2023-10-31 09:00:38
On the occasion of the Halloween holiday, below are some recommendations on terms and expressions related to this celebration.
1. Halloweenwith capital initial
According to Spelling of the Spanish language, the nouns and adjectives that are part of the name of the festivities, whether civil, military or religious, are written with a capital initial. Therefore, the festival of Halloweenwhich is the contraction of the English expression All Hallows’ Eve and whose meaning is ‘eve of All Saints’ Day’, it is written with initial capital letterin round and without quotes.
2. All Saints’ Day, Day of the Dead…
In the same way, the denominations are written with capital initials in all significant elements. All Saints Day, Day of the Dead, Day of the Souls, Commemoration of the Faithful Departed y Halloween night.
3. Trick or treat could be I cheat the deal
I cheat the deal is the most established translation of the English expression trick or treat, which children use when they go house to house trick-or-treating on Halloween night. Although there are other possible and used translations (such as trick or treat, trick or treat…), I cheat the deal and other formulas like bullshit the deal They have the advantage of similarity or baronies phonetics with the original.
In Mexico the expression is used ask for a skullsince the basket in which the children keep the sweets they receive is shaped like a skull.
4. Zombiesbetter than zombie
One of the usual costumes for this festival is that of bothplural zombis. This adaptation to Spanish is preferable to the forms zombie y zombiestypical of English.
5. And werewolf and one werewolf womanin lower case and in two words
The name of this legendary creature, also known as lycanthrope o werewolf, is written in lower case, separated and without a hyphen. The feminine of this construction is werewolf woman. Regarding the plural, is Wolfman y wolf women, although the forms are also documented werewolves y werewolves
6. La catrina, in lower case
It is indicated that it be written with lower case the term catrina, which alludes to the popular character who represents death like a woman dressed elegantly and that comes from the adjective Catherinewhich means ‘well dressed, decked out’, as stated by the Mexican Academy of Language: “The catrina costume is always a success for Halloween.”
7. Fearfuland not fearful
The adjective suitable for qualifying a person who feels fear is fearfulwritten con eand not fearfulcon o.
8. Movie or series titles are written in italics
They are common at this time movies or series of fear, whose titles should be written in italics and with initial capital letter in the first word and in the words that need it due to their nature as proper names: The others, The return of the witches, Saw, Friday the 13thetc.
A first version of this recommendation was published on October 30, 2018.
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