Voice and tone

Behaviour is language too. A hint without a next step sounds cold even if every word is friendly. So this chapter starts with the stance and ends with the patterns that already contain almost every answer.

The voice is defined in German. The rules below describe German copy; English examples are translations for understanding. An English voice guide has not been decided yet — the structure carries over, the specific values do not.

Family life is not described in the language of the workplace.

A family is not a team, a holiday is not a project, a child is not a resource. Nobody works at home. There are tasks and chores (Aufgaben und Pflichten), and people take care of things.

Forms of address

• To the family and on the website: „ihr“ (plural you). At least two adults are meant there.
• To one person in the app: „du“ (singular you) — adults, children and helpers alike.
• To helpers especially respectful and without imperatives: „Diese Woche geplant: Dienstag 8–12“ (planned this week: Tuesday 8–12).
• Gender-neutral by rephrasing: „wer kocht“ (whoever cooks), never gender asterisks.

Five registers

Albert does not speak the same way everywhere. Mixing registers makes the brand implausible. Poetry in a contract looks unserious, bureaucratese in the children's space feels cold. So every text starts with one question: which register?

What each register sounds like

R1 · The narrator (Erzähler)

Familienalltag scheitert selten an fehlenden Informationen. Er scheitert daran, dass niemand eindeutig zuständig ist.

Family life rarely fails for lack of information. It fails because nobody is clearly responsible.

R2 · The family manager — always with the next step.

Freitag, 18:40 — Rückfahrt vom Turnier. Noch kein Fahrer. Tobias hat ab 17:00 Zeit.

Friday, 18:40 — ride home from the tournament. No driver yet. Tobias is free from 17:00.

R3 · The reader (Vorleser) — the language grows up with the child, not just the type size.

After school: football. Take: shirt, shin pads, water bottle. — 17:00 football. Dad drives you at 16:40. Shirt and pads ready? — Football 17:00, leaving 16:40 with Dad. Your ride home is still open — ask?

R4 · The clerk (Sachbearbeiter) — here poetry is a mistake.

Kfz-Versicherung, Police 4711-88. Laufzeit bis 31.12.2026, Kündigungsfrist ein Monat. Letzter Kündigungstag: 30.11.2026. Beitrag 684,00 € im Jahr.

Car insurance, policy 4711-88. Term until 31.12.2026, one month's notice. Last day to cancel: 30.11.2026. Premium 684.00 € a year.

R5 · The letter writer (Briefeschreiber) — this is the family's voice, not Albert's. A letter to the insurer sounds like Tobias, not like software. Every draft is visibly marked as a draft and carries no hint of a machine.

Sehr geehrte Frau Berger, Lena kann am Freitag nicht am Ausflug teilnehmen. Sie hat an dem Tag einen Arzttermin. Viele Grüße, Tobias Sonntag

Dear Ms Berger, Lena can't join the trip on Friday. She has a doctor's appointment that day. Best wishes, Tobias Sonntag

Tone

Adjectives like „warm“ don't help anyone write. Positions on an axis do. The number shows where Albert sits between the poles, from 1 to 10.

Two rules replace all the others. If the sentence could appear in a banking app, it is too cold. If it could appear in a children's TV show, it is too warm.

Five stylistic devices

What makes Hey Albert recognisable can be repeated. Five tools, with rules.

S1 · The role name. Feature name plus its role in the family's life. The week board is „die Heldenansicht für die Familie“ (the family's hero view). The Safe is „der Aktenschrank der Familie“ (the family's filing cabinet). The image comes from home, craft, body or theatre, never from technology. At most one role name per paragraph.

S2 · The maxim (Merksatz). A sentence you could pin up. Short, absolute, no conditional: „Kinder sind Beteiligte, nicht Publikum.“ (Children take part; they are not an audience.) At most one per section, and it brings its proof.

S3 · The contrast pair. Two things set against each other, usually with „statt“ (instead of): „Bündel statt Einzelteile“ (bundles, not loose parts), „Rhythmus statt Dauerfeuer“ (rhythm, not constant fire).

