Category: Business Spanish Courses Online – Learning Resources

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

Verb. From the Latin emittere, to throw out. In Legal and Business Spanish, emitir means to produce and put into circulation paper money, titles or securities and treasury bills. E.g.: Los varios mercados de bonos emitieron anualmente más de un billón de dólares en nuevas emisiones: The various bond markets issued more than a trillion worth of new issues annually.
In media, emitir means to broadcast and if we speak about environment it can mean to emit.
The noun is la emisión. dc

Masculine noun. In Business Spanish a bono is a fixed income security issued by a private company or by a public institution. E.g.: Sin consolidar en lo que se refiere a la participación en la emisión de bonos del Tesoro: Unbound for participation in issuance of treasury bonds.
We have different kind of bonos: bonos cupón cero (zero coupon bond), bonos a tasa de interés fija o flotante (floating or fixed rate bond), bonos amortizables durante la vida del mismo / al vencimiento (bullet), bonos convertibles (convertible bond), bonos con opción de recompra (callable bond), bonos con opción de reventa (putable bond).
In Spain, if bonos are issued for a term longer than five years, they are called obligaciones negociables.
By the way, bono also means voucher and James Bond should be translated Santiago Bono. dc

Feminine noun. From the Latin declaratio, action and effect of making something clear.
In Legal Spanish, a declaración is a formal statement made by a person with legal effects, especially if made by the parties, witnesses or experts in a process. E.g: La abogada leyó en voz alta las declaraciones de la testigo: The lawyer read out the witness’s depositions.
The verb is declarar, the adjective declarativo/a/s and the person (noun) el/la declarante. dc