: Re: I'm writing a prologue from the POV of a non-English-speaking character. How should I write the dialogue? Picturing this in movie form would be easy. I would have the character speak their native

@Megan928

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I want to suggest two other approaches, in addition to those mentioned by Sciborg.
One is just to establish clearly the setting of the prologue. If Yevgeny and Olga are having a conversation in a Moscow coffeehouse, the reader will infer that the conversation is in Russian and won't assume the speakers even know English at all. Later, when Yevgeny shows up in the main part of the story, you may have to make it clear whether he speaks English or not, but at that point the language of communication has some relevance. I honestly think this is the most common approach. Don't tell the readers things they don't need to know.
Another is to put the dialogue in italics. This foregrounds the fact that the language being used is foreign to the reader. I have seen this in science fiction stories, where there was a reason to emphasize the alienness of the context. Also, and I'm not sure about this, but it may be more common for younger readers, who have less experience figuring out that sort of detail from the context. But I don't want to demean this approach. It all depends on how much you want the reader to be aware, in the moment, that the language is different.
I don't recommend experimenting with different fonts in the manner of Terry Pratchett, as was suggested in the comments. That is a signature move of his and people will think you are copying him.

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