I’m afraid that that’s not correct, however: not always, not in all cases.  It depends on the objective to be accomplished.

According to the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española (http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltConsulta?TIPO_BUS=3&LEMA=usted):

“Usted” constitutes a treatment of:

1.    courtesy
2.    respect
3.    distancing

Similarly, the Diccionario Panhispánico de Dudas (http://buscon.rae.es/dpdI/) offers a similar appraisal:

Compared with “tú” and “vos”, the singular “usted” is the typical treatment among educated speakers in Spain and the Americas; in general, “usted” implies certain distancing, courtesy and formality:

Usted escriba su reclamación en un papel. [“Usted” write your claim down on paper.]
Ustedes perdonen. Soy el Oficial del Juzgado. ["Ustedes" forgive me. I am the Court Official.]

As a consequence, if a mother were to treat her child as “usted” she would most likely be lecturing the child, quite the opposite of treating someone with courtesy.  And in other contexts similar treatment could also be interpreted.

In marketing, showing respect to the client is of course a major priority, as such people are the source of a company’s earnings; nonetheless, “usted” is rarely used in such occasions as this would mean distancing the brand from the buyer.

For example, Coca-Cola, the leading soda company globally, tends not to use “usted” in its Spanish language marketing campaigns (http://www.cocacola.es/).

The most creative marketers across the planet contribute to the company’s lauded advertising campaigns, generally without using “usted.”  It’s that the company precisely wants to create a sense of empathy, of sharing the same lifestyle.

It’s unlikely that the company’s Sales Department would look favorably on even a rather clever ad using “usted.”  The notion of implicit distancing it creates simply wouldn’t be considered ideal.

Therefore, common sense is always the best guide when determining whether to use “usted” or “tú” in a given translation into Spanish, especially in projects dealing with spoken language.  And, of course, client preferences should be kept in mind.

It’s often discussed whether students in the classroom should be able to address their teachers with “tú” as they would their peers, some arguing that this tends to weaken the teacher’s authority over their many students.  Visit http://www.rafaelrobles.com/?p=2366 for further opinions on this topic.
Is addressing teachers in school with “usted” an old-fashioned practice that has remained in place after dying off in the family setting?

Among family, it was common in previous generations for children to address their parents with “usted” as addressing them with “tú” was considered as simply intolerable insolence.  Today, on the other hand, family relations are much more relaxed and it is practically impossible to catch kids referring to their parents with “usted” anymore.

Are there still countries where children speak to their parents as “usted?”

Why does the use of “usted” seem to wane as the years go by?  Is it because it alludes to bygone eras of greater authoritarian rigor?

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It’s important to keep certain principles in mind: the extent of the listed ideas and whether they represent marketing material or tables.

In addition to the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española, to which we constantly turn for advice, “El libro de estilo interinstitucional” (The Interinstitutional Syle Guide) used throughout Europe is also very helpful.

Keep the following in mind:

1.  In lists, catalogs, marketing brochures, etc., you can do without punctuation marks between the items being listed.  For example, the different services offered on a website: see Trusted Translations.

2.  Lists are introduced using a colon (:), and each item begins in lowercase and ends with a comma or semicolon, though in the case of a sentence it may begin in uppercase and end in a period.  For example:

La Comunidad aplicará las medidas previstas:

* evaluación objetiva de los riesgos;
* establecimiento de normas; y
* medidas relativas a determinados productos.

or

La Comunidad aplicará las medidas previstas:

- evaluación objetiva de los riesgos,
- establecimiento de normas, y
- medidas relativas a determinados productos.

or

La Comunidad aplicará las medidas previstas:

1. La Comisión Evaluadora llevará a cabo la evaluación objetiva de los riesgos que implica la medida en cuestión.
2. Se deberán respetar las normas establecidas por la Junta Directiva.
3. Para determinados productos, habrá medidas específicas que reemplazarán a las generales.

Hope this helps for those out there struggling with Spanish grammar rules!

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This applies both to translating and to editing translations. We have to remember that our choices regarding terminology must also be based on what is established by the RAE. It is essential that our work is demonstrate a professional basis and, therefore, there is nothing better than working with a thorough knowledge of grammar rules.

I know that working on the edition of texts is a task that is far from objective, but the RAE does offer us a source of knowledge which we can immerse ourselves in when we want our bases to extend past the simple “I wrote it like that because it sounds better” or the tried and true “I changed it because of usage”.

In conclusion, as much as we want to use a certain sentence because “it sounds better”, we must first check its proper use according to what the Real Academia Española has decided.

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To begin it is essential to make the distinction between the two tools available on the site: the RAE’s dictionary itself and the Pan-Hispanic dictionary of doubts, both available for searching on the home page.
The dictionary itself offers us all of the options that the printed version offers us: looking up, definition, and grammatical context of any term. For translators, it is important to remember that every term that is not in the dictionary is NOT accepted and, therefore, its use is not valid. In addition to multiple ways to filter the search of a word, we can also access a form to make queries and suggestions on this page.
The second option available on the site is what translators often refer to as “the pan-hispanic”, which provides us with a a plethora of possibilities for investigation. This dictionary is useful for looking up terms that generate doubts that go beyond their definition. For example, they could be doubts on use of the term, preposition usage, anglicisms, punctuation, etc. As one who works with the Spanish language regularly, I think this is one of the finest tools in my job, since it is common for us to have doubts about words that are not resolved just by reading a definition. Likewise, I recommend related articles, which are grouped in different aspects of the Spanish language that regularly present difficulties as we perform our job.

In summary, I would recommend that you become friends with the RAE’s web page, since it offers knowledge, clears away doubts, saves us time, and helps us to avoid mistakes in our work.

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In the case of dictionaries, the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española has a prestigious reputation within the Spanish language, but is it the bible for all correct words and expressions in the Spanish language? Certainly, specialists from different areas will find that words that are frequently used by them do not appear in this work of unquestionable, though incomplete, excellence.

It is worth mentioning that only a dead language that no longer has people that regard this language as their mother tongue can have a complete word listing  (for example, Latin, ancient Greek, Iberian and Celtiberian languages, etc.). But in the case of living languages, people are the ones who propel languages to evolve, thanks to the creation of daily expressions for communication. The specialists are the ones who create daily expressions to describe diverse inventions and devices appearing on the market. Then, these expressions are accepted and incorporated into the dictionary.

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