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I've been looking for the word for a while. Teaching my spanish speaking father to use his smartphone, so I want to tell him what things are called in his language.

When looking at dictionaries I only get the meanings of hitting and such (old meanings). How would you say swipe in the context of something like:

Swipe left on the screen to dismiss

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I would translate as deslizar or arrastrar

Desliza el dedo por la pantalla para descartar

Deslice el dedo hacia la izquierda para descartar

Arrastre el dedo por la pantalla para descartar

Deslizar and arrastrar convey well the meaning that you are moving your finger with a swift movement while touching the screen. I also see "swipe" in the context of a credit/debit card:

Swipe your card to pay / Swipe your card and follow the instructions on the screen

in which case "swipe" should be translated only as deslizar, but not arrastrar. Maybe you could even use pasar

Pase su tarjeta de débito/crédito y siga las instrucciones de la pantalla

but I would favor deslizar. For an action on a smartphone screen, I would also favor deslizar over pasar.

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  • Since this one has been linked to from a question specifically about swiping cards, I'd point out that I find pasar as a much better translation in that context (and it's also the one I generally see — I've never seen an ATM that said "deslice su tarjeta").
    – user0721090601
    Commented Apr 7, 2015 at 23:34
  • @guifa, Could it be a regional preference? I actually agree with you. I think I would never hear or read "deslice" in (or from) the terminal of a ATM in Spain (I could be wrong, I've been away for a while), but I think that in the States if you go to a CVS and chose Spanish for language preferences in the self check point they use "deslice" when you are finishing the transaction and need to pay. Next time I have the chance I'll do the experiment, and leave a another comment.
    – Diego
    Commented Apr 8, 2015 at 0:50
  • it's definitely possible, but I admit as a rule I ignore US Spanish translations, given that even for companies who you'd think would know better, translations tend to be done by beginners of Spanish or heritage speakers who lack topical/experiential knowledge to choose the best words.
    – user0721090601
    Commented Apr 8, 2015 at 1:05
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Se suele traducir como desplazar (el dedo, la pantalla o el elemento gráfico que sea) o deslizar el dedo. “Desplace la pantalla hacia la izquierda”, “deslice el dedo hacia la izquierda”.

A veces se encuentra desplazar como verbo intransitivo (“desplace hacia la izquierda”). En mi opinión es incorrecto, aunque se sobreentiende “el dedo”.

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    +1 por "deslizar" aunque "desplazar" no me cuadra tanto como traducción. Para mí la traducción óptima es "Desliza el dedo por la pantalla para descartar".
    – Diego
    Commented Jan 6, 2015 at 15:51
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    @Diego Más allá de nuestras preferencias, tanto "desplazar" como "deslizar" se usan actualmente como traducciones de "to swipe". Supongo que con el tiempo se establecerá una de ellas (y la otra tal vez quede para "to flick").
    – angus
    Commented Jan 6, 2015 at 20:35
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This is what I would say to my mom:

Le das a la derecha.

Le das a la izquierda.

El ejemplo que das quedaría algo así:

Dale a la izquierda (Pásale el dedo) para que se cancele/se borre.

Dismiss is descartar but it is not a normal word on day-day speech.

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