: Re: Which language to use when writing a multinational story I'm Brazilian and I'm writing a book in portuguese. However the story takes place first in Europe, i.e. Italy, Portugal, and London. Of

@Dunderdale623

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In general, it's my opinion that a story should pick a language and stick to it. Even though many people speak multiple languages, having a book in more than one language means you're limiting yourself to a subset of possible readers.

Ask yourself: What purpose does it serve to the story and characters to quote them speaking in more than one language? If a reader speaks (for example) English and Portuguese, there's no reason for them to see a translation immediately following. If they speak only one or the other, then they'll see text that makes little sense to them.

However, of course the characters would be speaking in more than one language, and that should be conveyed. But there's no need to double up on the dialog; quoting the occasional word or phrase should be sufficient to get this across to the reader.

You can also add color by mentioning, from time to time, misunderstandings from accents and translation problems. You can even describe double meanings that result. (For example: "He said the word "misunderstanding", but in [language], that word also meant ‘sabatoge’”.)

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