Letter case in English-Spanish

In English, upper cases are used much more than in Spanish. For example, it is very common to see initial letters of words written with upper case in the title of books or articles. This can be confusing for translators when they are starting their career as they might not know when to use upper or lower case in English and Spanish. Find below some basic guidelines:

	English	Spanish
Languages and nationalities	English	inglés
Days of the week	Monday	lunes
Governmental positions	The President of the Government The Mayor of Seville	El presidente del Gobierno El alcalde de Sevilla
Public institutions	The Tourism Board The Andalusian Government The Town Council The Parliament The Conservative party	El Patronato de Turismo La Junta de Andalucía El Ayuntamiento El Parlamento El partido conservador (pero el Partido Popular)
Specific geographical sites	The River Thames Lake Windermere Mount Kilimanjaro	El rio Támesis El lago Windermere El monte Kilimanjaro
Cardinal points	The North	El norte

Dates in English and Spanish

In English we use ordinal numbers to express the date (first, second, third, etc.) while in Spanish we use cardinal numbers (uno, dos, tres, etc.).
For example,
Today is the 2nd of June / Hoy es el 2 de junio

To talk about the date we use the preposition 'on'. However, for months and years we use 'in'.

You came on the 12th of May / Viniste el 12 de mayo
You came in May / Viniste en mayo
You came in 1995 / Viniste en 1995

In English, months and days of the week are written with upper case while they are written with lower case in Spanish.

March / marzo Monday / lunes

In English, dates are written in the following order: month / day / year

June, 20th 1997 / 20 de junio de 1997 March, 3rd 2001 / 3 de marzo de 2001

In both English and Spanish, dates can be written with numbers and not letter. It is important to note that that the date format in the US is month/day/year whereas in UK (and Spanish) is day/month/year.

20 de junio de 1999: US= 6/20/2009 UK= 20/6/2009

If you are unsure about how dates in English are formed, and want to practice some exercises, check this website.

Measurements

Measurements can be a problem for translators when they are starting their career, as the English and Spanish systems are different. See below some English-Spanish equivalents regarding length, weight, volume/capacity and area.

Length
- centimeter (centímetro) = 0.3937 inches (pulgadas)
- 1 inch (pulgada) = 2.54 centimeters (centímetros)
- 1 foot (pie) = 30.48 centimeters (centímetros)
- foot (pie) = 0.3048 meters (metros)
- yard (yarda) = 0.9144 meters (metros)
- meter (metro) = 1.093613 yards (yardas)
- kilometer (kilómetro) = 0.621 miles (millas)
- mile (milla) = 1.609344 kilometers (kilómetros)

Weight
- 1 gram (gramo) = 0.353 ounces (onzas)
- 1 ounce (onza) = 28.35 grams (gramos)
- 1 pound (libra) = 453.6 grams (gramos)
- 1 pound (libra) = 0.4563 kilograms (kilogramos)
- 1 kilogram (kilogramo) = 2.2046 pounds (libras)
- 1 American ton (tonelada americana) = 0.907 metric tons (toneladas métricas)
- 1 metric ton (tonelada métrica) = 1.1 metric tons (toneladas métricas)

Volume/Capacity
- 1 milliliter (mililitro) = 0.034 fluid ounces (onzas fluidas)
- 1 milliliter (mililitro) = 0.2 teaspoons (cucharaditas)
- 1 fluid ounce (onza fluida) = 29.6 milliliters (mililitros)
- 1 teaspoon (cucharadita) = 5 milliliters (mililitros)
- 1 cup (taza) = 0.24 liters (litros)
- 1 quart (cuarto) = 0.95 liters (litros)
- liter (litro) = 4.227 cups (tazas)
- 1 liter (litro) = 1.057 quarts (cuartos)
- 1 liter (litro) = 0.264 U.S. gallons (galones americanos)
- 1 U.S. gallon (galón americano) = 3.785 liters (litros)

Area
- 1 square centimeter (centímetro cuadrado) = 0.155 square inches (pulgadas cuadradas)
- 1 square inch (pulgada cuadrada) = 6.4516 square centimeters (centímetros cuadrados)
- 1 square foot (pie cuadrado) = 929 square centimeters (centímetros cuadrados)
- 1 acre (acre) = 0.405 hectares (hectáreas)
- 1 hectare (hectárea) = 2.471 acres (acres)
- 1 square kilometer (kilómetro cuadrado) = 0.386 square miles (millas cuadradas)
- 1 square mile (milla cuadrada) = 2.59 square kilometers (kilómetros cuadrados)

When translating a text, you might come across these measurements and wonder if you need to make an exact conversion of the numbers. The answer is not necessarily, depending on the kind of text. Usually, you will do an an approximate conversion, except in scientific texts.
For example:
That piece of meat weights a pound.
Ese trozo de carne pesa medio quilo.
----------
I live a mile away from the train station
Vivo a un kilómetro y medio de la estación de tren.

You can use the Google calculator to make conversions.

Undecided? Translation or Interpreting?

Have a look at this Spanish-flavoured video to get a view of the life of an interpreter and the main difference with translating.

Place names

Place names can be tricky to translate sometimes,especially in those cases where there is not a direct translation from English into Spanish. For example, "Falkland Islands" "islas Malvinas". This can be a real problem for the interpreter who does not know the equivalent and does not have time to look it up in any resource.

Place names should always be translated accurately, making sure the spelling is correct.

Please check the following websites to find information about place names in English, Spanish and in their native languages.

Countries, capitals and nationality (Spanish an English)

Place names in Spanish (Toponimia)

Place Names: Spanish and native names