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The title Windows 10 para Tontos sounds a bit harsh to me. Is there a different, more polite way to say Windows 10 for Dummies?

El título Windows 10 para Tontos me suena un poco áspero. ¿Existe otra forma (más educada, más suave) de decir Windows 10 for Dummies?

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  • Depends on the purpose and audience of the translation. If your intention is to sell books, then also you should think about the target market and the distribution channel restrictions. In other words, to get a lot of Youtube channel subscribers it's not the same as to sell books to school/university libraries.
    – Rubén - People First
    Sep 2, 2015 at 18:14
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    @Rubén it was something in the middle (FAQ section of a web app)
    – Felipe Pereira
    Sep 2, 2015 at 18:20
  • The following links points web pages about one term that is commoly used in non-worried-about-looking-professional and younglings circles: 1) wikipedia disambuity article and 2) web site about "Partido Único de ..." . For some audiences (maybe too-localized) it could be very catchy :)
    – Rubén - People First
    Sep 2, 2015 at 18:32
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    It is, by nature, a rude title in English, too. That's the supposed humour in the series and the very reason for its success. (I've never bought a single one). There is also a series of books with the title, "The complete idiot's guide to ...". In English, insults are funny.
    – Octopus
    Sep 2, 2015 at 22:32
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    IMHO, "for Dummies" is pretty harsh in English, too. But I think that's part of why it works; it's so harsh so as to be sarcastic, and some people find the humor appealing.
    – Flimzy
    Sep 2, 2015 at 23:05

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Yes, "tontos" is not a word you would tell to somebody you want to sell a book :)

Instead, I would use:

... para principiantes

Where principianteis a word you can find in the DRAE meaning "beginner":

principiante

(Del ant. part. act. de principiar).

  1. adj. Que principia. U. m. c. s.

  2. adj. Que empieza a estudiar, aprender o ejercer un oficio, arte, facultad o profesión. U. m. c. s.

However, this collection of books has been published in Spanish with the "para dummies" text in their title. See the article in Wikipedia about them: Para dummies.

It seems that the tontos, idiotas debate is vivid in comments. Nice! To add to the debate, I recall reading some books para torpes, that had a funny approach together with images by the famous cartoonist Antonio Fraguas, Forges. You can see the collection in: "Libros para torpes".

This torpes has a funny connotation as somebody who is not very skilled, even though he/she tries hard. In the early days of Internet, these kind of books were very successful as they would explain the basic concepts in a very easy way, so people could catch up the brand new technology.

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  • 4
    To be fair, you wouldn't want to call your customers "dummies" in English, either, and yet the "For Dummies" series has become a success...
    – Cat
    Sep 2, 2015 at 20:14
  • How about "idiotas?" Would "Windows para Idiotas" have a similar ring as the English title? ("for Idiots" is another popular English brand, spun off of the popularity of the For Dummies books)
    – Flimzy
    Sep 2, 2015 at 23:07
  • @Flimzy To me idiotas seems a good choice.
    – tchrist
    Sep 3, 2015 at 0:36
  • @tchrist, idiota is stronger than tonto, so I wouldn't use that one here (I'm from south america, Uruguay)
    – Felipe Pereira
    Sep 3, 2015 at 0:55
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    I think "para torpes" is the better translation, it is not strong but still recalls the customer's lack of ability
    – JesusS
    Sep 7, 2015 at 10:32
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These books are actually translated as XXX para dummies. For example: Windows Para Dummies.

You are right to suspect that calling someone tonto is not a good marketing strategy, even if is for a book targeted to people with basic or inexitent understanding on a topic.

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  • +1 for your quick response, this time I'll use @fedorqui's answer since it involves only Spanish
    – Felipe Pereira
    Sep 2, 2015 at 15:07
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    @FelipePereira, I agree. His answer is more complete than mine. I upvoted it and I acknowledge that it is better. I just left my answer because we posted at the same time.
    – Diego
    Sep 2, 2015 at 15:21
  • I agree that "para tontos" would be bad marketing strategy, although "for dummies" turned out to be a good marketing strategy. This difference is more cultural than linguistic, although ultimately culture and language are intimately intertwined.
    – Walter Mitty
    Sep 7, 2015 at 9:35
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Podrías también usar "novatos", por ejemplo: " Windows para novatos". He visto varias veces referirse a los libros dummy de esa forma.

Aprendiz, persona que aprende un oficio. Inexperto o bisoño, no es muy común su uso para este contexto, no en Venezuela.

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Torpe es una equivalencia más o menos aceptable, pienso yo; puesto que no tiene un sentido muy despectivo y de eso se trata.

Sería Windows 10 para Torpes en mi opinión.

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    Gracias por la corrección; Joze. En este caso escribí "acceptable" en vez de "aceptable" por un mero error tipográfico con las teclas del ordenador, que no vi. Si hubira vuelto a leer mi texto con lentitud y de manera pulcra, lo hubiera visto. Lo que pasa es que no suelo releer mis textos o lo hago de un solo vistazo, demasiado deprisa, con impaciencia. Por otra parte, me crié en Francia, de manera que sé la ortografía francesa, la gramática francesa, que aprendí en la escuela en Francia; pero nunca he aprendido lengua española y a pesar de que vivo en España; siempre me surge alguna duda.
    – user55514
    Oct 7, 2015 at 15:23
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Otra posible traducción de "dummies" o "dummy" podría ser negados.

La palabra negado/a tiene la connotación de

Incapaz o totalmente inepto para algo

Puede ser usada como adjetivo o sustantivo y viene a significar lo contrario de "tener un talento natural para cierta materia"

Por ejemplo

Soy un negado para las matemáticas. Por más que estudio no apruebo

Soy un negado para bailar. Pareciera que tengo dos pies izquierdos

Los dardos se me dan bien pero para el billar soy un negado.

Por tanto, "XXX for Dummies" podría traducirse como "XXX para negados", es decir, para gente a la que el XXX siempre se les ha dado mal.

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