In the course of my work, I have repeatedly noticed that the level of Spanish I require to function and converse as a traveler is qualitatively different from that required to function and converse as a professional. Discussing books or movies, swapping stories, &c.: no problem. Describing specifics of a study’s design to a technical audience, or translating PowerPoint slides: major problems. Of course, over time and thanks to the help of many kind and patient Spanish-speakers, my vocabulary has developed… but I still routinely find myself frantically searching for a way to describe, say, a “graphical user interface” or a “randomized controlled trial”. On my last trip, I finally just started keeping a formal list of words and phrases that I had at one point needed to say but had been unable to. This section of my site is an attempt to continue that process and to do so in a way that others might stumble upon and find useful.

In addition to scientific terms, there are also some useful idioms that I somehow never picked up in school that I’ve included here as well.

Drop me a line if you have any pet phrases or words that you think should be included here- the more the merrier.

Y también- si eres un hispanoparlante y tienes palabras o frases que pertenecen aquí: por favor, me escribelos. También escribirme si encuentras errores en esta lista.

All-caps, capital letters

Mayúscula

Controlled vocabulary

Vocabulario controlado

Disorder

Trastorno

Displaying

Mostrando

MeSH Terms

Terminos MeSH

MeSH Major Topic

Topical principal de MeSH

Randomized Trial

Ensayo Aleatorio

Randomized Controlled Trial

Ensayo clínico controlado randomizado (o aleatorio)

Sample size

Tamaño de Muestra

Search Strategy

Estrategia de las búsquedas

Spanish-speaker

Hispanoparlante

Study (as in “study design”)

Ensayo

Tissue

Tejido

Whereas, while, etc.

Mientras que