Sometimes, the easiest part can turn out to be the hardest one. We translate into Spanish a text which contains a lot of international words, and put them into translation without thinking, tal cual. The Spanish language obtains “retailers”, “dealers”, “drivers” and “offshores”, however
– What a pity! –Spanish speakers don’t understand the translated text.
In Spain, the Royal Academy is very very strict, and the English words which are hard to pronounce for the Spanish, rarely become “popular”. So let’s try to find a proper translation of international words borrowed from English into other languages. In this article we are going to learn words from Informatics.
| file | archivo, fichero |
| directory | carpeta |
| driver | controlador |
| operating system | sistema operativo |
| flash memory card | pincho (coloquial), pendrive, lapicero de memoria |
| mouse | ratón |
| keyboard | teclado |
| screen | pantalla |
| screenshot | captura de pantalla, pantallazo (coloquial) |
| upgrade | actualización, actualizar |
| browser | navegador |
| printer | impresora |
| smartphone | teléfono inteligente |
| memory card | tarjeta de memoria |
| video card | tarjeta gráfica |
| computer | ordenador (Esp), computadora (Am.Lat.) |
| laptop | portátil |
| to clic | pinchar, dar |
| to download | descargar |
| to log in | identificarse, autorizarse |
| to log out | salir |
| to ban | bloquear |
| password | contraseña |
| nick | apodo |
| account | cuenta |
Note that even borrowed words are pronounced according to Spanish rules, so
Wi-Fi is spelled [Wi-Fi], like "wee-fee"
CD = [CeDé]
PC = [PeCé]
Spanish almost never transforms nouns into verbs, so, we must translate
Text me = Me pones un mensaje
Skype me = Me llamas por Skype
Phone me = Me llamas
and so on