Auerbach Intl

Phone: (415) 592 0042
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SPANISH TRANSLATION SERVICES

As with every language, Spanish and English both have their various nuances and it’s important to understand these particular differences to offer effective Spanish to English translation services. With Spanish speakers spanning Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia-Pacific, it is estimated that more than 427 million people speak Spanish as a native language. This makes it the language with the second largest group of native speakers in the world. Offering accurate Spanish to English translation services is a part of Auerbach International.

Spanish is the official language of 22 countries and is expected to be a first language of 50% of the United States population within 50 years—in fact, there are more native Spanish speakers in the United States than in Spain itself! Spanish is the third most used language on the internet, growing 1,312.4% in the last 15 years. It’s one of the top ten languages for mobile app localization and also fuels a significant gamer population. Latin America has a rapidly growing game industry, with the highest year-on-year growth for games in the world for a $4.1 billion total revenue.

According to research by Nielsen, companies looking to market to the Hispanic population in the United States should devote just as much attention to localizing their content, even for bilingual English and Spanish speakers. The reason? People prefer reading and making purchases online in their native language.

The biggest differences from translating Spanish to English is found within grammar, vocabulary and punctuation.

SPANISH GRAMMAR

Auerbach International provides English to Spanish translation services as well as Spanish to English translation services. Both English and Spanish utilize the same subject-verb-object sentence structure. However, Spanish grammar rules are much more lenient and allow for different structures to be used, while English does not. Also, in Spanish, the subject that is to be emphasized is often placed at the end of the sentence. A good Spanish to English translator is able to recognize these syntactic differences in a text and rearrange them in a logical way that flows well in English, although, this isn’t always easy to do. There are six different spellings for each verb tense in Spanish, depending on the subject, but English verbs are altered by suffixes for each tense. Take “bailar” (to dance) as an example. The verb in English is only modified in the third-person singular (he/she/it dances), whereas it conjugates into three subjects and numbers in Spanish, making six versions of the verb in each tense. So, we say “Yo bailo, tú bailas, él/ella baila, nosotros bailamos” to mean “I dance, you dance, she/he dances, we dance”. As with adjectives, they usually come after the noun in Spanish, but before the noun in English. Spanish adjective endings are also altered by the gender and number of the noun (masculine or feminine, singular or plural), but English adjectives never change (tall boy, tall girl, tall boys, tall girls).

SPANISH VOCABULARY

Quite a large portion of the Spanish language is derived from Latin, just like French, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian. English on the other hand is an Anglo-Saxon language that has been influenced by Latin, but to a lesser extent. As a result, many words that may be common, everyday words in Spanish, have cognates in English that are used only formally. Due to this, the Spanish to English or English to Spanish translator must be aware of the level of formality and the context of the document in order to decide whether to keep the more formal cognate or choose a more appropriate alternative. This is especially important when translating verbs. Usually if the cognates in English are used, the result would be too formal; in many cases, it would be better to look for the corresponding phrasal verb.

SPANISH PUNCTUATION MARKS

As simple as it seems, some of the punctuation rules are exactly the opposite between English and Spanish. For instance, all punctuation marks in Spanish must always be placed outside of quotation marks or parentheses, while in English, within. This is something that often causes much confusion. In Spanish exclamation and quotation marks include an opening mark. For example, “Hello! How are you?” would be ‘¡Hola! ¡Cómo estás!’ in Spanish. Also, the uses of colon, semicolon, dashes, and brackets differ between the two languages.

If the translation involves more literary texts and dialogues are to be translated, the linguist must be very knowledgeable because punctuation of dialogues has very strict rules in Spanish. As you can see, English to Spanish translation services or Spanish to English translation services have to consider many factors and pay attention to many details and nuances of both languages while translating a text. Our Spanish to English translation services only employ linguistic experts who have proven experience in all of these aspects in their particular language pairs.

GENDER IN SPANISH

In English, nouns do not change form and take pronouns depending on whether someone or something is masculine, feminine or neuter (he, she, it). Spanish is a two-gender language meaning all nouns and adjectives are assigned genders, like in French, and can be considered masculine or feminine. Such genders are arbitrary. Generally, objects that end in “a” are feminine, while those ending in “o” are masculine. But this is not always the case.

Understanding the roles grammar, vocabulary and punctuation marks play is extremely helpful when translating from Spanish to English.

