Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
European Spanish
Lionbridge Technologies
WW Language Excellence
Revision History
2015/12/21–Update and format adjustments. Addition of link to Official Spanish Spelling Rules
2014/06/16– Update and format adjustments
2011/07/27 – Addition of reference to Spanish Spelling reform
2007/01/10 – Creation of the style guide
Important Note
This style guide indicates the general style to be followed in Lionbridge projects. However, the client's
preferences, glossaries and specifications overrule the style guide!
If the style guide and project specifications are not followed, Lionbridge reserves the right to deduct
expenses to correct the errors, or to require the translator/editor to correct the errors.
Warning! The style guide follows the latest recommendations of the Real Academia
Española published in 2010 except for numbers. Therefore be aware that some rules in
this style guide may conflict with customer instructions.
I. Writing Style
A. Language General Style
Sentence Structure
In general, the final form of the translated text should reflect the normal structure in
Spanish. Therefore, the restructuring of the translated sentence in Spanish is
sometimes required.
The usual word collocation in Spanish is “subject+verb+complements”. Bear in mind
that this is just a general hint and adapt sentences as necessary to produce a fluent
translation.
Example:
Personal Pronouns
Spanish does not usually require the presence of pronoun subjects in the sentence as
verbs are conjugated in person and number.
Spanish may use formulas other than personal pronouns to translate “you”, “we”, etc.,
such as “the user”, “the company”.
Pay attention to the mixed usage of a company name and the pronoun “they” when
you are referring to it. Use a consistent criterion in the translation and do not mix
Spanish verbal forms in singular and plural as you may see in source text.
Original spelling:
Foreign loan words and words of Latin origin which are used with their original spelling
and pronunciation and are not spelled according to the Spanish spelling rules must be
written with some kind of graphic mark in order to indicate their foreign origin,
preferably italics or quotation marks.
Adapted spelling:
On the other hand, foreign and Latin words that have been adapted or do not present
any problems with respect to Spanish spelling rules are to be written without any type
of highlighting and according to the normal Spanish spelling rules:
Foreign expressions:
Phrases or sayings in other languages that are used unmodified in Spanish texts should
also be written in italics or between quotation marks to indicate their foreign origin
even though they are commonly used:
Localize place names if their translations are widely used and recognizable. In
some cases, it may be better to leave the original name:
Recommended Discouraged
Amberes Antwerp
Frankfurt Fráncfort
Aquisgrán Aachen
Repetitions
It is common in English to repeat the words in a sentence.
Example: If you want to edit a document, first open the document by selecting Open
in the File menu.
In Spanish, the word “document” would not be repeated in the translation. Instead you
would use a pronoun.
Also, Spanish style in general avoids repetitions and prefers synonyms to give the text a
better flow. However, in technical language and where a glossary exists for the
translation, function always prevails over elegance.
US-centric Examples
English text often contains US-centric examples, such as person’s names, city names
etc. Do not change the names unless you have been provided with specific instructions.
Gerund
Make sure to follow the Spanish grammatical rules for gerunds.
Avoid copying English usage.
Use infinitives for titles of topics or sections that begin with a gerund in English. For
more information, see section Chapter/Topic Titles.
Correct Incorrect
Un barril con 100 litros Un barril conteniendo
de... 100 litros de…
Note that if the bulleted items are joined by a conjunction, use lowercase and
period only on the last item.
Example:
El primer dígito se establece en 5 si:
no hay más entradas de dominio, y
no hay más buzones de usuario.
Complete sentences:
When the list items consist of complete sentences, the first word is capitalized and
each item ends with a period.
Example:
Se puede personalizar el saludo.
Se pueden transferir las llamadas externas.
Verbs
Infinitive versus imperative in instructions:
For instructions and commands to the user, translate using formal imperatives.
B. Translation of Software
Chapter/Topic Titles
Gerund:
Titles and chapter names in English often include an English gerund.
Example: “Creating a database”. Translate these gerunds using an infinitive verb form:
“Crear una base de datos”.
Capitalization:
In Spanish only the first letter in a title is capitalized.
Example: “Creating and Printing Reports” is translated as “Crear e imprimir informes”.
Questions:
English topic titles sometimes use a question, such as “How do I print a picture?” In
Spanish translate this kind of structures as “Cómo + infinitive” and without the question
mark.
Example: “Cómo imprimir una imagen”.
Index Entries
Use infinitives when translating English index entries that use the gerund. Use lower
case for index entries, unless the index entry actually refers to a UI item.
