Use a free online translator by logging on to a website such as Yahoo Babelfish, Google Translate or Free Translation. Since the quality of the translation varies slightly from program to program, stick to basic English phrases when translating English-to-Spanish online.
Choose the phrase you wish to translate from a web page, email or document. Highlight the text, select the "Edit" menu above your browser window (or right-click), and then select "Copy."
Paste the text into the first message field in the online translator. Select English for the initial text. Choose Spanish from a drop-down menu or from a list of translation options. To translate text from a hard-copy document, type the English phrase directly into the first message field.
Click the option that enables you to translate the text by selecting "Submit," "Translate" or a similar command to begin the English-to-Spanish translation.
Read through the translation carefully, and identify any Spanish words that do not make sense in the phrase. Your ability to do so will depend upon your familiarity with Spanish.
Return to your original phrase and highlight the original English word that has resulted in a questionable Spanish translation.
Log on to Word Reference, type the unknown word into the search field and select "English to Spanish" for a translation of the word in different contexts. You can also use an English-Spanish dictionary to look up unknown Spanish words.