ENGLISH TO SPANISH TRANSLATION SERVICES

As with any language translation, making English content fit into a Spanish context has many challenges. Spanish is particularly difficult because of its close ties to Italian and Portuguese, which differs from English’s Anglo-Saxon roots. Before starting a Spanish translation, the translation team must decide whether the translation will use formal or informal forms of address and pronouns. This would depend both on the target audience and the tone of voice of the client.

THERE IS NO ONE TRUE SPANISH

Just like there are variations in the English spoken in North America, the UK, and Australia, there are major differences in the multiple regional varieties of Spanish, such as European Spanish, Spanish among countries of the Americas, as well as dialect differences within Spain and Hispanic America. It can easily be said that there are as many Spanish languages as countries in Latin America adding Spain, but even within each country there are more varieties.

While these differences are most apparent in pronunciation, there are significant differences in grammar, formalities, as well as names of food, clothing, and everyday objects. The Auerbach International solution for offering English to Spanish translation services is to understand where the readers/clients are located so we can identify which specific Spanish form and vocabulary should be used.

SPANISH IS LONGER THAN ENGLISH

When offering English to Spanish translation services, you probably didn’t notice the length differences between the languages. Research has shown that Spanish translations are 20 to 30% longer than the original English text source. This poses challenges, such as in magazine articles or brochures, when the English text does not allow much open space and the number of pages cannot expand.

Auerbach International understands the challenges when translating from English to Spanish and/or Spanish to English and will take into account this language expansion without losing the original message.

For more about Spanish translation excellence, usage differences by country, our Spanish translation process, translation industries we have served, and sample Spanish translation projects, please click here.

Spanish Translation

Spanish Translation Excellence. You may have tried the rest. Now try the best.

Auerbach International’s expertise in language localization services and Spanish language translation is demonstrated by our thousands of projects, attention to cultures, exemplary results, great testimonials, and highest standards of excellence.

Whatever your product or service, targeting 400 million Spanish speakers worldwide and 51 million in the US alone is a near necessity… and can help your bottom line.

  • What revenue are you losing by not targeting Hispanics in the US?
  • What revenue can you gain by targeting Latin America and Spain?

Remember: 400 million Spanish speakers are an enormous revenue stream.

Auerbach International offers targeted dialect translation services that provide the language edge that your company requires to differentiate itself from the rest — whether from English to Spanish or Spanish to English. Since the language reflects your image, why settle for anything less than the best?

Kudos on our Spanish projects

“I’m impressed by the quality of the translation… you don’t even find that perfection in catalogs where the native language is Spanish.”
~ Marketing Manager for a water pump company

“The Cadbury policy harmonization committee was so impressed with your Spanish translations that they asked us to have all their HR policies translated. Kudos to you and your team for winning over this hard-to-please crowd.”
~HR Benefits Administrator

Spanish for where?

Spanish has two primary blocs: Latin American and European (Castilian). While technical terminology is usually the same across countries, daily-life vocabulary differs dramatically. For example, a tambo is a type of basket to transport liquids in Mexico and El Salvador, a type of shelter in Peru, and a whorehouse in Argentina.

Spanish: Differences in Usage

Some idioms such as “to have a good time” have different genders: masculine in Spain (“pasarlo bien”) and feminine in Latin America (“pasarla bien”). Gender differences also extend to nouns such as the masculine “el Internet” in Spain and “la Internet” in Latin America.

Latin America prefers the simple preterit tense, “Hoy me levanté a las 6”, whereas Spain employs the compound preterit, “Hoy me he levantado a las 6.” Both have the exact same meaning: “Today I woke up at 6.”

Some terms such as “pararse” (“to stand”) deemed acceptable in Latin America are considered archaic in Spain, which uses “ponerse de pie”.

Latin American Spanish permits more English and foreign influences in its vocabulary than European Spanish:

  • These <> are used in Spain, whereas Latin America uses “these” or ‘these ‘. Despite these differences, their usage is exactly the same across continents.
  • Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay are known for using the pronoun “vos” instead of “tu” for “you.” This is critical when targeting specific Latin American countries but not if you are targeting a generalized Latin American population in the United States.

All those “local flavors, hues, and subtleties” are carefully considered during the language localization service process, which helps us convert your US products and/or services into the most comprehensive Spanish promotions possible while leveraging all these increasingly growing markets.

Whether your file is aimed at teenagers in Puerto Rico, business execs in Mexico or nurses in Argentina, Auerbach International employs the professional resources to tailor your message to your audience.

Visualize your projects converted into various Spanish versions to make them both usable and useful in Spain and Latin America. Now that’s an appealing idea!

