The most festive time of the year is approaching and any Spanish Christmas you write must be up to the task.
Today iScribo shows you the best Spanish Christmas words and greetings without making the typical mistakes during this time of year.
Common Nouns and Adjectives in Lowercase
All adjectives are written in lowercase, even if it is Christmas! Bear in mind that all words have to follow the standard grammatical rules, for example, at the beginning of a sentence or after a full stop, in that case, the word has to be capitalised.
We say “feliz Navidad” (Merry Christmas) and “próspero Año Nuevo” (Happy New Year).
The adjective “navideño” is also written in lowercase.
El equipo de iScribo os desea una feliz Navidad y un próspero Año Nuevo.
(The iScribo team wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.)
Esperamos que en las festividades navideñas seáis muy felices.
(We hope you will be very happy during the Christmas holidays.)
Navidad o navidad?
The names of festivities are written in capital letters as they are proper nouns and have to follow the rules of the Spanish Academy (RAE).
When we talk about the period of the festivity, it is possible to write it in lowercase:
Recuerda estas navidades que, si bebes, mejor ir en taxi y no conducir.
(Remember this Christmas that, if you drink, it is better to take a taxi and not to drive.)
We would then write Navidad (Christmas), Año Nuevo (New Year) and Nochevieja (New Year’s Eve).
Me he comprado un vestido rojo para Nochebuena.
(I bought a red dress for Christmas Eve.)
Al Fin de Año lo llamamos Nochevieja.
(We call New Year’s Eve Nochevieja.)
Proper Nouns, Capitalised
Niño Jesús and Jesús are proper nouns, so they should be written with a capital letter.
As for the plural, it is formed according to the rules for compound nouns, so it would be Niños Jesús and not Niños Jesuses.
The same applies to Papá Noel, which we would write in the plural Papás Noel and not Papás Noeles.
However, if we talk about the most Christmas-like man internationally as an ornament or as a doll, we will write it all together and in lower case, as it is a common noun:
Hay un concurso de papanoeles en el centro.
(There is a Santa’s contest in the city centre.)
Avoid Anglicisms
Let’s take care of Spanish language! Use Spanish words whenever you can.
For Christmas, we write a tarjeta de Navidad and not a Christmas or a crismas.
The same goes for Father Christmas, who is called Papá Noel, San Nicolás, Santa Claus, Santa Clos or Viejito Pascuero, depending on which Spanish-speaking country you are in. However, we will not say Santa Klaus or Papa Noël.
Esperamos la llegada de Papá Noel con mucha ilusión.
(We await the arrival of Father Christmas with great excitement.)
iScribo and Christmas Vocabulary Words in Spanish
There are many other writing tips to improve your writing, such as writing Nochebuena y Nochevieja as one word, which although they can be written as two separate words, is highly recommended to write them as one.
There are also other interesting expressions that you can learn en vísperas (while we wait for) Christmas Eve. No one better than the Fundéu and the RAE to guide you through the process. Remember that iScribo helps you to use capital letters correctly and improve your Christmas writing for when you want to wish your loved ones the best Christmas greetings.
