Jul 15, 2015 22:55
8 yrs ago
12 viewers *
English term
United States
$1,250M
English to Spanish
Bus/Financial
Investment / Securities
presentation of results
This translation is for Latin American Spanish, to be used in the USA, but Customer wants it understood by all Latin American speakers.
I usually leave commas and periods mirroring English, to avoid trying to please some speakers that use commas to separate thousands and some others who use a period to separate thousands, and so on.
There is huge list of amounts that represent sales for this Company.
$1.146M
$1.151M
I opted to mirror English. But customer is asking me to write the amounts it in Spanish with the proper abbreviation (of the word millions)
How can I abbreviate the amounts above? I read that in Spanish the abbreviation for millions is either "m" or "M" but it can be confused with "miles (thousands)" so it could be best to write mill.
So the abbreviation would be US$1,146 mill., (which is not much of an abbreviation for a table), or should I write US$1.146 mill. (with a period)?. or perhaps the symbol should follow the amounts? 1,146 mill. de US$ (no abbreviation here, it has nineteen characters).
It seems to me that it would be more abbreviated to write US$1,146,000 (12 characters) than the abbreviation
US$1,146 mill. (thirteen characters) I need your expert advice. Thanks a million (1,000,000)!
I usually leave commas and periods mirroring English, to avoid trying to please some speakers that use commas to separate thousands and some others who use a period to separate thousands, and so on.
There is huge list of amounts that represent sales for this Company.
$1.146M
$1.151M
I opted to mirror English. But customer is asking me to write the amounts it in Spanish with the proper abbreviation (of the word millions)
How can I abbreviate the amounts above? I read that in Spanish the abbreviation for millions is either "m" or "M" but it can be confused with "miles (thousands)" so it could be best to write mill.
So the abbreviation would be US$1,146 mill., (which is not much of an abbreviation for a table), or should I write US$1.146 mill. (with a period)?. or perhaps the symbol should follow the amounts? 1,146 mill. de US$ (no abbreviation here, it has nineteen characters).
It seems to me that it would be more abbreviated to write US$1,146,000 (12 characters) than the abbreviation
US$1,146 mill. (thirteen characters) I need your expert advice. Thanks a million (1,000,000)!
Proposed translations
(Spanish)
| 4 +1 | 1250 MUSD / 1,250,000 USD |
Charles Davis
|
| 4 | Use table headings and only numbers in the table cells |
DLyons
|
Proposed translations
+1
49 mins
Selected
1250 MUSD / 1,250,000 USD
There is more than one possible source of confusion here.
First, on the abbreviation for millions of US dollars, I would advise you to use the three-letter international currency symbol USD rather than the dollar symbol "$". It's true that "US$" isn't really ambiguous, but "$" alone might be for a Latin American audience, since it's used as the symbol for pesos in Mexico and Argentina, among other places. If you're going to use US$, it seems to me you might as well go straight for the ISO 4217 code: USD.
Now, there's no standard abbreviation for million in Spanish. But with these currency codes, a capital M before them always means million:
"No hay abreviatura establecida, aunque a veces se usa «m.» o «M.» (que puede confundirse con «mil(es)»), o también «mill.». Como símbolo, combinado con códigos de monedas o unidades físicas, es M (de «mega»). Así, Ma es un millón de años, MW es un millón de vatios, MEUR es un millón de euros (a veces también con el símbolo en lugar de con el código, como M€), etc."
http://www.fundeu.es/consulta/abreviatura-o-simbolo-de-millo...
MEUR is million euros and MUSD is million US dollars. The latter is used even in the US sometimes, and in Mexico; here's an example in a government source:
"tendrán una capacidad conjunta de generación de 1,749 megawatts (MW) y que representan inversiones globales por 1,459 millones de dólares (MUSD)."
http://saladeprensa.cfe.gob.mx/boletines/show/8026/
And in Argentina:
"La central nuclear de Atucha-II se licitó en 1989 a 1900 millones de dólares estadounidenses (MUSD) para una potencia de 745 MW (0,745 GW)."
http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1702453-desmitificando-las-energi...
Then we come to the comma/point (period) question. If the translation is supposed to be comprehensible to all Latin American speakers, either option will be potentially confusion. To Mexican readers (for example), 1,250 means one thousand two hundred and fifty; to Argentine readers (for example) it means one and a quarter.
Now, I presume that your question term means one thousand two hundred and fifty million dollars. If so, then I think you should either write it as 1250, which everyone will understand correctly, or else write the number out in full. I'd suggest using commas as separators; Argentine readers (for example) would have used points/periods (or thin spaces if they are strict followers of Academy rules), but no one will be confused about the amount.
