This should help you with some common Spanish Road Signs Translation to English. Driving in Spain is easy and sometimes you need a little help with signs.

Spanish Road Signs Translation

When you are driving in Spain and see an odd sign, it can be confusing and stressful. We share a few of the most common Spanish road signs that give foreigners pause and perhaps some confusion. In addition, when you use a translate app, you don’t always understand the translated meaning either. Continue on for Spanish road signs translations!

Cambio de Sentido

There are various types of direction. First, you have your standard north, south, east, west (norte, sur, este, Oeste). Then you have the direction of your travel, then the way you are going. You’ve heard of people referring to a good Sense of direction right? This is the ability to know one’s location and perform wayfinding, related to cognitive maps, spatial awareness, and spatial cognition.

Cambio de Sentido translates to change of sense or change of way, which means – change of direction.

Cambio – Change
de – of
Sentido – Sense, way, direction

Many roads have a solid white line in the center, which you are not meant to cross. If you need to make a left turn, it is very typical for you to exit on the right, then cross over to make your left turn. If it isn’t in a roundabout, you will often need to turn right onto a frontage road and then wait to cross over to make your left and/or U-Turn, as depicted in the photo above.

False Friend

Be careful of “false friend” words. These are words that sound similar to English, but take on a different meaning. When you use the word dirección in Spanish, it usually doesn’t mean either of those. The word dirección is most commonly used for “an address”, so if you are asking about the address you would ask the dirección.

Control de Velocidad

Spain means business when they warn you about the speed limit. This sign is warning you to play it safe and control your speed. It usually means there are speed cameras ahead and they will be sending you a ticket in the mail, if you over the speed limit.

Control de Velocidad translates to control of velocity, control of fastness, or control of your speed.

Control – control
de – of
Velocidad – velocity, speed, rate, fastness

Sometimes you will have the term on a sign by itself, but it is most often displayed with the radar waves, as it is in the sign above. Be on the lookout for the speed camera or radar ahead and control your speed.

Right of Way

This sign doesn’t often have text displayed with it, but it is important to know the meaning. You will usually find this on a narrow road, where 2 cars don’t easily fit side by side and opposing cars can’t easily pass each other.

If you are traveling in the direction of the white arrow, you have priority over the vehicle traveling in the direction of the red arrow. This is showing the right of way or derecho de paso.

Sometimes you will see a similar sign with cars rather than arrows and it has the same sentiment. The red has a second priority.

Common Spain Road Signs

We have many more road signs in our eBook below. Here are a few examples:

If you want a complete guide to the road in Spain, please read our ebook Driving in Spain, Everything you need to know & more. Click Here Now! We offer a quick reference for signs, what to do in emergencies, how to navigate a roundabout, general road rules, and more! What do you do when there are a stop sign and a green light at the same intersection? Do you have to have that international driver’s license?

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To get the best deals on a rental car, there isn’t just one way to find the deals. I usually search for many ways and compare and play with the dates and times for the car rental. We usually search a few ways and provide you with our tops tips in this article about renting a car in Spain.