Translate a Symfony App into German

How German affects your Symfony messages

German uses the Latin alphabet, but it is hard on interfaces. Nouns fuse into long compounds: Account settings becomes Kontoeinstellungen, and Order confirmation becomes Bestellbestätigung. German text typically runs 20 to 35% longer than English. A button sized for Save may cope with Speichern, while one sized for Confirm can overflow with Bestätigen.

• Capitals: every noun is capitalised, even mid-sentence, as in Ihr Passwort wurde geändert.
• Form of address: business software uses formal Sie (Melden Sie sich an). Some consumer apps prefer informal du. Decide before translating, then keep the same choice across every domain, including messages, validators and emails.
• Punctuation: German quotation marks look „like this“, and there is no space before a question mark or colon.
• Hyphenation: with lang="de" on the html element of your Twig base template, CSS hyphens: auto lets the browser break long compounds cleanly.

Plurals: two forms, with their own rules

German has two CLDR plural categories, one and other. The one category covers exactly 1, so zero takes the plural: 0 Dateien. This matches English, but not every source language works this way. French, for instance, treats 0 as singular.

With ICU messages, the rule is applied at runtime. Writing {count, plural, one {# Datei} other {# Dateien}} is enough, and the Intl component selects the correct form for the de locale.

With the legacy pipe syntax, the intervals are hard-coded in the string. A source written as {0,1} %count% file|]1,Inf[ %count% files keeps its bounds after translation and will display "0 Datei". Translation does not alter these intervals. In the German file, rewrite them as {0} Keine Dateien|{1} Eine Datei|]1,Inf[ %count% Dateien, or move those messages to ICU.

What Manuce returns, and what it does not do

You upload messages.en.xlf or messages.en.yaml and get back the same file in the same format. For example, cart.summary: "%count% items in your basket" becomes cart.summary: "%count% Artikel in Ihrem Warenkorb", with the key and placeholder unchanged.

• Only the values change. Indentation, key order, quotes, comments, line endings, encoding and BOM are preserved.
• Every translated value is compared with its source, including variables and tags. If a mismatch persists, the source value is kept and the report says so.
• The following are left untranslated: keys, empty values, URLs, email addresses, numbers, colours, date formats, identifiers and anything you mark as non-translatable.
• A report comes with the file, listing the strings translated and those left as they were, with the reason for each.

Manuce translates only what is in the file you upload. It does not touch strings hard-coded in Twig templates or controllers, does not fix plural intervals and does not resize your layout. It does not provide sworn or certified translation either, so terms and legal notices intended for Germany should be reviewed by a lawyer. Pricing counts the words in values only, excluding keys and tags, and German is charged at the base rate.

Preparing the project and checking the result

Before you upload:

1. Run php bin/console translation:extract --force en (using your source locale). This collects every string passed through the |trans filter or the translator service into the catalogue.
2. Skip Symfony's own messages. The Validator and Security components already include German translations, so in validators.en.xlf only your custom constraint messages need translating.
3. Mark brand, product and plan names that must stay as they are as non-translatable.

After delivery:

1. Save the file as translations/messages.de.xlf (or .yaml) and add de to enabled_locales.
2. Clear the cache, then run php bin/console debug:translation de to find missing messages.
3. Check your densest screens (navigation, buttons, data tables, transactional emails) for truncated German labels.
4. Read the report: a value left in the source language usually points to a malformed placeholder in the original.

In practice

1. Run the message extraction so the source catalogue is complete.
2. Upload messages.xx.xlf or .yaml: you get an instant quote and a free translated sample paragraph.
3. Choose a translation level and pay for the order.
4. Download the file and report, then save the file as translations/messages.de.xlf or .yaml.
5. Enable the de locale, clear the cache and check long labels on screen.