# Translation glossary

The terms this site keeps consistent across every language. Decide a term once here,
then use it everywhere: a reader who meets "reseña" on the home page and "opinión" on a
mint page has to work out whether they are the same thing.

Adding a language starts here, not in the catalog. Fill in the column, then translate
`en.json` with it beside you.

The table has columns for the three hand-written languages. The other twenty-one catalogs
were machine-translated in bulk, and only six of them (de, da, sv, id, vi, tr) have since
had the first row of this table applied throughout: in those, a mint is a `mint`. The
remaining fifteen keep the machine's word for it below the chrome, which is usually the
local term for a coin factory. A native pass on one of them means adding its column here
first, then working through `xx.json` against it. The house rules below hold in every
language, translated column or not, and the first row of the table is the one the machine
got wrong most often.

## House rules, in every language

- **Sentence case.** Headings, buttons, labels. Not Title Case, not ALL CAPS.
  (Small caps on section labels come from CSS, so the source string stays sentence case.)
- **No em dashes.** Ever, in any language. Use a comma, a colon, or two sentences.
  Spanish and Dutch both reach for the em dash naturally; do not.
- **Specific over clever.** "Offline since 3 Aug 2026" beats "this mint has gone quiet".
- **Second person, informal.** Spanish `tú`, Dutch `je`. Never `usted`, never `u`.
- **Protocol terms stay English.** See the table.
- **Never translate data.** Review text, reviewer names, mint names, mint descriptions,
  MOTD, URLs, npubs, version strings. Those are source data, not site copy.

## The terms

| English | Spanish | Dutch | Note |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| mint (noun) | el mint | de mint | Never "casa de la moneda" / "munt". It is the Cashu term. |
| mint (verb) | acuñar | minten | Spanish spells it out once per page then uses it plainly. |
| melt (verb) | fundir | melten | Same rule as mint. |
| minting | la acuñación | minten | |
| melting | el fundido | melten | |
| ecash | ecash | ecash | Never "dinero electrónico". |
| sat / sats | sat / sats | sat / sats | Never translated, never inflected. |
| Lightning | Lightning | Lightning | Capital L, no article games. |
| NUT / NUT-04 | NUT / NUT-04 | NUT / NUT-04 | The number is the name. The plain-language label beside it IS translated. |
| Nostr | Nostr | Nostr | |
| NIP-87, NIP-07, NIP-46 | unchanged | unchanged | |
| relay | el relay | de relay | Plural: relays. Not "retransmisor" / "doorgeefluik". |
| signer | el firmante | de signer | Dutch keeps the loanword: NL Nostr users say "signer". |
| review (the written thing) | la reseña | de review | |
| rating (the stars) | la valoración | de beoordeling | Deliberately a different word from review in all three. |
| reviewer | quien escribió la reseña | wie de review schreef | Avoid a noun that implies a role or an account. |
| wallet | el monedero | de wallet | Spanish follows bitcoin.org/es. Dutch keeps the loanword. |
| key (private/public) | la clave | de sleutel | |
| npub / pubkey | npub / pubkey | npub / pubkey | |
| custodial | custodial | custodiaal | Always followed by what it means, never left bare. |
| online (a mint) | en línea | online | |
| offline (a mint) | sin conexión | offline | Shorter than "fuera de línea" and standard for a status. |
| unreachable | no responde | onbereikbaar | |
| uptime | disponibilidad | uptime | |
| indexed | indexado | geïndexeerd | |
| to probe (a mint) | comprobar | controleren | |
| mint URL | la URL del mint | de mint-URL | |
| bunker link | el enlace bunker | de bunker-link | `bunker://` itself is never translated. |
| seed phrase | la frase semilla | de seed phrase | |
| Fedimint | Fedimint | Fedimint | The project's name. Never inflected, never translated. |
| federation | la federación | de federatie | The thing a Fedimint is. Not "el fedimint". |
| guardian | el guardián | de guardian | Who runs a federation. Dutch keeps the loanword, as with signer. |
| invite code | el código de invitación | de invite code | The `fed11…` string. Spanish translates it, Dutch does not: NL users say "invite code". |
| federation id | el id de la federación | het federatie-id | The 64 hex characters. Never "identificador". |
| module | el módulo | de module | `ln`, `mint`, `wallet`. The short name itself is never translated. |
| announced (a federation) | anunciada | aangekondigd | Its own status. NOT a synonym for unknown: see the note below. |
| confirmed (a federation) | confirmada | bevestigd | Something outside this site checked and it answered. |
| network (mainnet, signet) | la red | het netwerk | The network names themselves stay English. |
| LNURL | LNURL | LNURL | Always capitals, never inflected, never translated. |
| lnurlcash | lnurlcash | lnurlcash | Lowercase, always. The protocol's own spelling (LUD-25), like `ecash`. |
| LNURL mint | el mint LNURL | de LNURL mint | The thing, not "LNURL-acuñadora". Same noun as a Cashu mint, so it takes the same article and the same word. |
| bearer note | la nota al portador | het toonderbriefje | What an LNURL mint issues. Spanish uses the financial term; Dutch uses the everyday compound. Never "billete" / "biljet" alone, which loses the point that whoever holds it owns it. |
| to rotate (a note) | rotar | roteren | Replacing a note's secret without changing its value. Not "girar" / "draaien". |
| to split (a note) | dividir | splitsen | One note becomes two. |
| to merge (notes) | fusionar | samenvoegen | Several notes become one. |
| LUD-03, LUD-06, LUD-16, LUD-21, LUD-25 | unchanged | unchanged | Same rule as NUT-04: the number is the name. The plain-language label beside it IS translated. |
| withdraw (an LNURL mint) | la retirada | de opname | The LNURL side of melting. Deliberately the same word the Cashu warnings already use for "withdrawals disabled", so one reader meets one concept. |
| mint pubkey | la clave pública del mint | de publieke sleutel van de mint | The funding node's identity key. Its own thing, distinct from a Cashu mint's `/v1/info` pubkey. |
| lightning address | la dirección Lightning | het Lightning-adres | The `name@host` form (LUD-16). Never translate the `@`. |
| Tor / onion address | la dirección Tor | het Tor-adres | Tor keeps its capital T. "Onion" is never translated. |
| funding source | el nodo Lightning | de Lightning-node | Deliberately NOT a literal "fuente de financiación" / "financieringsbron", which reads as an investor. The copy names the thing a reader can picture: the mint's Lightning node. |
| Anon (a reviewer) | Anón | Anon | The label for a reviewer with no kind-0 profile. Site copy, so it IS translated: Spanish shortens "anónimo" to match the label's width, Dutch keeps "anon" because that is what NL Nostr users write. Decided 2026-08; used by the label and the "hide anon" filter alike. |

