Translate a CSV string table into Turkish

What Turkish changes in a string table

Turkish is agglutinative: grammar is expressed by suffixes added to the end of a word, and those suffixes shift with the word’s vowels (vowel harmony). In a string table, that means a placeholder cannot always take a suffix safely.

• Send to {name} becomes Ahmet'e gönder but Ayşe'ye gönder. Writing {name}'e gönder breaks as soon as the name ends in a vowel or has different vowels. A safe phrasing avoids the suffix: {name} adlı kişiye gönder or Alıcı: {name}.
• Word order is subject–object–verb, so placeholders move. Deleted {0} from {1} tends to become {1} içinden {0} silindi. Numbered or named placeholders handle this fine; sequential %s %s cannot be reordered.
• Words get longer: a short English button label may become a single word carrying several suffixes. Leave room in fixed-width text areas.

Register matters too: apps usually address users with the polite form (siz), games more often with the informal sen. Check it on the free sample.

İ and ı, encoding and capitals: the technical traps

Turkish has two separate letters: i/İ (dotted) and ı/I (dotless). They are not stylistic variants.

• Capitals on screen. If your UI uppercases headings in code, bilgi must become BİLGİ. An uppercase function using an English culture produces BILGI, which reads with dotless ı. Use a tr-TR culture conversion for displayed text.
• Keys and code. Conversely, never run keys through a Turkish conversion: TITLE lowercased under Turkish culture becomes tıtle, and the key lookup fails. Compare keys culture-invariantly.
• Encoding. Manuce keeps the file’s encoding and BOM. But ğ, ş, ı and İ do not exist in Windows-1252, which some spreadsheet tools use by default. Save the CSV as UTF-8 before uploading.
• Fonts. Check that your game or app font includes Ğ, Ş, İ and ı; an incomplete Latin font shows empty boxes instead.

Plurals, numbers, percentages and dates in Turkish

Turkish has only two CLDR plural categories, one and other, and nouns stay singular after a number: 3 dosya (3 files), not 3 dosyalar. If your CSV has keys such as items_one and items_other, both Turkish values will often be identical ({0} öğe). Keep both keys anyway: your code will request them.

• Percentages. The sign goes before the number: {0}% off becomes %{0} indirim. If your strings go through a printf-style function, a moved % can be read as a format specifier; review those strings first.
• Decimals and thousands. Decimal comma, full stop for thousands: 1.250,50. Numbers are not translated, so formatting should come from your code using the tr locale.
• Dates. The usual form is 31.12.2025. Date formats in the CSV are left as they are; adapt them in code.

What Manuce returns, and what it does not do

Manuce handles developer-style CSV files: a key column (key, id…) plus language columns (en, fr, de_DE…). The tr column is filled if it exists, otherwise added as the last column. A comment or context column is used as context for translation.

• You get the same file back: key order, quotes, comments, line endings, encoding and BOM preserved; only the values change.
• Each translated value is checked against the source: if {0} or <b> is missing or altered and the mismatch persists, the source value is kept and the report says so.
• Not translated: keys, empty values, URLs, email addresses, numbers, colours, date formats, identifiers and anything marked as non-translatable.
• The report lists translated strings and those left unchanged, with the reason.

Limits: a CSV without a key column is not treated as a language file but translated as plain text. Manuce does not take glossaries or translation memories, and does not produce certified (sworn) translations. Turkish carries a surcharge (×1.25 on the per-word rate), counted on value words only.

Preparing the CSV and checking the result

1. Save the file as UTF-8 and confirm a test cell containing ğ ş ı İ displays correctly.
2. Replace multiple %s with numbered or named placeholders so Turkish word order can move them.
3. Fill the context column for ambiguous or constrained strings: “button, max 12 characters”, “player name inserted here”.
4. After delivery, read the report: a string left in the source language almost always points to a moved placeholder or a percentage sign.
5. Test in the UI: truncated labels, capitals (BİLGİ, not BILGI), plurals with 1 and with 5.

A term that must stay as it is, such as your game’s title, is best checked on the free sample and then in the delivered file.

In practice

1. Save your CSV as UTF-8, with its key column and, ideally, a context column.
2. Upload the file: the quote appears at once, based on value words.
3. Read the free Turkish sample to judge register and phrasing around placeholders.
4. Download the CSV with the tr column filled, plus the report of strings left in the source language.
5. Put the file back into your project and test capitals, lengths and plurals in the UI.