Translate a Django app into German

The file you translate: locale/de/LC_MESSAGES/django.po

Everything starts with python manage.py makemessages -l de. Django scans your templates and Python code, collects strings marked with gettext, gettext_lazy, {% translate %} or {% blocktranslate %}, and writes locale/de/LC_MESSAGES/django.po. Each entry pairs a msgid (your source text, whatever language it is in) with a msgstr that will hold the German.

The good news for word count: the admin site and Django’s bundled apps (django.contrib.auth, form validation messages and so on) already ship with German translations. Your django.po only holds your strings: model verbose_name labels, view messages, template copy, transactional emails.

If your front end uses translated JavaScript, those strings live in a separate catalogue, djangojs.po, produced by makemessages -d djangojs -l de. Check for it before you ask for a quote, so you do not find untranslated buttons after release.

What German does to your Django strings

• Length. German typically runs 20 to 35 % longer than English, and short labels can double: “Account settings” becomes Kontoeinstellungen, “Forgot password?” becomes Passwort vergessen?. Leave room in buttons, tabs and list_display columns; a German compound will not wrap on its own.
• Capitalised nouns. Every noun takes a capital, mid-sentence included: Ihre Bestellung wurde versandt. Avoid forcing case with CSS such as text-transform: lowercase, which turns correct German into misspelt German.
• Register. Business software addresses users formally with Sie, capitalised, as is Ihr: Bitte melden Sie sich an. If your brand uses the informal du, say so before ordering; it has to be consistent across the whole file.
• Word order. Verbs often move to the end, so placeholders move too: “Delete %(count)s files” becomes %(count)s Dateien löschen. This is why named placeholders matter; makemessages already warns about multiple anonymous %s.
• Plurals. German has two forms, one and other, with zero taking the plural: 0 Dateien. With ngettext, msgstr[0] is singular and msgstr[1] plural. If your source language has more forms or treats zero as singular, do not copy its logic.
• Punctuation. No space before colons or question marks, and quotation marks shown to users are „…“.

What Manuce returns, and what it does not do

You get back the same django.po, ready to drop into locale/de/LC_MESSAGES/: indentation, entry order, quotes, comments, line endings, encoding and BOM are preserved; only the translated text changes.

• %(name)s and {name} placeholders are checked: every translated string is compared with its source, placeholders and tags included. If a mismatch persists, the source string is kept and the report says so, rather than shipping a renamed variable that breaks rendering.
• Not translated: URLs, email addresses, numbers, colours, date formats, identifiers and anything you have marked as non-translatable.
• The report lists translated strings and those left unchanged, with the reason.
• The quote counts the words of the text to translate, tags excluded.

Manuce does not run compilemessages, does not touch your templates or CSS, and does not check how strings look on screen: an overlong German label is yours to catch. For German terms and conditions required by an authority, note that Manuce does not provide sworn or certified translation. For a public-facing app, the Professional level is the one intended for text ready to ship.

Prepare the catalogue and check after delivery

Before uploading:

• Run makemessages -l de again so the catalogue is current.
• Check the header: "Plural-Forms: nplurals=2; plural=(n != 1);\n" is the expected rule for German.
• Give ambiguous words context with pgettext: “Order” as a purchase is Bestellung, “Order” as sorting is Reihenfolge; “May” the month is Mai, “may” the verb is not. The msgctxt and #. comments from Translators: notes help settle such cases.

After delivery:

1. Read the report and deal with any strings left in the source language.
2. Remove leftover #, fuzzy flags from earlier runs: by default, compilemessages skips those entries.
3. Run compilemessages -l de; GNU gettext tools must be installed.
4. Browse the app with de active, focusing on the narrowest buttons, menus and admin columns.

In practice

1. Generate the catalogue with makemessages -l de (plus -d djangojs if needed).
2. Upload locale/de/LC_MESSAGES/django.po for an instant quote and a free one-paragraph sample.
3. Download the translated django.po and the report of strings left unchanged.
4. Rebuild with compilemessages -l de and check long labels on screen.