Category: Business Spanish Courses Online – Legal Spanish Tips

Verb. From the Latin quotus, how much? In Business Spanish cotizar has 3 different meanings: 1. To publish in the stock market the price of the public effects negotiated there. E.g.: La bolsa de valores cotiza estas acciones en varios cientos de dólares: The stock market lists these shares for several hundred dollars. 2. To estimate a price for a good or a service. E.g.: En este caso, el proveedor no aceptó los precios basados en el índice y cotizó nuevos precios basándose en tasas más elevadas: However, the vendor had not accepted the prices on that basis but quoted the new prices based on higher rates. 3. To pay the corresponding part of collective expenses or social security contributions. E.g.: Pero las autoridades del país de acogida insisten en que cotice a la Seguridad Social en el país de acogida: But the host country’s authorities insist that she should also make social security contributions there.
In all three cases the noun is la cotización. dc

Masculine noun. Capital inversión is a type of financial activity that consists of the acquisition, by a specialized entity, of the majority package of shares of a company. The investment capital entity thus becomes the majority owner of the company, usually temporarily, since after a while the sale of the purchased shares is usually carried out. E.g.: El sector incluye los fondos de inversión libre y los fondos de capital inversión, así como los fondos inmobiliarios, los fondos de materias… The sector includes hedge funds and private equity, as well as real estate funds, commodity funds, infrastructure fund. As you can see, in Spanish capital inversion refers to the activity and not to the entity, in this case we say fondo de capital inversion.
A grammar point: This is a new term and it breaks the Spanish grammar rule that two nouns cannot be together. I would use capital de inversión or capital-inversión but I must admit that capital inversion is the expression generally used in the field. dc

Feminine noun. In Business Spanish cartera refers to the securities or tittles which are part of the assets of a merchant, bank or company. E.g.: La empresa ha ampliado su cartera de inversiones. The company has expanded its investment portfolio. This term is also used in expressions like cartera de clientes: customer base; and cartera de contratos: contract portfolio.
In Politics, cartera refers to the functions of a ministry. E.g.: Es elegido diputado en 1933 y será nombrado ministro de Marina, ministro de Estado y ministro sin cartera: He was elected deputy in 1933 and was nominated as Minister of the Navy, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Minister without portfolio.
By the way, in Spain a cartera is a wallet and in Argentina a purse. dc

Masculine noun. An auto is a reasoned judicial resolution that decides secondary, previous, incidental or execution issues, for which no sentence is required. In Argentina we also call it sentencia interlocutoria. E.g.: La autoridad designada conforme a lo dispuesto en el párrafo primero transmitirá el auto a la autoridad judicial competente según su Derecho interno: The authority named pursuant to the first subparagraph shall pass on the order to the judicial authority which is competent according to its national law.
Autos, a plural masculine noun, are the documents that collect the actions of a judicial procedure. E.g.: Por otro lado, consta en autos que la interviniente realiza casi el 5 % de sus ventas por correspondencia: In addition, it is apparent from the file that the intervener makes almost 5% of its sales by mail order. Constar en autos is a lexical combination, always together and without article.
By the way, an auto in Argentina is also a car, coche in Spain. dc

Feminine noun. An acta is a written record of what happened, treated or agreed in a meeting. The verb we use with this noun is always levantar, as we are in front of a lexical combination. E.g.: El presidente se encargará de levantar acta de las reuniones: The chairperson is responsible for the compilation in a report of an accurate summary record of the meetings.
Note that the singular determinate and indeterminate articles we use with acta are always the masculine el and un: El acta, un acta. This is because of the combination of two reasons: 1. acta is a feminine noun starting with a tónica (with the stress in the a); 2. In Spanish we do not have apostrophe. In the plural form the articles revert to the feminine form: las actas, unas actas. In amiga, we say la amiga because the stress is not in the first a but in the i.
Remember, acta is always a feminine noun, even with the masculine article in front of it. E.g.: El acta complementaria. As far as I know, in Spanish we have just one word which is masculine in the singular and feminine in the plural; arte: el arte español del Siglo de Oro, las Bellas Artes.
By the way, el acto, masculine noun, is a completely different thing. dc