Use your best judgment when translating index entries and pay special attention to
entries with “button”, “menu” and similar. Using the structure below helps the user find
the desired index entry quickly.
B. Capitalization Rules
In Spanish only the names of people and places need to be capitalized.
Headlines
Only the letter of the first word in a sentence must be in upper case.
Book Titles
Capitalize only the first word and, of course, proper names and trademarks. Apply the
general rule for titles of paragraphs and chapters.
Do not capitalize the words cápitulo, apartado, párrafo, figura, etc..
Correct Incorrect
Consulte el capítulo 5... Consulte el Capítulo 5...
Correct Incorrect
Para que usted pueda Para que Usted pueda
colocar... colocar...
Commands
Only capitalize the first letter in commands:
Correct Incorrect
Borrar tabuladores Borrar Tabuladores
Organizations
Names of departments, divisions and sections in an organization are capitalized, but
the actual word departamento, división or sección should be maintained in lowercase,
unless the office is formally addressed or it is listed suggesting a postal address.
Example:
Sr. gerente del Departamento de Reparaciones: [letter heading]
Centro de Servicio y Distribución, 7750 The Bluffs NW. [address]
But:
El departamento de Atención al Cliente responderá a sus consultas. [body text]
Never Capitalize
Never capitalize names of languages, nationalities, days of the week, months, seasons,
jobtitles, or the 1st person pronoun, except at the beginning of a sentence:
Names of languages and nationalities: “Se habla español,” “el himno francés”
Days of the week and names of the months: “El lunes 25 de mayo de 1992”
Season names, except if they are personalized: “El verano pasado”
Job titles: “ministro”,” presidente”, gerente”.
The 1st person pronoun “yo”
Numbers
Decimal separator:
The most common decimal separator in Spanish (Spain) is a comma and is the one
recommended by this style guide.
Thousands separator:
In Spanish, “un billón” is a million millions, not a thousand millions as in the USA. In
other words, one billion in Spanish speaking countries is a trillion in the USA.
ONE BILLION (ENGLISH) UN BILLÓN (SPANISH)
1,000,000,000 1.000.000.000.000
109 1012
Even though the Real Academia Española has accepted the term ‘millardo’ as a
translation of the English term “billion”, its use is best avoided . Consequently, the
number “5.3 billion” should be translated as “5300 millones”.
However, for the sake of completeness, below please find the latest recommendations
of the Real Academia Española for decimal and thousands separators.
Decimals:
Today both the comma and the point are admitted for separating decimals from whole
numbers. However, the Academy recommends using the point as separator for
decimals.
Thousands:
o Write 4 digit numbers together in one group without separators.
Example: 2000 or 5467.
o Write numbers with more than 4 digits in groups of three digits
separated by a “thin” space.
© 2016 Lionbridge Technologies, Inc. - CONFIDENTIAL 15
Example: 34 000 000. (We interpret that “thin” should be understood as
non-breaking.)
o Separation in groups of three digits for numbers with more than 4 digits
is optional when the number expresses quantity.
o The exceptions to using spaces are not new and also apply to the existing
thousand separators:
1. Numbers that indicate years, whether or not the number
contains more than 4 digits: the year 2010, in 40000 a.C. (before
Christ). However the separation can be used if the number (more
than 4 digits) is used to quantify or express the number of years:
40 000 years ago.
2. Numbers indicating pages, numbering of lines or columns.
3. Numbers of legal texts, especially as regards legislation.
4. Numbers of zip codes, postal addresses, post boxes.
5. Numbers forming part of codes or identifiers, signatures or
registers.
Days
Calendar:
In Spanish, the first day of the week is lunes (Monday).
Capitalization:
Weekdays are not capitalized unless they appear at the beginning of the sentence.
Abbreviations:
Weekdays can be abbreviated as indicated in the table below. Normally,
abbreviated forms are used due to space constraints. For this reason, the period
may be omitted (in spite of the general rule which requires the usage of a period in
abbreviations). If the abbreviation consists only of one letter, it must be capitalized.
Months
The names of the months are written in lower case and can be abbreviated as indicated
in the table below. Normally, abbreviated forms are used due to space constraints. For
this reason, the period may be omitted (in spite of the general rule which requires the
usage of a period in abbreviations).
English-US: 05/23/14
Spanish: 23-05-14
Separators:
When the dates are written in numbers only, the day, month and year can be separated
with hyphens (31-01-06), strokes (31/01/06) or periods (31.01.06) without spaces.
The preferred separator is a hyphen.
Do not add a zero before the number of the day when it is below 10 except for technical
reasons (4-2-98 is preferred over 04-02-98).
