Entering the Latin American market via AI-assisted Spanish and Portuguese translation

Two languages can help you reach millions of people: Spanish and Portuguese share the huge region that is Latin America. Translation into Spanish and Portuguese gives you access to a huge market. However, regional variations need to be taken into account if you’re looking to optimise your sales in each country.

SwissGlobal can help you break into the Latin American markets with its translation and proofreading services or post-editing machine translation services because human intervention is essential when it comes to adapting texts to the target audience.

The languages of Latin America

The dominant languages in Latin America are Spanish and Portuguese, owing to colonisation. However, before that, there were a multitude of indigenous languages, some of which are still spoken today, such as Aymara, Quechua and the Yanomami languages.

There is no such thing as Latin American Spanish, as opposed to the Spanish spoken in Spain; just as the Portuguese of Brazil and Portugal differ. Whether in terms of expressions, words used to describe the same thing, accents and cultural references, there are huge differences between the Spanish of Mexico and that of Argentina. This must be taken into account when translating into Spanish and Portuguese.

AI-assisted Spanish and Portuguese translation

AI makes it possible to translate large volumes of text quickly. However, behind the technological advances lie major linguistic and cultural challenges. Regional variants and language registers remain major obstacles to machine translation.

One of the main challenges of AI-assisted Spanish and Portuguese translation is linguistic diversity. DeepL only offers the “Spanish” and “Spanish (Latin America)” variants, whereas Spanish and Portuguese have many regional variants, including:

• Spanish from Spain versus Spanish from Latin America
• Marked linguistic differences between Mexico, Argentina, Colombia and Chile
• European Portuguese versus Brazilian Portuguese

When it comes to professional translation into Spanish and Portuguese, AI is a powerful tool for accelerating workflows and reducing costs for internationally active companies, provided it’s followed by professional post-editing.

Without post-editing by a professional translator, you’re at risk of losing money, as your texts will not be suitable for the target country. This is precisely where the expertise of our Spanish and Portuguese translators comes into play.

Human expertise, essential for high-quality Spanish and Portuguese translation

A Spanish and Portuguese translator can increase the value of your content, such as by:

Adapting e-commerce product descriptions by country

If you sell a light bulb, you’ll call it a “bombilla” in Spain and a “foco” in Mexico. If you sell a “bombilla” in Argentina, you’ll be selling a straw for drinking maté. A poorly chosen designation creates misunderstanding and results in a drop in sales in the region concerned.

Using professional Spanish and Portuguese translators to translate and localise your website is a good investment.

Advising on the choice of campaigns or product names

For a campaign to be successful, it needs to speak to its target audience and reflect best practice in the target market. A marketing translation must take this information into account.

Respecting the conventions of politeness specific to each country

In Colombia, you would use the polite form of address “usted” when speaking to someone, even in an informal context, whereas in Chile, you’re more likely to use the informal word.

Choosing the usual expressions used in the target country

The law is not the same in Brazil and Portugal. Professional translators ensure that legal translations use the technical jargon commonly used in the country concerned.

Example: regional variants in Spanish and Portuguese

Argentina and Chile are neighbours, yet it’s clear from their languages that the Andes separate them. Let’s take a simple sentence: “You have a white t-shirt.”

Translation into Spanish from Chile: “Tú tení una polera blanca.”

Translation into Spanish from Argentina: “Vos tenés una remera blanca.”

Both the translation of t-shirt and the conjugation of the verbs change, which would make it strange to use one of the variants in the other country. The same applies to the Brazilian and Portuguese variants of Portuguese:

Translation into Brazilian Portuguese: ”Você tem uma camiseta branca.”

Translation into Portuguese from Portugal: “Tu tens uma t-shirt branca.”

These examples confirm the importance of the expertise of a translator specialising in the target market in the Spanish and Portuguese translation process.

Specialised AI-assisted Spanish and Portuguese translation for the Latin American market

When translating into Spanish and Portuguese for Latin American markets, merely using the wrong register or term can damage your brand image or lead to commercial misunderstandings.

This is where professional translators and editors make all the difference. At Swiss Global, machine translation is used as a support tool, never as a stand-alone solution.

We intelligently combine technology and human expertise to deliver quality Spanish and Portuguese translations. This hybrid approach guarantees content that is precise and tailored to the expectations of the target audience, particularly in the technical and marketing sectors.

Contact us today for your Spanish and Portuguese translations!