2. Spelling and transliteration

Correct spelling, punctuation and numbers really matter. Attention to detail makes your translation look professional and it will be much easier for a native English speaker to read. So often translators worry about things like articles, which are very difficult to improve, and yet routinely make mistakes that are really easy to do something about. Here are some points which you may think are trivial, but trust me, it makes a big difference if you get them right.

Spelling

When typing in English, a full stop (Am. period) should be followed by two spaces. Also remember there must always be a space after the word Mr. and any initials. "Mr.Topoyev" is incorrect. "Mr.N.Nazarbayev" is even worse.

Decide on either British or American spelling, then be consistent. Use a spell-checker, but remember there are some mistakes they will not catch (e.g. "joint-sock company").

Четвёртый is spelt fourth (not "forth", which is a different word).

Cannot is always one word. Here are some other examples where a single word is often incorrectly split into its two component parts:

• нештатный переводчик: freelance translator (free lance = свободная пика!)

• теплица: greenhouse (green house = зеленый дом)

Maybe/may be is more difficult because both adverb and verbs in Russian are может быть. Maybe is an adverb (perhaps); may be are two verbs: Maybe it will rain. It may be a good idea.

These words are pronounced differently in English: maybe and greenhouse are said quickly, with the stress on the first syllable; may be and green house are said more deliberately and there is equal stress on each syllable.

Here are some examples of a word being spelled different ways according to its grammatical function (you may have noticed that native speakers often spell these incorrectly):

effect - noun (or verb meaning осуществить)	affect - verb (meaning влиять)
licence - noun (Brit.)	license - verb (Brit.), or Am. spelling
practice - noun (Brit.)	practise - verb (Brit.), or Am. spelling
principle - noun	principal - adjective (or noun meaning основной долг)
stationery - noun (канцтовары)	stationary - adjective (not moving)

Transliterating Russian Names

Take care to find out how people's names are spelt (it annoys clients when their names are misspelt!). When writing to Russian clients, find out how they prefer their names to be transliterated by checking their business cards.

Otherwise, transliteration of Russian names must be consistent. I follow the rules used in quality newspapers rather than academic journals. Do not use French transliteration unless it is someone's preferred spelling of their name (e.g., by convention, Tchaikovsky). Also never use the German "j" for "y" (as in Jurij); if you do, the English reader will pronounce the word completely wrongly.

E ye if the first letter of a word: Ельцин = Yeltsin, not "Eltsin". This is very important!

e in the middle of a word. One exception: two "e"s together must be separated with а у: Даукеев = Daukeyev. If you spell this name "Daukeev", the English reader will think it is pronounced "DauKIV". This is a very common error.

Ё I think this is best transliterated yo, as then the English reader will have a

better idea of how the word is pronounced. However, this is not always the case in the English-language press (Горбачёв = Gorbachev).

Please, please transliterate Семён(ов) as Semyon(ov), not Semen(ov)!

Ж zh (not "j", which is pronounced "dzh")

Й i (not "у"): Абай = Abai, not "Abay", which we would pronounce "Абей"

Сергей, Алексей are generally spelt Sergei, Alexei. -ий = -у: Валерий = Valery, but Юрий = Yuri (Yuri Gagarin). [WHY??] -ский = -sky.

У u (not the French "ou", except for the Uzbek soum to avoid confusion with the word "sum")

Transliterating European Names Back

To transliterate names back from Cyrillic into the original Latin alphabet, you obviously need to know how they are spelt - or find out. I am not impressed when I come across examples of pure laziness such as "Sharl de Goll, Ronald Ragan and Helmut Koll" in my editing work. These are international public figures, and it would not take too long to find out on the Internet how their names are spelt.

♦ Папа Римский Иоанн Павел II: Pope John Paul II (no article), but Папа Римский: the Pope

The Internet is a wonderful resource for this. You often need to be creative in your search (John Brown or Jon Browne? and so on). Here are a few hints for finding names in different European languages: [This list must be completed!!]

English

a could be u (Раскин = Ruskin, Даг = Doug)

э could be а (Дэн = Den or Dan?)

г could be g or h (Гарри Поттер is Harry, not Garry)

д could be th (Хидер = Heather)

к could be с or k

French

у = ou (Путин = Poutine??)

ч = tch (Чайковский = Tchaikovski)

ш = ch

г could be g or gu (because g = ж before certain vowels)

ж could be g or j (Жорж = Georges)

т could be th (Морис Торез = Maurice Thorez)

The silent endings can be a real problem, as there are so many possibilities: e could be e, et, ais, aix (кафе = cafe; Каберне = Cabernet; Бове = Beauvais) о could be au, eau, eaux, ot (Бордо = Bordeaux, Пьеро = Pierrot) у could be ou, ous

German

B = W, Ф = V, Ц = Z