Written out format:
The correct format for writing out a date using a combination of numbers and letters is:
31 de mayo de 2014. The use of letters only is reserved for very formal documents such as
deeds and bank documents.
Spaces:
Do not include any signs or spaces when writing the year according to the number rule:
Correct Incorrect
2014 2.014
2 014
2,014
Currency
Name:
The standard currency used in Spain is “euro” and “céntimo”.
The plural form of “euro” is “euros”.
€ and EUR are invariable.
Use céntimo(s), not cent nor centavo to indicate the fraction of the euro. Cent and
centavo indicates the fraction of the dollar.
The abbreviation of “céntimo” is “cént.” and the abbreviation of the plural form
“céntimos” is” cts.” As this abbreviation coincides with that of centavo, it is
advisable to specify the name of the currency to avoid confusion.
Example:
El precio de la carne subió 40 céntimos (o 40 cts.) de euro.
Capitalization:
As all other currencies, euro is a common noun and is written in lowercase.
Symbols:
The most commonly used symbol is € although the three-letter code EUR is also
used. Symbols are never followed by a period.
Placing:
The currency symbol or the three-letter currency code is placed after the amount
and separated by a space.
This also applies to the symbols for other currencies. Be careful never to separate a
number and its accompanying symbol on different lines.
In Latin America, however, the symbol is usually placed before the number and
without a separating space. The three-letter code is also placed before the number
but is always written with a separating space.
Spain 50 $ 50 EUR
Latin America $50 EUR 50
E. Punctuation
Please follow the rules published by the Real Academia Española in “Ortografía de la
lengua española.” For more information, see the section on References.
Quotation Marks
The use of the angled quotation marks, also called Latin quotation marks (« »), is
becoming less common in online documentation as these signs are not found on the
Spanish keyboard. It is recommended to use double quotes and single quotes only.
Quotation marks are not used as freely in Spanish as in English. Often they can be
changed to italics or even left out.
NOTE: The period must always be placed outside of the quotation marks (as well as
parentheses). This is a very common error in Spanish translations from English.
Comma
The comma rules in Spanish are very similar to English usage, however, there are
number of important exceptions:
Conjunctions:
As a general rule the comma is not used together with the conjunctions y, e, ni, o, u.
Correct Incorrect
Imágenes, caracteres, Imágenes, caracteres,
líneas y símbolos. líneas, y símbolos.
However, in some cases the joint use of the comma and the conjunction is
necessary.
In a list of complex items separated by a semicolon, write a comma or a semicolon
before the last item.
Write a comma before the coordinating conjunctions when the first sequence is
connected with the previous predicate and not the last of the coordinated items:
Example:
Pagó el traje, el bolso y los zapatos, y salió de la tienda
No sé si ir de vacaciones a Francia o Italia, o quedarme en casa.
Although permitted, in some cases it is better to avoid repeating the same
conjunction in the same sentence by rephrasing:
Example:
Seleccione Cortar y alargar, y haga clic.
Seleccione Cortar y alargar; a continuación haga clic.
Salutations:
Example:
Querida Raquel:
However, in emails separate the name and the initial greeting with a comma:
Example:
Hola, Raquel or Buenos días, Antonio.
Querido Javier:
¿Qué tal las vacaciones?
However, in emails separate the name and the initial greeting with a comma.
Example:
Hola, Raquel or Buenos días, Antonio.
Colon can be used in technical texts to indicate times.
Example: 17:20. See also the section on Time above.
Prefixes:
The new Spanish spelling rules give explicit indications regarding the spelling of the
expressions with prefixes, including “ex-“, which is now handled in the same way as
other prefixes: exmarido, ex primer ministro. Below please find the basic guidelines:
One word:
Prefixes must always be written together with the nucleus it modifies, when the
nucleus consists of a single word. In this case, it is incorrect to use a hyphen to separate
the prefix from the base or to separate the prefix from the base with a white space.
Hyphens:
Acronyms and proper names in one word
The prefix is joined with the nucleus using a hyphen, when the nucleus starts with a
letter in uppercase.
anti-ALCA
mini-USB
pos-Gorbachov
pro-Obama.
Numbers
It is also necessary to use a hyphen when the base is a number in order to separate
the sequence of letters from the sequence of numbers:
sub-21
super-8.
