Translate a commercial contract into Spanish

What changes when a contract goes into Spanish

Spanish runs longer than English, so a contract of around 5,000 words will usually gain some length and may push clauses onto the next page. The bigger issues, though, are drafting conventions.

• "Shall" has no single equivalent. "The Supplier shall deliver" becomes el Proveedor entregará (future tense) or el Proveedor deberá entregar. Either works; mixing them across clauses does not.
• Defined terms take a gender. Capitals are kept, but each term gets an article: el Contrato, la Parte, la Fecha de Entrada en Vigor. That gender must stay consistent throughout.
• Dates. Months are lower case and the order is day–month–year: En Madrid, a 1 de marzo de 2025.
• Amounts. Spain writes 1.500.000,00 €; Mexico writes 1,500,000.00. If the contract also states sums in words (un millón quinientos mil euros), figures and words must match.
• ¿ and ¡ rarely appear in operative clauses but do turn up in annexes and attached questionnaires.

A locally drafted Spanish contract often follows the pattern REUNIDOS / INTERVIENEN / EXPONEN / CLÁUSULAS. Translation keeps your document's structure; it does not rebuild it on that model.

Common-law wording and regional Spanish

If your source is English, some terms have no clean civil-law counterpart, and the right word can depend on your counterparty's country.

• Termination. In Spain, termination for breach is usually resolución and unilateral exit desistimiento; rescisión has a narrower meaning there. In Mexico or Argentina, rescisión is the everyday word for termination.
• Indemnify and hold harmless is commonly rendered indemnizar y mantener indemne; check that the scope reads as you intended.
• False friends. "Actual damages" is not daños actuales (current damages) but daños efectivos; eventualmente means "possibly", not "eventually".
• Consideration as a contract-law concept has no direct equivalent; the wording will describe the price or counterpart rather than import the doctrine.
• Company identifiers. NIF in Spain, RFC in Mexico, CUIT in Argentina, RUT in Chile, NIT in Colombia. Your own registration numbers stay as they are, and so should forms like Ltd or Inc.

Translation does not change the governing law. A contract under English or New York law, written in Spanish, still carries common-law concepts.

What Manuce delivers, and what it does not

Your contract is handled by Thémis, the legal specialist engine. Manuce accepts Word, PDF, PowerPoint, Excel, plain text, Markdown, HTML, RTF and CSV, and returns the file in its original format, layout included: numbered clauses, headers, payment schedules and the signature block stay where they were.

Before paying, you get a free extract: one paragraph of your file translated at the level you choose. Pick a dense clause, such as limitation of liability or liquidated damages (cláusula penal), and look at which terms are used.

What Manuce does not do:

• No sworn translation. Courts, registries and many authorities in Spain require a traductor-intérprete jurado; Latin American countries have their own officially authorised translators. Manuce does not provide sworn translation.
• No scanned PDFs. A signed contract scanned as an image, with no selectable text, cannot be read.
• No adaptation to Spanish or Mexican law: the legal substance remains that of your contract.
• No side-by-side bilingual layout: you receive the translated contract, which you can set alongside the original yourself.

For a contract going to a counterparty, the Professional level uses Thémis; Premium adds cross-review after the most advanced engine.

Preparing the file and checking the Spanish version

Before uploading:

• Use the final draft: accept or reject tracked changes and delete internal comments.
• Upload the original Word file rather than a PDF, and never a scan of the signed copy.
• Include the schedules (pricing, specifications) in the same file or upload them too, so cross-references are translated consistently.
• Decide which language prevails. A clause such as En caso de discrepancia, prevalecerá la versión inglesa avoids disputes over wording.

After delivery, check:

1. Party names, addresses and registration numbers match the original.
2. Amounts in figures and words agree, with the separators used in the target country.
3. Cross-references are correct: cláusula 7.2, Anexo II.
4. Each defined term is translated the same way every time.
5. Time limits keep their meaning, for instance días naturales (calendar days) versus días hábiles (business days).

If the Spanish version is to prevail, have a lawyer qualified in the relevant country review it before signature.

In practice

1. Export the final contract, without tracked changes or comments, ideally as a Word file.
2. Upload it: the quote appears immediately, based on the exact word count.
3. Choose a level and read the free extract on a dense clause before paying.
4. Download the Spanish contract from your client area and check amounts, dates, cross-references and defined terms.
5. If the Spanish version prevails, have it reviewed by a lawyer in your counterparty's country.