Help With Cheat Sheet

[northcmichael]

Hey All,

I work in ecommerce and there is only one Spanish speaking person in our building of over 300 employees who all answer phones from all over the country. Every day I get calls from Spanish speaking citizens and I have to transfer them to a voicemail box where hopefully that one person can get back with them quickly enough to not make them overly angry.

So I have decided to learn Spanish to try and help out. With that I have started a cheat sheet of commonly used phrases around the office to try and memorize as I move forward with learning this. I used an online translator for the first 10 and I just wanted to put it on here to have someone verify that these are the correct ways of spelling and actually make sense.

Thanks in advance!









1. Gracias por llamar ___ Este es Michael. ¿Cómo puedo ayudarte?

2. Ok. ¿Tiene el número de pedido?


3. Ok. ¿Tienes un número común del tema?

4. Debe han enviado a usted.


5. ¿Cuál era la dirección de correo electrónico que utiliza para hacer el pedido?

6. Si usted está buscando en la página, será en el lado derecho superior.


7. ¿Cuáles son los últimos 4 dígitos de la tarjeta con que usted puso la orden?

8. ¿Cuál es tu nombre y apellido?


9. ¿Qué es un cargo pendiente y se caiga, no se será de facturación para esto en absoluto.

10. ¿Había alguna otra cosa que pueda hacer para ayudar?

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by northcmichael

1. Gracias por llamar ___. Soy Michael. (Your translator gave you a word-for-word translation that doesn't work.)
¿Cómo puedo ayudarlo? (Again, this is a word-for-word translation that doesn't work. "¿En qué puedo ayudar?" would be commonly said, or you could use "¿Puedo ayudar(lo) en algo?". You can leave off the direct object pronoun (the part in parentheses), but if you do add it, you must be talking to a male. If it's a female, change the pronoun to 'la'. The pronoun 'te' should not be used with a client unless you are good friends.)

2. Ok. ¿Tiene (usted) el número de pedido? (OK is said, colloquially, but isn't Spanish. You could use "Bueno" or other such fillers. "Está bien" works too, in some cases.)

3. Ok. ¿Tienes un número común del tema? (In English?)

4. Debe han enviado a usted. (If the English version is "They must have sent it to you," that's "Deben de habérselo enviado a usted.")

5. ¿Cuál era la dirección de correo electrónico que utilizó para hacer el pedido? (... que dio cuando hizo ...)

6. Si (usted) está mirando la pantalla, estará en el lado superior derecho. (This is pretty literal. A more common way to say this is "La/el ____ puede verse en el lado ... .")

7. ¿Cuáles son los últimos cuatro dígitos de la tarjeta (de crédito) con la cual hizo el pedido?

8. ¿Cuál es su nombre y apellido? (¿Cómo se llama?)

9. ¿Qué es un cargo pendiente y se caiga, no se será de facturación para esto en absoluto. (In English?)

10. ¿Había alguna otra cosa que pueda hacer para ayudar? (¿Puedo ayudarlo en algo más? Again, be careful with the direct object pronoun.)

There are undoubtedly other translations that you could use. You can wait to get more opinions. Don't use online translators. A professional translation firm would be a much better option!

Welcome to the forums, by the way!

[northcmichael]

Thank you for replying! Thinking about it, I see why you wouldn't do a direct word for word translation. You don't structure your sentences the same from English to Spanish, so why would you. Thanks for saying that, it makes a lot of sense now. You mentioned professional translation firm, do you recommend any or know of any that are better then the others?

Thanks again for the help!

[Rusty]

You're welcome.

I don't have any recommendations for a translation firm, sorry. But I can recommend that you find one that advertises English-to-Spanish translations performed by a person whose native language is Spanish. Your audience should be your other concern. If you are dealing with Latin Americans, Latin American Spanish should be requested.