Glossary entry

Spanish term or phrase:

billón

English translation:

trillion

Added to glossary by Elvio Bracco
Oct 30, 2019 11:09
5 yrs ago
23 viewers *
Spanish term

billón

Spanish to English Bus/Financial Mathematics & Statistics
Estimados: Estoy traduciendo un texto (contrato de compraventa de empresas) donde aparece la cifra 2 billones. Mi pregunta surge porque encontré en varias oportunidades que se ha traducido como BILLION pero en mi opinión debería tratarse de TRILLION. Me podrían ayudar? Desde ya, muchísimas gracias.
Proposed translations (English)
5 +4 trillion
Change log

Nov 13, 2019 14:03: Elvio Bracco Created KOG entry

Discussion

Joshua Parker Oct 30, 2019:
It's trillion, technically, but "billón" is so often mistakenly used to mean the English (US) billion it's worth looking into. In Puerto Rico, for example, "billón" (for billion) is pretty standard. The context - and common sense - will probably give you a good idea of the intended meaning. If we're talking dollars, for example, it's highly unlikely, IMO, they'll be dealing in trillions.
That's why even with what might seem like a straightforward question, we need context: what is there 2 billion of, what type of company this is, where the document is from...
In any case, it's probably worth enquiring with the client and/or including a translator's note.
Taña Dalglish Oct 30, 2019:
¡¡¡¡¡Contexto, por favor!!!!! What size company, what type of business?

Proposed translations

+4
2 hrs
Selected

trillion

Hola, es correcto lo que decís. Los billones del idioma inglés y español no son equivalentes. El billion inglés es nuestro equivalente al millardo nuestro, o sea mil millones. Por otro lado, el trillion inglés si es equivalente al billón nuestro, es decir, un millón de millones
Peer comment(s):

agree Luis M. Sosa
16 mins
agree Neil Ashby : Nowadays this is true, but in the past the British billion was the same as the Spanish one (a million million). The US billion has always been a thousand million.
45 mins
agree Joaquín Carrillo Bascary : I agree, however, Neil's observation is spot on. It's a good thing to keep in mind.
2 hrs
agree Salwa Awaad
18 hrs
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Selected automatically based on peer agreement."
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