Fundéurae: Fallas, five keys to good writing

Madrid, 15 Mar (EFE). The Foundation for Urgent Spanish (FundÉurae), promoted by the EFE Agency and the RAE, offers below some recommendations on the terms that may raise questions during the celebration of the Fallas festival in Valencia (Spain) and other cities and regions of this community. 1. “Fallas”, lowercase and capitalThe academic dictionary collects the word “fallas” in lowercase when referring to the 'period during which the festivities of San José' are celebrated in Valencia', although the initial capital is appropriate if it is used as the name of the festival being celebrated, whose name is, more properly, “feasts of San José”. 2. In lowercase to allude to each sculptural groupInstead, “fault” is written with lower case when we refer to one of the sculptural groups that burn: “The fault burned quickly” and not “The Fault burned quickly”. 3. “Ninot”, “crema”, “mascletá”,” plantá” and “casal”, in RedondaIn Spain, terms such as “ninot”, “crema”, “mascletá”, “plantá” and “casal” are sufficiently established in use to be written in round letters. 4. “Ninot pardoned” is better than “ninot indultat” It is appropriate to translate the expression “ninot pardoned” as “ninot pardoned”. 5. “Nit del Foc” and “la Crema”, with initial and round capitalThe expressions “Nit del Foc” and “la Crema” it is advisable to write them with initial capitals and in the round. It is recommended that all these words and expressions be written in quotation marks or italics when used outside Spain, as they are generally unknown terms. The FunDéurae (www.fundeu.es), promoted by the EFE Agency and the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), has as its main objective the proper use of Spanish in the media. feu/aam