What should be the correct word in Spanish to translate "table" (as in an arrangement of text or data in rows and columns)?
Somewhere I've read that "cuadro" should be preferred to "tabla", but which one would native speakers would actually use?
asked Nov 15, 2011 at 21:05
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3At least in Spain -as opposed to Latin American Spanish- cuadro is not used at all for describing a table.– deprecatedCommented Nov 15, 2011 at 21:10
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1Just to note, at least in Mexico, cuadro is also almost never used to describe a table.– Juan A. NavarroCommented Nov 16, 2011 at 14:58
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1@vemv and Juan, since table has several different senses in English I don't know how to interpret your advice in these comments )-:– hippietrailCommented Nov 22, 2011 at 10:58
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1We don't use cuadro to describe either data grids or desks.– deprecatedCommented Nov 22, 2011 at 11:20
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@deprecated acá en Latinoamérica tampoco decimos cuadro– tacCommented Oct 5, 2023 at 14:00
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9 Answers
According to Real Academia Española, the relevant definitions of these words for this matter are:
Cuadro:
- Conjunto de nombres, cifras u otros datos presentados gráficamente, de manera que se advierta la relación existente entre ellos.
Tabla:
- Cuadro o catálogo de números de especie determinada, dispuestos en forma adecuada para facilitar los cálculos.
- Lista o catálogo de cosas puestas por orden sucesivo o relacionadas entre sí.
That is to say, when you have numbers arranged so as to ease their presentation, or ease the calculations you have to do among them, tabla should be the better choice.
When you are working with documents the translation to table is usually cuadro, because then its use is more general, not specifically related to numbers.
answered Nov 15, 2011 at 21:17
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1Yes, this is pretty much what I've always read. The funny thing is that, although apparently “cuadro” should be the preferred word in most contexts (as it is moe general), it seems that it isn't really used by people in this way. Commented Nov 16, 2011 at 15:01
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Yes, besides the formal documents, it's almost always preferred the word
tabla. Commented Nov 23, 2011 at 21:45 -
En cuba cuando he escuchado cuadro lo mas cercano a este contexto es referido a una lista de dirigentes=> cuadros del partido comunista. por ejemplo Commented Mar 25, 2014 at 6:27
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In academia and most formal contexts, the correct term is "cuadro". In business, "tabla" is more common because of it's similarity to the English word. Commented May 7, 2018 at 19:00
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Está mal. Nadie dice cuadro hoy por hoy, independientemente de lo que la RAE señale como correcto. Esto es una falacia de autoridad, no una respuesta honesta– tacCommented Oct 5, 2023 at 14:01
It's definitely
Tabla
at least when showing data that's the most widely usage in Mexico, examples:
Tabla de información // informative table
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Esta debería ser la respuesta aceptada. Cuadro es sumamente ridículo como traducción– tacCommented Oct 5, 2023 at 14:00
I know the difference between "cuadro" (any kind of data) and table (only numbers), and when I was in elementary school, I used more "cuadro" (for school work, for example). During the university and now at work, we used more "tabla" even in the data is not only numeric. Why? My hypothesis is this is a case of cultural influence, since you read "table" in technical documentation (written in english) and it feels more natural to use "tabla". Now, I only use "cuadro" to refer a painting.
In the spanish translation of LaTeX (a word processor system mainly for scientific text, but not only) the default translation is "cuadro" (it's written automatically and you can't easily change the names by default), but the author include the possibility to change it to "tabla" because it's very common, despite he considers is not the correct translation of "table". Also, I'd use only "matriz" when all columns contain the same kind of numeric data and in a pure mathematical context.
Back in the 80s when I used to teach relational database design in Mexico and Puerto Rico, I always used "tabla" for table, "fila" for "row", and "columna" for "column".
Wikipedia en español tiene una entrada para SQL. En esa entrada, hablan de tablas.
Since in the Database world, the word "Table" is universally known to represent a group of "Rows" which contain one or more "Columns", the best translation, which would be easily understood within the context it is being used, the word "Tabla" is the best choice, no matter what Spanish-speaking country you're in. If you were to use any other word, it would confuse someone!
In Database jargon:
Table = Tabla, Fichero, Archivo, Registro (but never heard "Cuadro" being used).
Row = Record, Fila,
Column = Campo, Encasillado, Celula.
Another word is "planilla." Planilla refers to physical spreadsheets (columns and rows) accountants used to utilize for logging numbers and letters as well.
Especially for numerical and mathematical data in technical applications, you sometimes see la matriz -- matrix -- used to describe tabular data. I use it whenever I'm talking about math -- which is often. Just as in English, this is a more specific usage aimed at educated people but it can be very useful.
Matriz also means "womb" and "principal" in different contexts. Don't mix them up.
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1This is especially natural usage for any Spanish speaker with a doctorate in Algebra, Statistics, or Physics. (Note: Algebra comes to English from Arabic by way of Spanish.)– BrianCommented Nov 19, 2011 at 6:51
When the information (numbers, words, sentences, ideas, formulas, small figures…) is organized more or less in columns and rows it is a tabla. But if it is organized in others forms, more generals, possible including lists, diagrams, etc. it will be a (re)cuadro.
Una escuadra de columnas would translate to "a square of columns" which is descriptive enough in a conversation in the workplace without having to be too specific.
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