Editing guidelines

Enter only the base forms.

Base form is usually the least marked form of a word. It is the form one expects to find in a dictionary. Each language has its own convention of what form is the base form. In Indoeuropean languages it is usually the singular nominative form of a noun, infinitive form of a verb and masculine positive singular nominative form of an adjective.

base form	derived forms
go [v.]	goes, went, gone, going
finger [n.]	fingers, finger's
warm [adj.]	warmer, warmest

Add the part-of-speech tag.

Words belong to various lexical categories. The part-of-speech (POS) tags give the users of the dictionaries a hint how the word is used. They also enable us to find better indirect translations.

POS tags should be written between the square brackets and end with a dot. Where possible, international abbreviations should be used.

word class	part-of-speech tags	examples
Noun	[n.], [m.], [f.]	en: man [n.], woman [n.], child [n.] de: Mann [m.], Frau [f.], Kind [n.]
Adjective	[adj.]	tall [adj.], warm [adj.], green [adj.]
Adverb	[adv.]	here [adv.], soon [adv.], really [adv.]
Verb	[v.]	be [v.], have [v.], go [v.], eat [v.]
Pronoun	[pron.]	he [pron.], she [pron.], it [pron.]
Conjunction	[conj.]	and [conj.], or [conj.], if [conj.]
Preposition	[prep.]	to [prep.], for [prep.], on [prep.]
Interjection	[interj.]	hello [interj.], oh [interj.], please [interj.]

It is not always clear how to determine the right POS. When in doubt, don't.

Mark vulgar, offensive or colloquial words with the appropriate tag.

The [coll.] and [vulg.] tags should follow the POS tags. If a vulgar word is translated with a non-vulgar word, only the vulgar side of the translation should have the [vulg.] qualifier.

class	tag	applies to
Colloquial	[coll.]	words not used in formal speech
Vulgar	[vulg.]	words subject to taboo
Offensive	[vulg.]	offensive names for hated groups of people based on nationality, race, sexuality, class, religion...

Don't capitalize.

Only the words that are always spelled with a capital letter should be spelled with a capital letter.

Disambiguate homonyms

Homonyms generate horrible indirect translations. They should be disambiguated by putting a synonym, a hypernym or an object in parentheses after the headword and before the tags. For example

• lime [n.] -- an alkaline substance
• lime (linden) [n.] -- a linden tree or its wood
• lime (citrus) [n.] -- a green citrus fruit