Read This Before You Search for Spanish Translation Services

This category is also referred to as Castilian Spanish, Iberian Spanish, Peninsular Spanish, or Spanish for Spain. The typical destination market here is Spanish speakers living in Spain.

European Spanish is most often called “Castilian Spanish,” especially among English speakers, which can create confusion. Castilian Spanish is the classical term for the Spanish spoken in Spain. However, it also refers to the dialect spoken in the historical region of Castile. 

If your organization’s primary objective is to reach a Spanish-speaking population in Spain, you will want to consider localizing your content to Castilian Spanish. This applies even to content you’ve already created in Spanish. What this means for you and your language partner is that native Spanish speakers from Spain edit all of your content so that it sounds natural to the local market in Spain and throughout Europe.

Studies show that most people prefer to read content tailored to their dialect. Also, given the history of the Spanish language, many “Old World” Spanish-speakers consider Spanish written or spoken outside of Spain to be “not pure.” Do you want to risk offending potential clients by using the wrong dialect?

There are differences in pronunciation to keep in mind when creating spoken content. Besides differences in pronunciation, one big difference in written text is that Castilian Spaniards use the vosotros (2nd person, informal) verb form, while Latin Americans use ustedes. Of course, as you may remember from high school language classes, with a new verb form comes a new conjugation. Take the verb estar, for example. If you want to say, “How are you?” using the vosotros form in Spanish, you would say, “¿cómo estáis?”

The good news is that expert translators can modify Spanish from another region to Castilian Spanish. With little cost or time, you can modify your translated documents to see the results you and your organization are looking for.

This category refers to Latin American Spanish, Latam Spanish, or Spanish for Latin America. The typical destination market here is Latin America or native Spanish-speakers living in the United States. However, this is a somewhat arbitrary name given to idiomatic and native expressions specific to Spanish spoken in Latin America.

Latin America accounts for the largest number of native Spanish speakers. Of the 500 million people around the world for whom Spanish is their mother tongue, more than 300 million live in Latin America. However, the differences between the Latin American Spanish spoken in Mexico City and the Latin American Spanish spoken in Bogata, for instance, can be significant. Depending on the context, the difference could be as great as between the Spanish spoken in Bogata and Madrid. 

To take one example, it is more common to find “loanwords” (i.e., words directly taken from English without translating or adapting the spelling to traditional norms) in Latin American Spanish. Thus, specific care must be taken to ensure your content suits all markets in Latin America.

Once you know which Spanish-speaking market you want to target, you are ready to move forward with your translation project. We offer document translation from Spanish to English and English to Spanish in a number of industries.