False friends in business 2: Spanish

Following on from our post on French false friends, here are some words to look out for when translating business documentation from/to Spanish:

Firstly, the classics actualmente and eventualmente. Actual means current or present, and actualmente means ‘currently’ or ‘at the moment‘; if you want to say ‘actually’, you’ll need realmente or en realidad. Eventualmente means ‘possibly’; for ‘eventually’, you want finalmente or por fin.

In most forms of Spanish, comercial (as an adjective) means ‘sales’, but in a more precise sense than English, and un comercial is a ‘sales person’. For ‘a commercial‘ you would have to say un anuncio or una publicidad.

Similarly, una advertencia is a ‘warning, piece of advice or reminder’. For ‘advertisment’, use un anuncio or una publicidad.

Be careful of fiscal, which means ‘fiscal‘ as an adjective, but as a noun (un fiscal) it refers to a ‘district attorney or public prosecutor‘.

Un negocio refers to a ‘business, deal, or transaction’. A ‘negotiation’ is una negociación.

A classic error comes from not knowing that, whilst un discusión could refer to a simple ‘discussion‘, it is more commonly used to describe something like a ‘debate, dispute, or argument’.
 A ‘discussion‘ is rendered as una discusión or, more formally, as deliberaciones.

Compromiso is, coutnerintuitively, an ‘obligation, commitment, promise, or agreement’. ‘Compromise’ as a noun can be expressed as una transacción, una avenencia, unas concesiones recíprocas, el término medio, or la solución intermedia. The verb is comprometer or transigir.

Billón is a false friend in the US, where it means ‘trillion’, but perfectly OK in the UK, which thinks of ‘billion‘ in the same way as the Spanish do. A US ‘billion’ would be mil millones.

Salario refers to ‘hourly wages’, while un sueldo denotes a ‘monthly or yearly salary’.