Apr 9, 2018 13:21
6 yrs ago
1 viewer *
Spanish term

$ 4.000 millones

Spanish to English Bus/Financial Finance (general) Document for placing an investment
A quick question about the numbering, how would this number be translated?
Here's the paragraph:

Tomando como base el precio pagado en 2011 por la ..... sobre la compañía, el 49% tendría un valor de € 4.000 millones,
asumiendo que ........ siga con el control mayoritario y decida vender hasta ese porcentaje.

Thank you!
Proposed translations (English)
4 +5 €4 billion (€4,000,000,000)
Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

Non-PRO (2): patinba, philgoddard

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Discussion

John Rynne Apr 13, 2018:
Interesting Thanks Robert. I wasn't aware that some Spanish-speaking countries used the same decimal and thousand separators as in English.
Robert Carter Apr 11, 2018:
@John I agree with your comments on the use of "billion", but my point and Robin's is that in certain parts of Latin America (including Mexico, where the asker is located apparently), decimal points and commas represent exactly the same separations as they do in English, so it might just have meant "€4 million". Having said that, it's most likely that "€4.000" does mean "€4,000", simply because the noughts would be redundant otherwise, though I've seen many examples where redundant noughts have been left in source texts. In any case, the asker could easily have cleared this up to begin with, particularly given the confusion with the dollar and euro signs. Saludos!
John Rynne Apr 11, 2018:
Don't see the problem The word "million/millón" poses no problems in Spanish or English.
The original is absolutely unambiguous. It doesn't matter what country it is from. The definition of "million/millón" does not vary anywhere.
It's only "billion/billón" that is problematic, and only because some people are still thinking in the 1960s and earlier.
The word "billion" has long been understood in English as meaning 10^9, i.e. a thousand million, a 1 with 9 zeros after it. This has always been the case in the US, while in the UK the "US" billion was adopted for official statistics in 1974 (Wikipedia) and was already in use in technical writing since the 1950s.
The older English usage, in line with French and Spanish, has fallen into disuse. In finance, nobody would be confused by the word "billion" at all.
And it should be translated simply as "€4 billion" without any crutches for the reader.
Jennifer Levey Apr 9, 2018:
Robert's right - without knowing what country this is from we cannot be sure what it means. The mere fact that the currency unit is "Euro" doesn't help (and may actually be misleading) - countries worldwide are involved in transactions involving the Euro.
I suggest you put on your "financial analyst" hat/cap - and work out from the financial data what is the most likely meaning IN CONTEXT. Surely, given the context (that you have, and we do not have) one interpretation is more probable than the other ...? After all, there's a 1:1000 difference between them - enough to make or break a company (or even an entire nation).
Robert Carter Apr 9, 2018:
Hi Manuel. It's important to know which country this is from.

Proposed translations

+5
40 mins
Spanish term (edited): $4.000 millones
Selected

€4 billion (€4,000,000,000)

Hello Manuel,
Your text has the euro sign. Since both in the UK and in the US a billion is 1 with nine zeros while in Spanish speaking countries it is 1 with twelve zeros, I would use the word "billion" but absolutely put the full figure in numbers next to it, in brackets, so that it is unambiguous and to avoid any confusion.
Peer comment(s):

agree Francois Boye
1 hr
Thank you Francois
agree Sofia Bengoa
3 hrs
Gracias Sofía
agree AllegroTrans
6 hrs
Thank you Chris
agree Alex Ossa
9 hrs
Thank you Alex
agree nweatherdon
11 hrs
Thank you Nathan
neutral Robert Carter : The euro symbol cannot be translated as the dollar symbol, and the asker has not stated which country the source is from, so it's an ambiguous question. Saludos.
4 days
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thanks"
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