On the occasion of the celebration in Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic, of the XXVIII Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government, some recommendations are offered on terms that may raise doubts.
1. XXVIII, 28, twenty-eighth y twenty-eighth
XXVIII Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government written with initial capital letters. It is also correct to use the cardinal number and call it 28 (twenty eight) Ibero-American Summit. You can also opt for the ordinal, written with a number (28.º) or with lyrics, in this case preferably in a word (twenty-eighth), although it is possible to do it in two (twenty-eighth), con twentieth in feminine and with tilde.
2. The charges, in lower case
The nouns that designate the positions or jobs are written in Spanish with a lowercase initial: President of the goverment, External subjects minister, Ibero-American Secretary General…
3. The words session, meeting, meeting…, in lower case
In addition, it is appropriate to write lowercaseexcept if they are part of a proper name, words like meeting, meeting, sessionetc.: ministerial work meeting, ambassadors meeting, Plenary Session, think tank…
4. Leaderproper term
In the information about the summit, reference is often made to those who participate in it (heads of state and government) as dignitaries (‘person invested with dignity’). Although this is correct usage, the term leader (person who occupies ‘a very important position in the government and representation of the State’) fits better with the profile of the participants in this meeting.
5. Initials and acronyms
It is recommended to write with all letters in capital letters the initials of the related organisms: BID (Inter-American Development Bank), VILLAGES (Latin American and Caribbean Economic System), OECO (Organization of Eastern Caribbean States). Instead, it is preferable to write Only acronyms composed of five letters or more with a capital initialas Segib (Ibero-American General Secretariat).
6. Biennial is not the same as biannual
Since 2014, the Ibero-American summits went from being held every year to doing it every two, that is, to being biennials. Biennial is ‘what happens or is repeated every two years’according to the academic dictionary, while biannual is ‘what happens twice a year’.
7. The expression for the timewithout tilde and in italics
The Latin expression for the timewhich means ‘temporarily or transitorily’, is written without accents and in italics, or in quotation marks if this font is not available, as it is a Latin phrase: «Ecuador will assume the presidency for one year for the time».
8. Financing y financing
So much financing as financing are valid nouns to refer to the ‘action and effect of financing’. The first is more common in Spain and the second in America.
9. Sustainable y sustainable
The development sustainable o sustainable It is one of the issues that will be discussed at the summit. Both forms are valid (the first most used in Spain and the second most common in America) to refer to the development model that tries not to compromise future generations with an excessive consumption of resources.
10. Environment y environmentalbetter than environment o environmental
Regarding the fact that climate change will be another of the topics that the summit will deal with, it is recalled that simple spelling is recommended environmentalthough the form is also accepted environment, while the adjective environmental is always written in one word.
11. The prefix inter-, attached to the word it affects
It is common to find in news and documents about summits or meetings of this type words that appear with the prefix inter-. As with the rest of the prefixes, It is written together with the accompanying word (interinstitutional, intersectoral); therefore, spellings in which the prefix appears joined with a hyphen (inter-institutional, inter-sectoral) or separated by a blank space (inter institutional, inter sectoral).
12. The Dominican Republicwith article
It is recommended to put the article before place names that begin with a word that indicates a type of political division or its form of political organization. Thus, it is preferable to write the Dominican Republicwith the article in lowercase.
See also
➤ Hispanic America, Latin America y Latin America are not synonymous