Excel Function Translator: English ↔ Spanish / Portuguese
By Bruno Tonetto · Reviewed on · How we verify
Excel translates its function names: VLOOKUP is BUSCARV in Spanish and PROCV in Portuguese; SUM is SUMA / SOMA. This is the complete translation of Excel functions between English, Spanish and Portuguese — 375 functions, searchable in either direction. Handy when you inherit a spreadsheet from a team in Mexico City, Madrid, São Paulo or Lisbon — or paste an English tutorial's formula into a localized Excel and get an error.
Why does Excel translate function names?
Microsoft Excel localizes function names to the language of the
installation. In English you write =SUM(A1:A10); the same
calculation is =SUMA(A1:A10) in Spanish and
=SOMA(A1:A10) in Portuguese. The result is identical — only the
name you type changes.
Under the hood, the file stores each formula in a neutral format, so a spreadsheet
created in English keeps working when it's opened in Spanish or Portuguese (Excel shows
the names already translated). Trouble starts when you copy a formula as
text — from a tutorial, a forum, a chat message — and paste it into the
formula bar of a differently-localized Excel: an English installation doesn't recognize
BUSCARV and answers #NAME?. The fix is swapping in
the right name with the table above.
How to use a translated formula
Every Excel formula starts with the equals sign (=), then the function
name and, in parentheses, the arguments. Here is the same calculation — looking up a
value in a table — in the three languages:
=VLOOKUP(A2, table, 2, FALSE) =BUSCARV(A2, tabla, 2, FALSO) =PROCV(A2; tabela; 2; FALSO)
Notice that, besides the function name, the logical values change too
(TRUE → VERDADERO / VERDADEIRO,
FALSE → FALSO) — and so does the punctuation between
arguments, which is the next trap.
Tip: let Excel translate for you
If all you need is to run a finished spreadsheet, there is nothing to translate by
hand: when you open an .xlsx made in another language, Excel
shows every name in the language of your installation. The table
above is for when you are typing or pasting a new formula that came
from somewhere else.
Comma or semicolon? The separator changes by country
A detail almost nobody explains: function names are the same across each language, but the argument separator is not. Countries that use the decimal point (the US, Mexico and most of Latin America) separate arguments with a comma; countries that use the decimal comma (Spain, Brazil, Portugal) separate them with a semicolon:
=PAGO(7%/12, 60, -30000) =PGTO(7%/12; 60; -30000) That is why a formula copied from a Spanish website can fail in a Mexican Excel — and a Brazilian formula in a US one — even when the function name is right: the separators also need swapping. The separator comes from the system's regional settings, not from the Office display language.
Most searched functions
The translations people look up the most, side by side:
| English | Spanish | Portuguese (BR) |
|---|---|---|
VLOOKUP | BUSCARV | PROCV |
XLOOKUP | BUSCARX | PROCX |
SUM | SUMA | SOMA |
SUMIF | SUMAR.SI | SOMASE |
IF | SI | SE |
IFERROR | SI.ERROR | SEERRO |
COUNTIF | CONTAR.SI | CONT.SE |
AVERAGE | PROMEDIO | MÉDIA |
CONCATENATE | CONCATENAR | CONCATENAR |
PMT | PAGO | PGTO |
NPV | VNA | VPL |
IRR | TIR | TIR |
The dynamic array functions (Excel 365 and 2021 onward) are localized
too — FILTER is FILTRAR / FILTRO,
UNIQUE is UNICOS / ÚNICO,
SORT is ORDENAR / CLASSIFICAR — while some
of the newest ones (like LET and LAMBDA) keep the
same name in every language: nothing to translate there.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my formula show a #NAME? error?
#NAME? appears when Excel doesn't recognize the function name you typed. Pasting =BUSCARV(...) from a Spanish spreadsheet into an English installation causes it — the English name is =VLOOKUP(...). The same thing happens in reverse: Spanish and Portuguese installations answer #¿NOMBRE? and #NOME? when they see an English name. Use the search at the top of the page to find the right one. Does the translation apply to Google Sheets too?
Yes. Google Sheets uses the same localized names as this table (BUSCARV, PROCV…), and the English names always work as well. The argument separator follows the spreadsheet's regional settings, not the display language. Do I need to translate a whole file when it changes language?
No. The file stores formulas in an internal, language-independent format, so Excel re-displays everything in the language of the installation that opens it. Manual translation is only needed when you type or paste a new formula that came from another language. Which Portuguese does the table use — Brazil or Portugal?
Both: use the selector above the search box. The two localizations agree on the everyday functions (SOMA, SE, PROCV…) but diverge on dozens of others — Brazil and Portugal even swap FIND and SEARCH (FIND is PROCURAR in Brazil and LOCALIZAR in Portugal, and SEARCH is the reverse) — so the table keeps them separate.