Fastest Deliveries Humanly Possible… and Discounts

Over 30+ years ago, Auerbach International pioneered and perfected the art of the fastest deliveries … without jeopardizing the quality or meaning. Companies worldwide rely on us when their deadlines are tight and millions of dollars are at stake. And we have achieved many miracle deliveries that other agencies thought impossible … as shown in our Success Stories.

We use the latest Translation Memory tools to capture your preferred terminology and cycle those approved terms again on future projects. Not only do your projects maintain consistency but you can also benefit from discounts on repeated text.

Our Process and Commitment to Quality

To maintain familiarity with your vocabulary, for all your projects we strive to use the same linguist teams — accredited and experienced native linguists who are also experts in your industry terminology. Plus, your professional-level projects go through at least three phases:

  • An initial, professional translation reflecting the terminology of your industry
  • QA review by a second professional translator
  • final proofing for spelling, punctuation, grammar and formatting …
    all to ensure that you get a result translated and reviewed by the best.

Need Desktop Publishing for your brochures, manuals or graphics? Our professional layout teams work into all programs and can even make your English template accommodate the 20% more words that Spanish usually requires. After layout, we do another proofing to ensure that the final product is perfect.

Award-winning Client Satisfaction

Auerbach International remains the only language agency in all North America to be three-time winners of the independent ValueStar award for client satisfaction. Over 100 clients were independently interviewed each year. The results? We received an over 95% approval rating each time.

We enjoy talking to you, and are totally committed to personal attention for our targeted dialect translation service or any other linguistic service. We confirm receipt of your projects rapidly, and we will never grow too big to ignore individual needs and personal requests. We like to treat your project as importantly as you do.

Cultural Assessments to Ensure Success

If your time frame permits, our global marketing teams review your English text to see whether its appeals for the Anglo market work equally well for your target Spanish market.

For example, are you emphasizing cost savings when your Spanish audience more highly values your product’s impact on the family? If so, we could rewrite your text in English first before it is translated.

We can certainly render your stated concepts into Spanish. But if those concepts do not appeal to a Spanish audience, more than the meaning will get lost in translation. For some of the industries we have served, please click here.

Spanish: Industries we serve

Over 30+ years, industries for which we have translated or interpreted include:

  • Advertising
  • International trade
  • Consumer products
  • Multimedia
  • Healthcare / Medical / Pharmaceuticals
  • Dentistry
  • IT
  • Pumps, Engineering and Construction
  • HR, contracts and employee benefits
  • Food and wine
  • Green technologies
  • Law (patents, contracts, depositions, intellectual property)
  • Telecom
  • Automotive engineering
  • Insurance
  • and more.

Spanish: Sample Projects

  • Advertising copy for consumer-products companies such as Rubbermaid
  • Voiceovers and Flash files for Microsoft
  • Explanations of the US healthcare system for employees nationwide
  • Interpretations at CEO-staff meetings at branch offices nationwide
  • Depositions and court-certified interpretations for attorneys
  • Operation manuals for international engineering companies
  • User manuals for global computer companies
  • Multilingual desktop publishing (layout) for thousands of brochures
  • Software strings for computer Help sites
  • Software programs to teach reading to primary school students
  • Directions for Use for global dental and healthcare companies
  • PowerPoint presentations for computer companies
  • Installation instructions for automotive parts manufacturers
  • Flyers and public notices for the San Francisco Police Department
  • Personal and academic documents for immigrants and law firms
  • Website localizations for global pharmaceutical firms such as Lilly
  • Signs and maps for museums
  • Advertising copy for Walgreens’ in-house pharmacies
  • Garage-door catalogs for Home Depot
  • And lots more.

Whatever your business, your industry or your size, we look forward to serving you.

As you can see, our expertise in Spanish is comprehensive. We tailor your message to your audience to ensure that your file, whether from English to Spanish or Spanish to English, reflects the highest quality translation. Experts in Spanish language translation specifically target the national or regional dialect to ensure acculturated messaging.

Whether you are looking to localize a website or video into Spanish or translate an important legal document, our Spanish language services are all encompassing. We take challenges of time and sensitivity very seriously and work on behalf of our clients to deliver superior Spanish language translations.

Work with the Spanish language experts. Our expertise in Spanish is second to none.

Now is the right moment to service the huge Spanish-speaking world, conveying your ideas in the best way possible while transforming your bottom line into more benefits.

Please ask us for a Free Quote.