The other recommendation I'd make, if possible, it to put the abbreviation in parentheses in the column header in your table; for example: VENTAS (en MUSD) or VENTAS (en USD), as appropriate. That way you don't have to repeat it in every line.
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Note added at 55 mins (2015-07-15 23:51:23 GMT)
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I have belatedly realised that if we are talking about the amount 1,250 million dollars ($1,250,000,000), the second suggestion in my answer is wrong. Please ignore it. It just goes to show how easy it is to get confused!
If the amount is a thousand and some million dollars, then 1250 MUSD is my suggestion, with MUSD (or mill. de USD if you prefer) in the column header if possible.
First, on the abbreviation for millions of US dollars, I would advise you to use the three-letter international currency symbol USD rather than the dollar symbol "$". It's true that "US$" isn't really ambiguous, but "$" alone might be for a Latin American audience, since it's used as the symbol for pesos in Mexico and Argentina, among other places. If you're going to use US$, it seems to me you might as well go straight for the ISO 4217 code: USD.
Now, there's no standard abbreviation for million in Spanish. But with these currency codes, a capital M before them always means million:
"No hay abreviatura establecida, aunque a veces se usa «m.» o «M.» (que puede confundirse con «mil(es)»), o también «mill.». Como símbolo, combinado con códigos de monedas o unidades físicas, es M (de «mega»). Así, Ma es un millón de años, MW es un millón de vatios, MEUR es un millón de euros (a veces también con el símbolo en lugar de con el código, como M€), etc."
http://www.fundeu.es/consulta/abreviatura-o-simbolo-de-millo...
MEUR is million euros and MUSD is million US dollars. The latter is used even in the US sometimes, and in Mexico; here's an example in a government source:
"tendrán una capacidad conjunta de generación de 1,749 megawatts (MW) y que representan inversiones globales por 1,459 millones de dólares (MUSD)."
http://saladeprensa.cfe.gob.mx/boletines/show/8026/
And in Argentina:
"La central nuclear de Atucha-II se licitó en 1989 a 1900 millones de dólares estadounidenses (MUSD) para una potencia de 745 MW (0,745 GW)."
http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1702453-desmitificando-las-energi...
Then we come to the comma/point (period) question. If the translation is supposed to be comprehensible to all Latin American speakers, either option will be potentially confusion. To Mexican readers (for example), 1,250 means one thousand two hundred and fifty; to Argentine readers (for example) it means one and a quarter.
Now, I presume that your question term means one thousand two hundred and fifty million dollars. If so, then I think you should either write it as 1250, which everyone will understand correctly, or else write the number out in full. I'd suggest using commas as separators; Argentine readers (for example) would have used points/periods (or thin spaces if they are strict followers of Academy rules), but no one will be confused about the amount.
The other recommendation I'd make, if possible, it to put the abbreviation in parentheses in the column header in your table; for example: VENTAS (en MUSD) or VENTAS (en USD), as appropriate. That way you don't have to repeat it in every line.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 55 mins (2015-07-15 23:51:23 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
I have belatedly realised that if we are talking about the amount 1,250 million dollars ($1,250,000,000), the second suggestion in my answer is wrong. Please ignore it. It just goes to show how easy it is to get confused!
If the amount is a thousand and some million dollars, then 1250 MUSD is my suggestion, with MUSD (or mill. de USD if you prefer) in the column header if possible.
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
Fernando Davin Perez
: I could not think of a better guidance.
8 hrs
|
|
Thank you very much, Fernando!
|
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Thanks, it actually is $1.250M your comments were most helpful"
47 mins
Use table headings and only numbers in the table cells
"Cuando se indique la unidad monetaria en un cuadro, se utilizará el código ISO —y, en su caso, su correspondiente multiplicador— en la parte superior derecha del cuadro, entre paréntesis y en cursiva:
(en EUR)
(en millones EUR)
(en miles de millones EUR)"
(en EUR)
(en millones EUR)
(en miles de millones EUR)"
Example sentence:
http://publications.europa.eu/code/es/es-370303.htm
Note from asker:
| Your comments were very helpful, I suggested to use headings for the tables. |
Peer comment(s):
| neutral |
Jennifer Levey
: I agree, in principle, but I get the impression that Asker's ST is not a table with column headers.
1 hr
|
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Thanks Robin. She says it's a "list" and I read that literally - does it actually mean "very many" not in one structure? If it's a single structure, I'd have thought an almost obligatory TT change?
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Discussion