Spanish for an international audience

Use this page for shared Spanish grammar and for a version intended for readers in several countries. “Neutral” describes an editorial choice, not a single regional standard or a runtime locale. It does not mean that every Spanish interface, term or number format is identical.

Use the regional pages for Mexico, Spain, the US and Chile. Follow the common registers, mechanics and localization review. The local conventions below take precedence where they differ.

Address and agreement

For broadly addressed product help, use tú for one reader and ustedes for several. This is a house default for this edition, not a claim that every Spanish-speaking audience uses the same treatment. A brief may require usted or a regional form. Keep the chosen pronouns, possessives and verb forms consistent throughout the task.

Give a direct step with an imperative: Abre el archivo with tú, or Abra el archivo with usted. A compact action label can use an infinitive: Abrir archivo. Do not turn every instruction into an infinitive merely to conceal a mixture of forms of address.

Spanish often omits a subject pronoun because the verb identifies the person. Keep it when it distinguishes actors or adds a necessary contrast. Do not change a rule about administrators into puedes when the reader may lack that role.

Use agreement with the noun actually present: el archivo seleccionado, la carpeta seleccionada. Grammatical gender does not establish a person’s gender. La persona responsable can avoid an unnecessary assumption, but a collective such as el equipo does not always replace one person. Preserve the person’s own pronouns and the roles, number and obligations in the source. See accessible content.

Words and regional scope

Choose a term that identifies the right object for the intended readers. Equipo can be useful in a broad computer context, but it can also mean other equipment or a team. Use a more specific noun when that distinction matters. Computadora, computador and ordenador are regional choices, not forbidden words. A possessive such as tu PC does not settle every agreement elsewhere in the sentence.

Use full forms such as aplicación and información when they help. An established compact label may use a shorter form. Keep the exact localized interface label when referring to a control. Do not substitute anular, cancelar, eliminar or depurar without checking the operation.

Prefer usar to a longer construction when the meaning is the same. A substitution list cannot decide whether a request is a requirement or whether an action is appropriate rather than merely possible. Cuando corresponda and cuando sea posible express different conditions.

Keep technical quantities explicit: 2 GB is clearer than 2 gigas when bytes must be distinguished from bits. Name an application that deja de responder instead of choosing a verb that could describe ending a call. Follow the glossary for product concepts and record missing terms for review.

Articles, prepositions and modifiers

Choose an article for the intended reference: Selecciona un archivo allows a choice; selecciona el archivo identifies one. Retain tu archivo when ownership distinguishes it from another person’s file. Use the surrounding grammar to introduce an approved product name without altering the name itself.

Adjectives agree in gender and number, and their position can affect meaning. Un nuevo archivo and un archivo nuevo can suit different contexts; do not copy English modifier order mechanically. Prefer an explicit relationship to a long chain of nouns.

Keep the preposition required by the construction: Asegúrate de que el archivo existe, but Es posible que el archivo exista. Adding or removing de everywhere would break one of those sentences. When verbs take different complements, make each relationship readable rather than forcing them to share one preposition.

Preserve cause, contrast, scope and sequence. En algunos casos does not mean en otros casos. An event occurring after another does not by itself establish that the first caused it. Keep a restriction such as solo en esta vista when restructuring the sentence.

Tense and mood

Use the tense that describes the event. El archivo se guardó reports a completed save; el archivo se guarda describes a present process or general behavior. Regional preferences for simple and compound past forms do not authorize changing a past event into a future instruction.

Use the subjunctive where the construction calls for it: Es posible que falte un archivo preserves uncertainty. Si el archivo estuviera abierto, ciérralo antes de continuar expresses a condition. Forms ending in -ra and -se are available; choose a natural form for the audience rather than declaring one universally wrong.

Keep a possible consequence as a possibility. A warning can say Si reinicias el equipo ahora, podrían perderse tus cambios sin guardar y los de otras personas. Removing tus would remove the reader’s own work from the warning. Do not shorten a statement by dropping a person, condition or limitation.

Messages and placeholders

Keep command, progress, success and failure distinct. These are wording examples, not promises about a product.

