English Translation Style Guide for European Union

🌍 Download Your Free Copy Today!

✨ English Translation Style Guide for the European Union

By Nicolae Sfetcu | MultiMedia Publishing
📘 A clear and practical companion for precise, professional EU English.

🗣️ Why This Guide Matters

Whether you’re a translator, editor, or content creator working within or around the institutions of the European Union, clarity, consistency, and correctness are key. This essential guide — an independent adaptation of the European Commission’s English Style Guide — delivers everything you need to communicate effectively in the unique linguistic environment of the EU.

🔍 What You’ll Find Inside

• ✔️ Detailed guidance on British English usage tailored for EU texts
• ✔️ Rules for spelling, punctuation, abbreviations, and numbers
• ✔️ Tips for avoiding common pitfalls in legal and bureaucratic writing
• ✔️ Consistent treatment of EU institutions, treaties, procedures, and more
• ✔️ Style advice for formal communication, web content, and public documents

„The overriding aim is to facilitate and encourage the writing of clear and reader-friendly English.”

📘 Ideal For:

• Professional translators (in-house & freelance)
• Editors and proofreaders
• Policy writers and legislative drafters
• Students and scholars of European affairs
• Anyone writing or translating content about the EU

📥 Get Your Free eBook Now

Click here to download https://www.telework.ro/en/e-books/english-translation-style-guide-for-european-union/
Add this indispensable style reference to your digital shelf.

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✔️ Available in multiple formats
✔️ 100% free under open license

👨‍💼 About the Author

Nicolae Sfetcu is a seasoned author and publisher with extensive experience in technical, scientific, and multilingual publishing. Through MultiMedia Publishing, he offers accessible resources for professionals across Europe and beyond.

 

💡 Perfect your EU English. Promote clarity. Communicate like a pro.

 

This Style Guide is intended primarily for English-language authors and translators, both in-house and freelance, working for the European Commission. But now that so many texts in and around the EU institutions are drafted in English by native and non-native speakers alike, its rules, reminders and handy references aim to serve a wider readership as well.

The Guide is divided into two clearly distinct parts, the first dealing with linguistic conventions applicable in all contexts and the second with the workings of the European Union — and with how those workings are expressed and reflected in English. This should not be taken to imply that ‘EU English’ is different from ‘real English’; it is simply a reflection of the fact that the European Union as a unique body has had to invent a terminology to describe itself. However, the overriding aim in both parts of the Guide is to facilitate and encourage the writing of clear and reader-friendly English.

CONTENTS:

Introduction
Writing English
– GENERAL
– – Language usage
– SPELLING
– – CONVENTIONS
– – INTERFERENCE EFFECTS
– – CAPITAL LETTERS
– – GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES
– – COMPOUND WORDS AND HYPHENS
– PUNCTUATION
– – FULL STOP
– – COLON
– – SEMICOLON
– – COMMA
– – DASHES
– – BRACKETS
– – QUESTION MARK
– – EXCLAMATION MARK
– – QUOTATION MARKS
– – APOSTROPHE
– NUMBERS
– – WRITING OUT NUMBERS
– – FRACTIONS
– – RANGES
– – DATES AND TIMES
– ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS
– – ABBREVIATIONS
– – – Acronyms and initialisms
– – – Contractions and truncations
– – MATHEMATICAL SYMBOLS
– – SCIENTIFIC SYMBOLS AND UNITS OF MEASUREMENT
– FOREIGN IMPORTS
– – FOREIGN WORDS AND PHRASES IN ENGLISH TEXT
– – ROMANISATION SYSTEMS
– PARTS OF SPEECH
– – ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS
– – SINGULAR OR PLURAL
– – PRESENT PERFECT/SIMPLE PAST
– – TENSES IN MINUTES
– – VERBS IN LEGISLATION
– – SPLIT INFINITIVE
– – THE GERUND AND THE POSSESSIVE
– LISTS
– SCIENCE GUIDE
– FOOTNOTES, CITATIONS AND REFERENCES
– CORRESPONDENCE
– PERSONAL NAMES AND TITLES
– NAMES OF BODIES
– GENDER-NEUTRAL LANGUAGE
About the European Union
– THE EUROPEAN UNION
– PRIMARY LEGISLATION
– – THE TREATIES — AN OVERVIEW
– – THE TREATIES IN DETAIL
– – TREATY CITATIONS
– SECONDARY LEGISLATION
– – LEGISLATIVE PROCEDURES
– – TITLES AND NUMBERING
– – STRUCTURE OF ACTS
– – REFERRING TO SUBDIVISIONS OF ACTS
– THE EU INSTITUTIONS
– – COMMISSION
– – COUNCIL
– – EUROPEAN COUNCIL
– – EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
– – COURT OF JUSTICE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
– – COURT OF AUDITORS
– – EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE
– – COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS
– – EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK
– – OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
– – AGENCIES
– REFERENCES TO OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS
– – THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL
– – BULLETIN AND GENERAL REPORT
– EU FINANCES
– – BUDGET
– – FUNDS FINANCED FROM THE BUDGET
– – OTHER FUNDS
– MEMBER STATES
– – PERMANENT REPRESENTATIONS/REPRESENTATIVES
– – NATIONAL PARLIAMENTS
– – NATIONAL JUDICIAL BODIES
– – NATIONAL LEGISLATION
– OFFICIAL LANGUAGES AND CURRENCIES
– – OFFICIAL LANGUAGES
– – CURRENCIES
– EXTERNAL RELATIONS
TRANSLITERATION
– TRANSLITERATION TABLE FOR GREEK
– – Diphthongs
– TRANSLITERATION TABLE FOR CYRILLIC
FORMS OF ADDRESS
– Letters to Ambassadors and permanent representatives
– – Envelop
– – Start
– – Close
– Letters to Ministers
– – Envelop
– – Start
– – Close
– Letters to Members of Parliament
– – Envelop
– – Start
– – Close
– Letters to Kings or Queens
– – Envelop
– – Start
– – Close
– Letters to other Heads of State
– – Envelop
– – Start
– – Close
– Letters to Heads of Government
– – Envelop
– – Start
– – Close
– Letters to Presidents of EU institutions
– – Envelop
– – Start
– – Close
– Letters to Secretaries-General
– – Envelop
– – Start
– – Close
– Letters to the Pope
– – Envelop
– – Start
– – Close
– Letters to Cardinals
– – Envelop
– – Start
– – Close
– Letters to Archbishops
– – Envelop
– – Start
– – Close
– Letters to Bishops
– – Envelop
– – Start
– – Close