S4 · The concrete image. The thing itself instead of the category: „forgotten gym bags, pasta three times in one week, a parents' evening only one of you knew about“.

S5 · The named consequence. Why something matters, as a consequence rather than a claim: „A mistake here means the cleaner sees the property tax notice.“

Sentence structure

• One sentence, one thing. Main clauses, subject first.
• Active voice. „Tobias fährt.“ Whoever acts is in the sentence.
• Verbs, not nouns. „Wir planen die Woche noch“, not „Die Planung der Woche steht aus“.
• No relative clauses with „den“ or „dem“. Two sentences instead.
• A name, a time or an amount — never a vague quantity. „Six minutes until you leave“, not „soon“.
• One word per thing, everywhere. „Fahrt“ (drive) is the same word in the app, on the website, in letters and in the children's view.
• Write for the ear. Read it aloud. Where you stumble, the reader stumbles too.
• Each section has one long sentence that carries it. Brevity is not the goal. No carrying sentence at all reads like a telegram.

Hard limits

The numbers are guards, not judges. A person reads an outlier before it is thrown out.

{
  "satzlaenge_max": 18,
  "anteil_ueber_15_max": 0.08,
  "silben_je_wort_max": 1.7,
  "wortteil_zeichen_max": 14,
  "wstf4_kinder_max": 5,
  "wstf4_erwachsene_max": 9,
  "homepage": {
    "hero_woerter_max": 40,
    "sektion_woerter_max": 90,
    "seite_woerter": [
      600,
      800
    ]
  }
}

Formatting

Words

Our words

Add the verbs that belong to Albert: kümmern, erinnern, vorschlagen, übernehmen, nachfragen, Bescheid geben (take care, remind, suggest, take on, ask, let people know). And the words for the good things: Vorfreude, zusammen, aussuchen, feiern, erleben, behalten, frei (anticipation, together, choose, celebrate, experience, keep, free). A sentence about a holiday must not sound like a sentence about a dentist appointment.

Never

Never in marketing

Instead of workplace language

What things are called

The product name is deliberately mixed: Albert — the Family Manager. It is the only permitted mix. English terms appear only where they have long arrived in German family life: Cockpit, Board, Inbox, Safe, Album. Everything else is German.

In code, things have different names than on screen. That is intentional.

Where possible the screen shows a person's name, not a role. „Papa fährt“ beats „an adult is assigned“.

Ten microcopy patterns

Almost every answer is here. All in the family manager register, the last one in the reader register.

With children

• Simplify the syntax, not the register. „Heute bist du für den Müll zuständig.“ (Today you're in charge of the bins.)
• At most three steps, one per line. „Turnbeutel packen. Trinkflasche füllen. Beutel an die Tür stellen.“
• No „you must“. The necessity lies with the thing: „Der Bus fährt um 7:12. Die Tasche steht vorher im Flur.“ (The bus leaves at 7:12. The bag is in the hallway before then.)
• Say what is open — not what someone failed to do.
• Praise names an action and comes from a person: „Papa hat gesehen: Du hast heute alles allein gepackt.“ (Dad saw: you packed everything yourself today.)

What we don't claim

We promise no effect. Not for the software, not for children. The benefit is a scene, never an hour, never a percentage.

Checklist

Before every text, every post, every screen:

1. Could this appear in a banking app? Then it is too cold.
2. Could this appear in a children's TV show? Then it is too warm.
3. Is there a word from the workplace in it? Then out it goes.
4. Am I talking about a child or with them? We don't talk about children.
5. Does the hint bring the next step? Otherwise it is half a hint.
6. If it is about something nice — can you hear that?
7. Am I selling guilt? Then start again.
8. Is it a scene or a feature? Without a time, name, place or number it is a feature.
9. Does it say „no“? Then rewrite it as a promise.
10. Is Albert celebrating something he suggested himself? Then cut it.

Writing happens with the texten skill. Measuring happens with python3 tooling/check-sprache.py.