## Two decisions worth knowing

**Spanish spells out mint and melt on first use, then stops.** `acuñar (mint)` the first
time a page uses it, `acuñar` after that. Spanish-speaking Bitcoin readers know the
English verbs, but a page that only ever says "mint" reads as untranslated. Dutch does
not need this: `minten` and `melten` are what NL and BE Nostr users actually write.

**Dutch keeps more English than Spanish does.** `review`, `wallet`, `signer`, `online`,
`uptime` are all ordinary Dutch now, and translating them ("beoordeling" for the written
review, "portemonnee", "ondertekenaar") reads as stiff or, worse, as a different concept.
Spanish translates more, because Spanish tech writing does.

**"Unavailable" is not "not supported", on an LNURL mint.** The Features panel has three
states where the Cashu NUTs panel has three and the Fedimint Modules panel has two. A
feature the operator never announced is *not announced* (`lnurl.features.notListed`); one
they did announce but that cannot work right now, because the mint's Lightning node is
unreachable, is *unavailable* (`lnurl.features.unavailable`). Those are different facts —
"they never built it" against "it is built and broken today" — and a language that uses
one word for both loses the distinction the panel exists to draw.

**"Announced" is not "unknown", in any language.** A Cashu mint that has not been probed
yet is `status.unknown`: we have not looked. A federation that is `status.announced` is
one nobody *can* look at — there is no check to run, and there may never be. Translating
both with the same word throws away the only distinction the page is making, so pick two
words and keep them apart: `Sin comprobar aún` against `Solo anunciada`, `Nog niet
gecontroleerd` against `Alleen aangekondigd`.

## Safety copy

The warning banners (`mint.warnings.*`) and the disclaimer are the copy someone reads
before they risk money. Translate them for **plain, unambiguous meaning**, not word for
word. If a literal translation is ambiguous about whether money can get out of a mint,
the translation is wrong even if every word is right. Short sentences. No hedging.