Spanish Captions: Comma, period, or space to separate decimals into three-digit groups?

Groups of numbers are separated differently in different Spanish-speaking countries. These differences in the separator sign for decimals can stand out when using Ai to translate English closed captions to Spanish closed captions.

The use of each of these signs is geographically distributed almost equally among Spanish-speaking countries.

The Royal Spanish Academy said about the matter, “In order to solve this problem, international organizations dedicated to standardization have established a common usage that allows the correct interpretation of the figures regardless of the geographical context.

The standards established by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, as well as by ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and the corresponding entities in each nation, have resolved that only a blank space be used to separate the groups of three digits in the numbers.”

Country / GroupComma, Period, or Space
Argentina,
Bolivia, .
Chile,
Colombia,
Dominican Republic.
Costa Rica, .
Cuba, .
Ecuador,
El Salvador, .
Guatemala.
Honduras.
International Bureau of Weights and Measures_
ISO (International Organization for Standardization)_
Mexico.
Nicaragua.
Panama.
Paraguay,
Peru,
Puerto Rico.
Royal Spanish Academy _
Uruguay,
Some American Spanish speakers,
Spain,
United States English Speakers,
Venezuela.
Punctuation for separating hundreds or thousands places in large numbers.


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Hello there! My name is Vicki Kipp, and I am a closed caption maker. Making closed captions is time consuming and complicated, so this blog is a collection of all of the knowledge and experiences I have gained. I hope my collection of tips and tricks might help you with your closed caption work the way it has helped me!

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