This past month, I moved back to Washington, DC, after spending over four years living in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where I undertook postgraduate study in history while also working on writing and translation projects.
In Argentina, I enjoyed translating projects from Spanish to English—my principal strength—while also doing work from English to Spanish and Portuguese to English. On a couple of occasions, I even helped with translations from Portuguese to Spanish, which was quite fun and often easier than translating from English to Spanish since the syntax between the two romance languages is very similar.
Back in the States, clients for my translation services told me they expect Spanish versions to run as much as 25% longer than the corresponding English version, and that their graphic designers plan accordingly. This surprised me but it seems to be true.
On a weekly basis, Washington Post journalist Marcela Sanchez writes a column about Latin America politics that the paper publishes in Spanish and English on its website.
Sanchez recently wrote, “Probably no event could stand as better proof of a U.S. foreign policy failure than the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, to be marked on Jan. 1. Nineteen days later, a new U.S. president—the 11th since Fidel Castro toppled Fulgencio Batista’s regime—will inherit that policy.”
In the Spanish version, the first paragraph reads:
“Probablemente ningún suceso podrá emerger como mejor prueba de un fracaso de la política exterior estadounidense que el 50 aniversario de la Revolución Cubana el próximo primero de enero. Diecinueve días más tarde, un nuevo presidente estadounidense—el undécimo desde que Fidel Castro derrocó el régimen del General Fulgencio Batista—heredará esa política.”
The English version is 289 characters and the Spanish version is 20% longer, at 361 characters.
I believe that the explanation for this is a simple one. English writing sometimes makes greater use of abbreviations, such as the example above where U.S. is far shorter than “estadounidense” and additionally, certain Spanish words like “probablemente” are longer than their English cognates.
Ultimately, it’s important to be aware that Spanish gains something in translation. A good idea is to make sure your graphic designers know this so that the first time you send them copy for bilingual publication, you don’t hear them gritting their teeth at 4:45 p.m.
One Comment
The different lengths of Spanish and English texts is something that’s always struck me as interesting. I don’t think abbreviations play that big a role in the differences in length, however. If you look at the first line, four out of the five words are longer in the Spanish version. Its just the nature of the language.