In the United States, more documents are translated into Spanish than any other language.  Probably not much of a surprise since the number of Hispanics living in the United States keeps increasing.

What if you need a Spanish translation for use in the United States, what type of Spanish should be used?  Each country has a different dialect of Spanish.  You might be trying to communicate to people who have moved to the United States from a variety of different countries including Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, Spain, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Honduras and Argentina.

If you have documents which need translated into Spanish for use in the United States, it's best to use what's called "Universal Spanish".  It's a generic form of Spanish that is not localized specifically for a particular country.

The dialectal differences of Spanish is similar to what you find within the English language between UK English, Australian English and US English.  We can all understand each other, but there are certain terms and spellings which are a little different.  It causes us to pause and it just sounds funny.  You get a little taste of that if you've watched the British stars on "Supernanny", "Hell's Kitchen", or "American Idol".  Some of their expressions and what they call things is a little different from what is normally used in the United States.  Spanish is the same way.

Here are some examples showing differences within the Spanish language among different countries:

• The word "popcorn" is translated as "crispetas" (Columbia), "palomitas" (Central America), "pochocio" (Argentina/Uruguay), and "cabritas de maiz" (Chile).
• The word "avocado" is translated as "palta" (Chile) while most other countries use "aguacate".
• For the word "straw" (like a drinking straw), it could be "popote", "pajilla", "paja", "caña" or "pitillo" depending on the region.
• There are even pronoun and grammatical differences between countries.  For instance, the pronoun "you" is "vos" in Central America, Argentina and certain regions in Colombia; whereas, the rest of the countries use "tú".

Again, everyone can understand all of these words, it just gets a little awkward reading what's been localized for another country.   To avoid that from happening with your target audience here in the United States, it's best to use the most common word for each - what we call "Universal Spanish".

Exactly what is "Universal Spanish"?  It's a term created in the United States with the intention to accommodate every speaker of Spanish.  The translators, writers and editors select the most commonly used terms, usually favoring Mexican terms given that the largest number of immigrants come from Mexico.  Like with the word "popcorn", the Spanish translator has to decide among all of the choices which is the most commonly used word for those living in the United States.

There is also the RAE (Real Academia Española), which is an entity that regulates the use of Spanish.  When trying to decide on a term, writers and translators refer to the RAE's dictionaries to see which term they recommend.  This is a very important tool for translators as careful consideration is given to select the best words for the target audience.

So, when we ask if "Universal Spanish" would be okay for your Spanish translation or website translation, that is what we are talking about.  Our goal is to provide Spanish translations for your readers as if it were written especially for them, regardless of which country they are originally from.

For more information about our Spanish translation or website translation services, please visit our website or contact us at info@b2btranslations.com.