36 Essential Spanish translation resources to empower translation managers and users
September 16, 2011
Approving Spanish translations should not be an act of faith. However, translation buyers are often frustrated by their limited ability to assess, validate and sign off on translation projects with confidence. The purpose of this blog is to provide access to a wealth of professional resources that will help you review, research, probe and, ultimately, use Spanish translations with greater confidence.
We have asked our English to Spanish translators* to share what they view as the most useful resources when creating professional translations and have compiled a thorough list of such resources. The team who helped on this project bring to the table a wide range of technical subject matter areas of expertise including engineering, legal, medical, marketing, oil and gas, training and e-learning and come from different geographies including Mexico, Spain, Colombia, Argentina, Chile and Peru.
We have organized resources in 8 categories:
- Technical English-Spanish Dictionaries
- Technical Monolingual Glossaries
- Regional Usage Help
- Spanish Language Resources
- English into Spanish Crowdsourcing Communities
- All-purpose Spanish Dictionaries
- All-purpose English-Spanish Dictionaries
- Other Useful Online Tools
We welcome your feedback! You can use the comments section below to let us know about additional resources you have also found useful.
Technical English-Spanish Dictionaries
| Resource | Field | Why It Is Useful |
| Diccionario Autoguias | Automotive | Comprehensive bilingual technical dictionary for the automotive, equipment and machinery industries |
| C.A.D. Miles | Business | Recognized as a primary source for English to Spanish business translations |
| OSHA Dictionary | Construction | Official set of English-Spanish disctionaries from OSHA; useful for construction andtechnical Spanish HSE (Health, Safety and Environment) translations |
| Election Terminology | Government | Technical bilingual dictionary for government and U.S.-based politically-related terminology |
| San Francisco Department of Human Services Spanish Glossary | Human Services | Comprehensive English-Spanish human services glossary |
| Medicine Plus | Medicine | Medical English-Spanish service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine |
| Diccionario Técnico de Mineros y Petroleros | Mining | Excellent technical dictionary for the mining and oil and gas industries |
| HUD Dictionary | Real Estate | English-Spanish dictionary compiled by HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) ; excellent resource for real estate and mortgage-related translation work |
| Social Security Administration Terminology | Social Security | Official bilingual Social Security Admininstarion glossary |
| IRS Glossary of Tax Words and Phrases | Taxes | Official English-Spanish glossary used in publications issued by the Internal Revenue Service |
| Sapiensman | Various | Comprehensive bilingual technical translation dictionary. Provides information on a wide range of technical topics and definitions of key terms in different contexts |
Technical Monolingual Glossaries
| Resource | Field | Why It Is Useful |
| Investor Words | Finance | An excellent English financial glossary that helps define terms with no equivalence in Spanish |
| Law Dictionary | Legal | English legal terms and definitions; helps with non-equivalent terms |
| Medciclopedia | Medicine | Illustrated Spanish dictionary of medical terms; also contains limited English translations |
| Schlumberger Oilfield Glossary | Oil and Gas | Comprehensive “hands on” English glossary of the oil and gas industry |
| U.S. Department of Labor – Well Drilling and Servicing eTool | Oil and Gas | Abridged version of the Dictionary of Petroleum Terms provided by Petex and the University of Texas – Austin. Useful sector-specific English glossary |
Regional Usage Help
| Resource | Region | Why It Is Useful |
| IATE – Interactive Terminology for Europe | Spain | The terminology database of the European Union. It allows searches in a wide variety of fields and provides ratings and translation sources; particularly useful for translations such as MSDS and patents to be used in EU institutions and agencies |
| Mexican Guru | Mexico | Mexican Spanish translation of slangs; useful for informal content; use with caution; may contain profanity |
| Argentine Slang Dictionary | Argentina | Dictionary of Argentine Spanish slang; useful for informal content; use with caution; may contain profanity |
Spanish Language Resources
| Resource | Language Area | Why It Is Useful |
| Study Spanish | Grammar, pronunciation | Free Spanish resource with tips on grammar, verbs, pronunciation and vocabulary |
| Word Reference Verb Conjugation | Verb conjugation | Complete Spanish verb conjugation search tool |
| Diccionario Clave | Collocations; etymology | Provides examples, collocations, regional uses, etymology and incorrect uses |
| FundeuBBVA | Correct uses | Vademecum section particularly useful to verify correct use of expressions; many additional Spanish language resources |
English into Spanish CrowdSourcing Communities
| Resource | Specialty | Why It Is Useful |
| Proz.com | Live Q&A | Experienced linguists answer questions about terminology |
| Linguee | Uploaded terminology | “Real life” English > Spanish > English dictionary; translations uploaded by translators and terms translated within different contexts |
| Word Reference Forum | Forum | Forum with technical Spanish use topics |
All-purpose Spanish Dictionaries
| Resource | Why It Is Useful |
| Diccionario de la Real Academia Española de la Lengua | Official dictionary of the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language. Useful to clarify word usage, particularly in the “Apéndices” and “Artículos Temáticos” sections |
| Word Reference | Two excellent dictionaries from English to Spanish: Oxford and Espasa; multi-lingual business dictionary and forum assistance |
| Free Dictionary | Great for terminology definitions; searches can be filtered by subject matter |
| Diccionario panhispánico de dudas | Official site of the Real Academia de la Lengua Española to solve questions related to Spanish usage |
All-purpose English-Spanish Dictionaries
| Resource | Why It Is Useful |
| Merriam-Webster Online | All-inclusive Spanish-English dictionary and thesaurus |
| Online dictionaries and encyclopedias | Multiple bilingual dictionaries available. “Maria Moliner” dictionary particularly recommended |
| Foreignword.com | Multiple dictionaries; excellent resource for general terminology |
Other Useful Online Tools
| Resource | Area | Why It Is Useful |
| Wikipedia Español | Spanish Wikis | When used carefully, it’s an excellent way to gain exposure to Spanish terminology of complex topics |
| Acronym Finder | Acronyms | World’s largest and most comprehensive dictionary of acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms |
| University of Notre Dame English > Latin > English | Latin | Useful English > Latin > English dictionary |
*We would like to specially thank Ernesto Samper, Nubia Olarte, Paola Nobizelli, Elias Sauza, Maria Sanchez, Maria Gutierrez, Julia Gomez Saez and Teresa Jimenez for their support and contributions to this post. It is a pleasure working with such a professional group at Translation Source! Photo provided by toolstop
If you would like additional information on this topic or have questions on planning and executing your next translation or multilingual initiative, contact us today for a free 30-minute consultation or call us at (800) 413-7838.
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