White space:
Prefixes must be written separate from the nucleus when the nucleus consists of
various words, such as
Some prefixes such as ex-, anti- or pro-, have a higher tendency to form compound
words and in the Spanish grammar they are called separable prefixes:
The same prefix can therefore be written together with the nucleus, it can be
joined to the nucleus with a hyphen, or it can be completely separated with a white
space according to the above mentioned criteria:
F. Accenting Rules
© 2016 Lionbridge Technologies, Inc. - CONFIDENTIAL 26
The new spelling rules have revised the use of accent marks in monosyllabic words
with orthographic diphthongs or triphthongs. Please follow the guidelines below:
No accent mark:
Correct Incorrect
guion guión
truhan truhán
fie fié
liais liáis
In order to apply the rules for accenting words in Spanish, you need first to
determine how the words are divided into syllables. For this purpose you must
know how the vowels are pronounced within the same syllable – as diphthongs or
triphthongs or in distinct syllables.
Diphthongs:
The following are considered to be diphthongs for spelling purposes:
Open vowels (/a/, /e/, /o/) followed or preceeded by an unstressed closed vowel (/i/,
/u/): estabais, confiar, diario, afeitar, viento, pie, guion, aunar, acuario, actuado,
reunir, sueño, estadounidense, antiguo.
Two different closed vowels (/i/, /u/): triunfo, incluido, diurno, huir, viuda, ruido.
Triphthongs:
For orthographic purposes, triphthongs are defined as sequences of one open
vowel between two closed, unstressed vowels: confiáis, actuáis, puntuéis, guau.
As a result of applying the new rules, a limited group of words that traditionally
have been written with an accent mark - i.e. two-syllable words ending in -n, -s or a
vowel and in which the last syllable is stressed – will now be considered
monosyllables as regards the graphic accent. Monosyllabic words do not need an
accent mark. However, a diacritical accent mark is used to distinguish words which
have the same spelling but carry different meaning.
The words affected by this change are verbal forms such as crie, crio, criais, crieis;
nouns such as guion, ion, muon, pion, prion, ruan y truhan; and some proper names
such as Ruan and Sion.
Demonstrative adjectives:
The demonstrative adjectives este, ese and aquel, in their feminine and plural
forms, in their function as pronouns (Este es tonto; Quiero aquella) or determiners
(aquellos tipos, la chica esa), should not carry the diacritical accent mark according
to the general accenting rules, even in the case of possible ambiguity.
G. Formatting
Bold, Italics
Be careful to respect the formatting of the original document (fonts, font sizes, style,
etc.) unless specified otherwise.
Note that quotation marks in English can sometimes be replaced with italics in Spanish.
See the section on Quotation marks above.
Spacing
Symbols are always placed after their accompanying number and are separated by a
space from the number. Example: 50 $.
This also applies to the percentage symbol. Example: 50 %.
Avoid separating the number and the symbol on separate lines by using non-breaking
spaces.
The exception to this rule is the symbols for degrees, which are written together with
the number. Example: 30º.
In the case of temperature, when the temperature scale is specified, the symbol is
written after the number leaving a space. If the scale has not been defined, then the
symbol is written together with the number. Example: 30 ºC and 30 ºF but 30º.
H. New Spelling
In December 2010, the Real Academia Española published new spelling guidelines for
all countries where Spanish is the official language.
Please follow the rules below, unless otherwise instructed.
© 2016 Lionbridge Technologies, Inc. - CONFIDENTIAL 28
Replacing the letter “q”
Replace the “q” in loan words and words of Latin origin that have been adapted to
Spanish and where it can be replaced with a “c”.
Correct Incorrect
cuórum quórum
cuark quark
cuásar quásar
execuátur exequátur
However, if the etymological spelling forms with “q” are maintained, the words should
be considered loan words that have not been adapted and should therefore be written
in italics and without an accent.
Correct Incorrect
quorum quórum
quark cuark
quasar quásar
exequatur exequátur
Replace the letter “q” with a “c” or a “k” in a limited number of proper nouns:
Correct Incorrect
Catar Qatar
Irak Iraq
Marrakech Marraquech
I. Special Symbols
In Spanish abbreviations always end with a period except: c/ for calle (street) and c/c for
cuenta corriente (current account).
When the abbreviation is a group of words in the plural, a period is added at the end of
each part which are separated with a space.
Example: EE. UU. for Estados Unidos (the United States).
Common Spanish abbreviations are:
ej. ejemplo
fig. figura
incl. inclusive
máx. máximo
mín. mínimo
III. References
A. Client Style Guides
Please refer to the specific instructions of the project, which should contain information
on how to obtain client-specific style guides for the target language.
B. Platform Glossaries
Standard online glossaries for IT reference are available from the Microsoft Language
Portal:
http://www.microsoft.com/language/en-us/default.aspx