Translate a PO (gettext) file into Spanish

What changes when a gettext catalogue goes into Spanish

Spanish raises issues in a PO file that other languages do not, and most of them only show once the interface is compiled and running.

• Inverted punctuation. Questions and exclamations open with ¿ or ¡: msgid "Delete %s?" becomes msgstr "¿Eliminar %s?". If your code builds a sentence from several msgids ("Are you sure" then "?"), the opening mark has nowhere to go. Merge the sentence into one string before translating.
• Grammatical gender. "%s deleted" is "%s eliminado" for an archivo but "%s eliminada" for a página. Without a clue, the translation falls back on the masculine. A msgctxt or a #. comment naming the object resolves it.
• Length. Spanish runs longer than English, close to French. "Save changes" becomes "Guardar cambios", "Settings" becomes "Configuración": leave room in buttons and tabs.
• Register and variety. Informal tú or formal usted, "ordenador" in Spain or "computadora" in Latin America: check these choices on the free sample before you pay.

Plurals: msgstr[0], msgstr[1] and the Plural-Forms header

A plural entry such as msgid "%d file" / msgid_plural "%d files" receives msgstr[0] "%d archivo" and msgstr[1] "%d archivos" in Spanish. The number of msgstr[n] forms returned matches Spanish, and the Plural-Forms header is set accordingly.

A Spanish-specific trap: the long-standing gettext convention declares two forms (nplurals=2; plural=(n != 1);), whereas the CLDR rules count three: one, many and other. The many category covers large round numbers, where Spanish inserts "de": "un millón de archivos". Make sure the header in the returned file agrees with your other es catalogues and with your build tooling; mixing a three-form catalogue with a two-form one can display the wrong variant.

What Manuce returns, and what it does not do

You get back the same PO file: entry order, quotes, line breaks, comments, line endings, encoding and BOM are preserved; only the values change. A .pot comes back as a Spanish .po, with the Language and Plural-Forms headers set.

• msgctxt, msgid_plural and the #., #:, #, comments are kept, and context steers the translation: msgctxt "verb" "Open" gives "Abrir", msgctxt "status" gives "Abierto".
• printf variables (%s, %d, %1$s) are checked. Every translated value is compared with the source; if a variable or tag mismatch persists, the source value is kept and the report says so.
• Not translated: keys, empty values, URLs, email addresses, numbers, colours, date formats, identifiers and anything marked as non-translatable.

Manuce does not compile the .mo file, does not clear fuzzy flags for you and does not take glossaries or terminology instructions. For a product name that must stay in English, check the free sample and then the delivered file.

Preparing the file before upload

• Merge split sentences. Spanish word order often differs: "%s's profile" becomes "el perfil de %s". A sentence broken into pieces cannot be reordered.
• Use positional variables when a string holds more than one: "%1$s invited %2$s" lets the translation move the names without breaking the call.
• Add #. comments where gender or the meaning of a lone word is unclear ("New" for a file or a carpeta?). They are preserved and help the translation.
• Check the declared encoding in Content-Type: it must cover ñ, á and ¿. UTF-8 and ISO-8859-1 both do; the original encoding is kept.

The quote counts the words in the values, keys and tags excluded; Spanish is charged at the base rate (×1 coefficient).

Checking the Spanish catalogue after delivery

1. Read the report: each string left untranslated comes with its reason (mismatched variable, empty value, non-translatable item).
2. Compile with msgfmt --check: it flags an inconsistent number of msgstr[n] or c-format strings that do not match.
3. Check the Language header value and adapt it to the catalogue name your project expects (es, es_ES, es_MX).
4. Run the interface in Spanish and look for clipped buttons, missing ¿ at the start of questions and gender agreement slips.

In practice

1. Merge split sentences and add #. comments to ambiguous words.
2. Upload the .po or .pot file and get the instant quote.
3. Check register (tú or usted) and vocabulary on the free sample.
4. Download the translated file and its report, then run msgfmt --check.
5. Test the Spanish interface: lengths, ¿ ¡ punctuation, agreement.