Translate an XLIFF file into Polish

What Polish changes in an XLIFF file

Polish declines its nouns: a word changes form depending on its role in the sentence. In XLIFF this bites as soon as a placeholder injects a word from outside. Take <source>Delete <ph id="1"/>?</source>, where the placeholder receives an object name such as lista. Correct Polish is Usunąć listę? (accusative), but your code will insert the nominative lista. The safe pattern keeps the injected word apart: Usunąć element: <ph id="1"/>?. Look for these strings in the free sample and in the delivered file.

• Gender in the past tense: “You saved your changes” is Zapisałeś for a man and Zapisałaś for a woman. Polish interfaces often use the impersonal Zapisano zmiany, which avoids guessing the user’s gender.
• Capitalisation: English title case (Account Settings) does not carry over. Polish capitalises only the first word: Ustawienia konta. Days and months are lower case.
• Buttons: the second-person imperative is standard: Zapisz, Anuluj, Usuń.
• Length: Polish usually runs longer than English, so a label that barely fits a button may overflow.

Plurals: four forms where English has two

XLIFF has no plural mechanism of its own: plurals arrive either as ICU syntax inside a string or as separate units per category. Either way, Polish needs four CLDR categories:

• one: 1 → 1 plik
• few: 2–4, 22–24, 32–34… → 3 pliki
• many: 0, 5–21, 25–31… → 12 plików, 25 plików
• other: decimals → 1,5 pliku

The classic trap: 12, 13 and 14 fall under many, not few, while 22, 23 and 24 fall under few. An English source such as {count, plural, one {# file} other {# files}} holds only two branches. On delivery, check that every Polish plural block contains one, few, many and other; if any are missing, add them before release, or the app will show 5 pliki instead of 5 plików. The variable name count and the # marker must not move, and Manuce compares each translated value with the source on exactly that.

What Manuce delivers, and what it does not

You get the same file back: indentation, element order, quotes, comments, line endings, encoding and BOM preserved. Only the values change.

• In both XLIFF 1.2 and 2.0, the source is translated into the target element and the state attribute is updated.
• Units marked translate="no" are respected; notes in the file are used as context. A note such as “button, 12 characters” helps choose Zapisz over a longer phrasing.
• Inline tags (<g>, <x/>, <ph>…) stay in the same order. A string that would lose them is rejected and flagged.
• Each translated value is checked against the source for variables and tags. If a mismatch persists, the source value is kept and the report says so.
• Left untranslated: identifiers, empty values, URLs, email addresses, numbers, colours, date formats.

What Manuce does not do: it cannot see your interface, so it cannot tell whether a Polish label overflows; it takes no glossary or style instructions; and it does not produce sworn or certified translations. Pricing counts the words in values only, tags and identifiers excluded, with Polish carrying a ×1.25 language coefficient.

Preparing the file and checking it afterwards

Before uploading:

• Check the target language attribute: target-language="pl" in XLIFF 1.2, trgLang="pl" in XLIFF 2.0. Your import tool relies on it.
• Mark brand and product names you want kept as-is with translate="no" rather than hoping they are recognised.
• Add notes where meaning is ambiguous: Open may be an adjective (Otwarty) or a verb (Otwórz).
• Export as UTF-8. A legacy encoding can mangle ą, ę, ł, ż, ź, ś, ć, ń, ó.

On return:

• Read the report: strings left in the source language are listed with the reason.
• Search for sequences like Ĺ‚ or Ä…: they point to an encoding issue in your toolchain, not in the file.
• Test a font that covers all Polish diacritics; an incomplete display or icon font shows boxes instead of ł.
• Open the screens where placeholders inject nouns, and those showing quantities of 2, 5, 12 and 22.

In practice

1. Export the XLIFF as UTF-8 with the target language set to pl.
2. Upload it: the quote appears instantly, based on the exact word count of the values.
3. Read the free sample, ideally a string with a tag or a plural.
4. Pay, then download the translated file and its report from your account.
5. Check plural blocks and tags, then re-import the file.