: Re: Should I "spanglish" a Mexican character's dialogue? I am working on a novel based in Mexico, and I am wondering if there are any strong opinions on whether or not I should put common phrases

@Murray165

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It depends, and indeed there could argue that your question could only generate opinion based answers, and should be closed, but you are brushing against a core issue, which is how to show the differences between the world where the reader lives and the world in which the story is set while maintaining readability and understandability. This is particularly visible in science fiction and fantasy and translated works. The three most contentious sub-questions revolve around names, units of measure and bilingual characters. If you want to waste an afternoon, ask me about measuring the saturn rocket in cubits, or the ten gentile pateraks.

So lets step back and look at practical considerations. To simplify let us assume that you are writing in english and targeting an audience that has a five word spanish vocabulary. (and that three of those words your editor would reject) Now, that limits us to two major scenarios, your narrator's first language is spanish or it is not. If the narrator thinks spanish, look at all your dialog as translated using the rule transcribe names, translate everything else. If your narrator is bilingual or foreign you have the harder challenge but simpler question of what would the narrator's character do.

But then you ask, what if I am writing from the third person? This only means that you probably are the narrator. How well do you speak Spanish?

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