How to get Amazon Spain (Amazon.es) in English

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Written by: | Last updated on July 24, 2023 | Est. Reading Time: 3 minutes

There’s no Amazon.pt (Amazon Portugal) yet so, if you’re living in Portugal, you’re going to have to shop at Amazon in another country like Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon US, or Amazon Spain (more info about Amazon delivery to Portugal here).

Because Spain is so close to Portugal, many people living in Portugal choose to shop at Amazon Spain (amazon.es). There’s just one problem with that, though. Unlike Amazon Germany which has an English-language option, Amazon Spain is only available in Spanish.

While it’s easy to look up the Spanish word for what you want to buy using Google Translate, all the information about that product will be in Spanish. Regardless of what you’re buying, you’re going to want to be able to understand all of the product details.

Then there’s everything else that goes with online shopping, like choosing postage options and entering your credit card number. All of this is in Spanish. If you’re a regular Amazon shopper or speak Portuguese, you can probably guess what’s being said. Sometimes, though, it’s just easier to have everything in English.

Thankfully it’s possible to translate Amazon from Spanish into English just using your web browser (e.g. Chrome, Firefox, or Edge). Simply follow the instructions for each browser as indicated below to make shopping at Amazon.es that little bit easier.

Google Chrome

When it comes to translating web pages, Chrome is the easiest web browser to use – probably because they own Google Translate as well.

To translate a webpage, all you have to do is click the Google Translate icon in the address bar and Google will ask you if you want to translate the page. (The icon is just on the right hand side of the big long web address.)

Google will then translate everything on the page. You may have to do this with each new page that you load, but it only takes a couple of seconds. Alternatively, you can select for Google to always translate Spanish by clicking ‘Options’ rather than ‘Translate’.

Edge

Microsoft’s Edge comes with laptops and computers that run Windows, which means that it’s a browser that a lot of people use. Unfortunately, there’s no built in translation functionality. If you want to translate webpages, you’re going to have to download an app like ‘Translator for Microsoft Edge‘.

After you’ve installed the app, you’ll see a little icon appear at the end of the address bar.

As with Chrome, simply click this and you’ll be asked if you want to translate the webpage. There’s also a checkbox if you always want to translate from Spanish to English.

Firefox

Like Edge, Firefox doesn’t come with a built-in translation feature. If you want to translate a webpage, you’ll need to install a translation add-on.

There’s S3.Translator, which is one of the most widely-used translation apps and one of the easiest to use. Simply add it to Firefox, and then you’ll see the S3 icon appear in the top right of the browser. Click it and then click ‘translate the page’.

Everything else

If you’re using another browser, like Opera for example, or if you don’t want to add an extension or add-on to your browser, you can just copy and paste the URL into Google Translate (where you would normally enter the text you want to translate).

google translate url

Do you shop at Amazon Spain? Do you translate and, if so, how do you do it? Share your shopping tech tips with other Portugalist readers by leaving a comment below. 

Written by

James Cave is the founder of Portugalist and the author of the bestselling book, Moving to Portugal Made Simple. He has visited just about every part of Portugal, including Madeira and all nine islands of the Azores, and lived in several parts of Portugal including Lisbon, the Algarve, and Northern Portugal.

You can contact James by emailing james@portugalist.com or via the site's contact form.

Portugalist.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for website owners to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon (.es, .co.uk, .de etc) and any other website that may be affiliated with Amazon Service LLC.

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Comments

  1. Hi, James. It’s 2024 and Amazon still doesn’t have English. I can’t understand it. Absolutely and completely. How is this physically possible? Is there a law in Spain against using English in a store?

    Reply
    • Hi Igor,

      It does for Amazon Germany, although it’s sometimes a bit of a rough translation. I think it’s just because English isn’t as spoken in Spain and so there’s less demand there, despite the number of foreigners living there. No doubt it’ll come at some point. It took a long time for Portuguese to come despite so many Portuguese using Amazon Spain.

      Reply
  2. Need to return an item to Amazon.es. got the waybill number from Amazon. Courier did not let us know they were coming to collect so we were not home. Goods need to be returned but unable to get the transporter/ couriers contact details. What must I do? Dont want to loose my refund.

    Reply
  3. Hi, I had Amazon prime uk and this is no longer available in EU so I was planning to switch to Amazon prime spain. Will the movies still be in English?

    Reply
    • Hi Debbie,

      I’ve used Prime Video on Amazon.co.uk in countries like Spain and Portugal. Not sure what’ll happen post Brexit or if there’ll be anything changes.

      I imagine the videos would still be available in English yes. It should be possible to switch languages fairly easily.

      You can normally do a free trial of Amazon Prime, which should be enough to see whether it works for you.

      Reply
      • I’ve just cancelled my prime UK membership. There’s very little now available in my location in spain. it’s a waste of money & time since Brexit. I have spoken to amazon they suggested I try amazon.com to see if they could provide a service.

        Reply
    • There is a language choice option on Spanish prime, but often it is not available, and the English speaking film will be dubbed (horrible).
      If we watch a Spanish film, we prefer the original language and use subtitles (if the option is there….)
      I don’t know why so many English speaking films are dubbed with no other options.
      I’ve written many times to Amazon prime on Facebook about this.
      It’s very disappointing to find a film and then cannot watch it.
      I have 3 Spanish classes a week, and my level is intermediate, but I despair to keep finding these dubbed films, when with current technology it would be easy to show the film in original language.
      Also it would help Spanish people to learn English, pronunciation etc.
      I just don’t understand the awful dubbing of films.

      Reply
  4. I am a regular shopper at Amazon, I just love it. It’s so easy to look for whatever you want and easy to pay, easy to receive, easy to send back. No wonder it’s so popular.
    The only problem I have is it’s not in English language. I am sure it will help a lot if you can have the option to change the language.

    Reply
    • Hi Gul,

      You can do this with Amazon Germany, and maybe one day Amazon will add this feature to Amazon Spain as well.

      In the meantime, I use Google Translate on Amazon Spain.

      Reply
      • With the numbers of English living in Spain and UK leaving Europe if Amazon don’t do automatic translating then they’re crazy. Why should I go out of my way for them, I’m the customer so until they do bollocks to them and their products

        Reply
      • How do you use google translate? do you just copy the product and enter into google translate? I have tried all day through various channels to set up amazon.es to translate it used to before for me in December but not now

        Reply
  5. Having placed an order with Amazon.es for delivery in Spain I am now getting a lot of emails do do with the order. all are in Spanish and difficult to understand. Can they come in English or can I translate on Chrime ??

    Reply
    • Hi Tony,

      If you have a gmail account (which I see you don’t) there is an option to translate an email inside the email. It doesn’t happen automatically, you have to select it each time.

      Otherwise, you’ll need to copy and paste the content of the email into something like Google Translate.

      Reply
    • Translate on google even off line but none of the phone numbers work. Absaloute shambles. I canceled my order but they have gone ahead and delivered it, to another adresse, they changed the postal code. No help anywhere

      Reply
    • Hi Ivan,

      It’s going to be a little more complicated on a Fire Tablet as I imagine you can’t install extensions on the browser.

      You’ll need to go to copy and paste the url of the page that you want translated into Google Translate (translate.google.com). It should not only translate that page, but other pages if you move around the site. It doesn’t work 100% of the time, but it does quite a good job.

      Reply

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