Data Scientist

Spanish machine learning vocabulary: neural networks, models and data pipelines

Q: What is 'el lago de datos'?

The data lake — with el almacén de datos as the formal term for a data warehouse. In practice both usually stay in English, and everyday jargon calls the data itself la data (feminine, an anglicism) instead of los datos.

Explain models, neural networks and data pipelines to a Spanish-speaking team — out loud.

VOCABULARY PACK · 6 LESSONS · C2

The core paradigms translate cleanly: el aprendizaje supervisado (supervised learning), el aprendizaje no supervisado, la clasificación and la regresión. Neural networks bring la red neuronal convolucional, la capa oculta (hidden layer) and la retropropagación — though working data scientists just say backprop. The register trick to know: real Spanish-speaking ML teams keep machine learning, data lake and feature engineering in English, say la data for their datasets, but reach for precise Spanish when it matters — el sobreajuste (overfitting), la validación cruzada, el sesgo del modelo (model bias). That code-switching only becomes natural by speaking it, not drilling flashcards.

Below: the vocabulary lesson by lesson — from ML fundamentals to neural nets, training, big-data infrastructure and AI ethics — how teams actually talk across Latin America, and a way to rehearse a technical meeting out loud.

Say this

The phrases that carry the conversation

Machine Learning Fundamentals

el aprendizaje supervisadosupervised learning
el aprendizaje no supervisadounsupervised learning
la clasificaciónclassification
la regresiónregression

Neural Networks

la red neuronal convolucionalconvolutional neural network
la capa ocultathe hidden layer
la función de activaciónthe activation function
la retropropagaciónbackpropagation

Big Data Infrastructure

el lago de datosthe data lake
el almacén de datosthe data warehouse
la ingestión de datosdata ingestion
el procesamiento por lotesbatch processing

Regional Spanish

What locals actually say

Textbooks teach one word. Locals use several — pick your region's and stay consistent.

Méx: 'machine learning' o 'ML' a secas, sin traducir, en juntas técnicas
Arg/Uy: 'modelo supervisado' (voseo: 'entrenalo supervisado') en vez de 'aprendizaje supervisado'
Pan-LatAm tech: 'clustering' en inglés desplaza a 'agrupamiento' en práctica diaria
Caribe/Col: 'clasificar' como verbo coloquial reemplaza 'hacer clasificación'
Chile/Perú: 'regresión lineal' a veces se acorta a 'una regre' entre data scientists
Esp/LatAm: 'el target' (anglicismo) en lugar de 'la variable objetivo' en charlas de trabajo
Méx: 'red neuronal' o 'la neural' a secas; 'CNN' se dice en inglés
Arg/Uy: 'la capa escondida' (voseo: 'agregale una capa') por 'capa oculta'
Pan-LatAm DL: 'backprop' como abreviatura inglesa de retropropagación
Caribe/Col: 'los pesos' a secas, omitiendo 'sinápticos', en charla diaria

Watch out

Mistakes that mark you as a textbook speaker

Confusing supervised and unsupervised learningSpecify whether labeled data is used
Using 'AI' as a catch-all without specifying the techniqueName the specific algorithm or model type
Ignoring model evaluation when describing trainingAlways pair training with validation metrics

The part no drill site can do

No flashcards. You learn it by using it

Olivia

Your vocabulary teacher for this pack

There are no vocab lists to memorize here — in the Data Scientist lessons you talk, and Olivia keeps handing you the meetings where this vocabulary lives. One lesson you're in an ML team meeting explaining the difference between aprendizaje supervisado and no supervisado, with real examples of clasificación and agrupamiento. The next is an architecture review: you walk through a red neuronal convolucional — capas, función de activación, retropropagación — while she pushes back like a colleague would. Then a data-engineering briefing: your pipeline de datos, from ingestión and transformación to almacenamiento in a lago de datos — all out loud, until the terms come without translating.

Blank mid-sentence and nothing bad happens — she waits. That's the practice, without unnecessary judgement.

Finish the 6 lessons and Data Scientist is yours — earned, not given.

First 10 lessons free · 10-minute spoken lessons · your AI coaching team remembers you

Quick answers

Questions people ask

How do you say machine learning in Spanish?

Usually you don't translate it — in technical meetings across Latin America it's machine learning or just ML. The Spanish terms appear when you specify the paradigm: el aprendizaje supervisado, el aprendizaje no supervisado, el aprendizaje por refuerzo (reinforcement learning).

How do you say overfitting in Spanish?

El sobreajuste — and Mexicans use it as a verb: el modelo se sobreajustó. Many teams keep the English: in Argentina you'll hear no overfitees el modelo. Underfitting is el subajuste.

What is 'el lago de datos'?

The data lake — with el almacén de datos as the formal term for a data warehouse. In practice both usually stay in English, and everyday jargon calls the data itself la data (feminine, an anglicism) instead of los datos.

How do you talk about neural networks in Spanish?

La red neuronal convolucional is a convolutional neural network — often just la red or la neural in context, with CNN said in English. The components: la capa oculta, la función de activación, el peso sináptico — though colleagues say los pesos and backprop in daily talk.

How do you discuss model bias and explainability in Spanish?

Bias is el sesgo del modelo — colloquially el modelo está sesgado, or with the anglicism, tiene bias. Explainability is la explicabilidad del modelo, though in stakeholder talks you'll also hear XAI.