Meaning	Spanish wording
Command label	Guardar archivo
In progress	Guardando el archivo.
Completed	El archivo se guardó.
Failed attempt	No se pudo guardar el archivo.
Present limitation	No se puede guardar el archivo.

A concise phrase such as Memoria insuficiente can be useful, but do not remove a verb that carries timing, agency or an important condition. An error does not necessarily require restarting the application. Describe a cause or remedy only when known, using the shared interface feedback guidance.

A variable may change Spanish articles, adjectives or number. El archivo {name} no se pudo abrir assumes that the value names a single file. It is not a template for arbitrary objects. Supply complete messages and realistic substitutions through the shared messages and variables workflow.

Preserve token names, format specifiers, argument names, case, escapes and brackets required by the parser. Do not translate an identifier to nombreDeArchivo because it appears in a Spanish explanation. A clearly marked human-readable placeholder can be translated when the example’s contract permits it; a runtime named argument cannot be renamed on that basis. Reorder placeholders only when the format supports it.

Capitalization and abbreviations

Use sentence case for new headings and labels: Opciones de exportación. Ordinary names of languages, months, weekdays and nationalities are lowercase: español, septiembre, lunes, mexicano. Proper names keep their approved spelling. Preserve accents on capitals: ÁREA, Últimos archivos.

Use established abbreviations rather than shortening words to satisfy a character-count formula. Keep their accents and punctuation: pág., máx., p. ej. Unit symbols such as cm, h and GB are a different category; they do not take abbreviation periods or plural endings.

An initialism normally remains unchanged in the written plural: los PDF. Lexicalized words such as láser have ordinary plurals: láseres. Keep the conventional case of names and expand an unfamiliar abbreviation when the audience needs it. Do not invent an expansion or copy an obsolete technical catalog.

Punctuation and symbols

Use both opening and closing marks for direct questions and exclamations: ¿Quieres guardar los cambios? Keep them adjacent to the enclosed text, without French-style internal spaces. An indirect question such as Comprueba si el archivo existe does not take question marks.

For quoted prose, use «…», with “…” for an inner quotation. Keep required straight quotes in code and input. Use the shared mechanics for interface-label formatting, preserving an ellipsis or other punctuation that belongs to the actual label.

Use … for an ellipsis. A closing question or exclamation mark ends a sentence without an additional full stop. A comma before the final y or o is not normally needed in a simple list; retain commas that mark clauses or prevent ambiguity. Keep list items grammatically parallel and use a period for a complete sentence.

Distinguish - (U+002D), – (U+2013), — (U+2014) and − (U+2212). A mathematical negative value can be −18 °C, with no space between minus and digits, and a nonbreaking space before the unit. A range can be páginas 4–6. Preserve ASCII - when the input syntax requires it. See technical notation.

Numbers and formats

Use numerals for quantities, comparisons and values to enter. Both the decimal comma and decimal point occur in Spanish; choose the target locale and output convention. Do not assume that “neutral Spanish” supplies a universal numeric format. Avoid grouping separators that could be mistaken for the decimal sign.

Keep a nonbreaking space between a number and a unit or percent sign: 25 %, 12 mm. A written date such as 13 de septiembre de 2026 avoids ambiguous numeric month/day order. Keep the exact syntax of versions, timestamps, identifiers and input fields.

Use the application’s locale formatter for dynamic values. Identify a currency when its symbol could be ambiguous, and preserve the amount and unit. A translation must not change a stored number or relabel miles as kilometres without a verified conversion. See names and formats.

Keyboard wording and speech

Use key names readers can match to their actual keyboard or platform, such as Intro, Mayús, Retroceso or flecha izquierda. These are examples, not a universal key map. Keep Ctrl or another modifier as documented; one supplier’s resource syntax does not define all Spanish access keys.

Use interface actions to distinguish selecting, clicking, pressing and dragging. Test combinations and collisions in the target product and layout. Do not remove a necessary gesture merely to use a more generic verb.

For speech, use natural pronunciation for the intended audience and approved product-name pronunciation. Do not force a regional accent or an old phonetic catalog onto every recording. If a listener must reproduce an address or identifier, speak its necessary characters in order. The shared audiovisual guidance covers captions, timing and visual information.