Verb Modes and Tenses
First, let's be clear: most native English speakers do not to know what the "mode" of a verb is! That's because some modes, for instance the subjunctive, have almost completely disappeared from English, while other modes (the infinitive, imperative, conditional) share the same verb forms as the indicative, therefore there are somewhat inconspicuous. This is a marked difference from romance languages, with the many endings that characterize the conjugation of verbs in several modes. This greater awareness of verb modes among the French, Spanish, Italian, etc., makes it easier to explain the problems, but it doesn't mean there are no problems!
Infinitive Instead of Past Tense
In technical documentation or in presentations, it is common to briefly describe a series of actions through "bullet points." When describing an action that has been taken, a past indicative form should be used, not an infinitive. The infinitive form is the same as the imperative, and could therfore imply that the action has not been taken and needs to be. Compare these:
Changes in version 3:
- Added handling of waveforms
- Solved bug B123
|
This implies that version 3 has been prepared, or at least that the specific changes mentioned in the list are a done deal.
|
Changes in version 3:
- Add handling of waveforms
- Solve bug B123
|
This implies that version 3 is a future one, or at least that it is work in progress in which the changes mentioned in the list have not yet been made. |
Infinitive Instead of Gerund
A gerund is the "-ing" form of a verb, used as a noun. Sometimes, one finds the infinitive used by foreigners when the gerund should be used. This is more frequent among native German speakers than among romance language speakers, for reasons that should be fairly obvious to them.
| Wrong | Right |
|---|
| The open of the file... | The opening of the file... |
Active vs. Passive Infinitive
An active infinitive (i.e., an infinitive in the active voice), such as "to write," can only specify an action to be performed, not an action to be suffered. In the latter case, the passive voice must be used, even in the infinitive, leading to a passive infinitive like "to be written."
"So what?" shall you say, "sounds logical enough." However, in other languages, the distinction is not always there. For instance, the French "la valeur à écrire dans le fichier" should be translated into "the value to be written into the file," not "the value to write" as often seen. A value does not write, it is written -- it undergoes the action, it doesn't perform it -- and English is strict about requiring a passive form in this case.
Similarly, you may say "the first person to notice this issue may resolve it," but you must say "this is the first issue to be considered in our meeting" (while the French may say "the first issue to consider," which is incorrect or at least sloppy).
Present vs. Past Tense
The use of the present tense to describe a past event may be a good literary gimmick, but in a technical publication it only creates undesirable ambiguity. If you write, "This CD contains program P; its specs are redefined to correct bug 123," then the recipient has reasons to be concerned that she is getting the obsolete version. Are the specs being revised for a subsequent change, or were they revised prior to implementation of the version you're sending? In the latter case, you should say instead:
- "...its specs were redefined...," or
- "...its specs have been redefined..." if the change was just completed.
Otherwise, you might write:
- This CD does not contain program P because its specs are being redefined.
Use of the Future Tense
The use of the future to indicate either a "timeless" situation, or a concept of obligation, is a bad habit in technical documents, even in a language like French, because while it is again an interesting stylistic twist, it creates ambiguity. Does such a sentence state that something will surely take place later, does it represent a commitment to make it happen, or is it a request for something that should exist? For instance, take the sentence:
- "The first parameter to this function will be limited to six characters"
It is absolutely unclear whether this means that the function will chop off any extra characters for you, or whether it demands that the argument passed to it be no longer than six characters. You mean one of the following two, so you should say it as it is:
- "The first parameter must be limited to six characters," or
- "The function truncates the first parameter to six characters"
In some cases, the form using the future is simply unbearably complicated (see the section on "When in doubt, simplify"). For instance:
| Complicated | Simpler and Clearer |
|---|
| A will have to be equal to B | A must equal B |