Thread: What is SpanishUS?

Originally Posted by santiagop

And what about measurement units? Should we use inches, pounds and other imperial units in Spanish US or should we use metrics?

As Nabyl says, rules must be replaced by "usability." For instance, in construction, and for piping, metrics will most probably remain in Imperial (at least for calibers/diameters, maybe for pipe thickness as well) even for LatAm flavors. The same may apply when you talk about bolts/screws sizes and for any construction craft.

Originally Posted by Maximiliano

...so, as you say, we should always take into account the target audience.

That's correct when you think for example about capitalization. Marketing-oriented content may require capitalization when used as a way to highlight the importance of a section, a product/service name, etc. One thing we need to take into account is that certain platforms will not allow special formats (like italics), a way advocated by RAE to refer to publications, for which a workaround is to preserve capitalization as in the English source.

Some clients may even want to avoid straying that much fro RAE's rules, and will prefer to lower casing titles, while keeping product/service names in uppercase for branding purposes.

In summary, total flexibility for which you need to sit down and discuss with your client and, as part of your best practices, make sure you draft a Style Guide for your translators to follow.