause of the decay is unnecessary use of double quotes, which is one of the leading causes of bad breath in Polish>English translations.
The rule is simple: For reported speech, i.e. quoting things people have said, we use “double quotes”. For all other purposes, we use ‘single quotes’. These typically include names and titles and anything else that needs to be set apart from regular text, or otherwise highlighted as being different somehow.
Note too that this is a matter of style, and use of single wquotes or italics or capitals or a combination of all three, will vary according to who your client is. For all those times when it’s left unsaid or not made clear in your ST, this is the good rule of thumb: (Click the pictures for a larger view)
The rule is simple: For reported speech, i.e. quoting things people have said, we use “double quotes”. For all other purposes, we use ‘single quotes’. These typically include names and titles and anything else that needs to be set apart from regular text, or otherwise highlighted as being different somehow.
Note too that this is a matter of style, and use of single wquotes or italics or capitals or a combination of all three, will vary according to who your client is. For all those times when it’s left unsaid or not made clear in your ST, this is the good rule of thumb: (Click the pictures for a larger view)
A dodgy molar – Original view
Getting our pliers on to the bugger and giving a tug
– Final showing Markup
– Final showing Markup
Finally, for a pretty good illustration of improper quote mark usage, check this out: http://www.unnecessaryquotes.com/ It made me laugh, but I’m strange like that. ;)
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