underskies (asker) May 18, 2015:

Re: More context. There is no sentence before "Este comparativo que estamos pendiente" - it's the first line of an email. But another sentence is "el comparativo comentado tenía un error…" - again the first line of another email, and "queda un importe…que será un anexo a este comparativo". It may indeed refer to a "cuadro comparativo" but the context is they are revising their own comparativo that the finance department needs to approve internally. So they are not bidding. It seems to be all an internal affair. I think I may go with "estimate" after all. Maybe they could have said "presupuesto/estimación/estimado" but it's also a context of inter-office email lingo, with shorthand and all, and it seems this term is just part of the vocabulary. And re:philgoddard, I don't know, maybe "comparison" is fine if that's how they use the term in the construction world. But as I say, they're not comparing anything - it's not a company looking at different bids, they're internally fixing their own budget. So to me, "comparison" doesn't make sense.
My apologies if I'm redundant; as you can see, I'm still not 100% confident but I really appreciate the discussion.

Andy Watkinson May 16, 2015:

I believe they're referring to this:
"Una vez elaborado un cuadro comparativo con las características de las ofertas de todos los proveedores preseleccionados, se procederá a la elección del proveedor que ofrezca el producto y las condiciones más adecuadas a las necesidades de la empresa."

Cuadro/análisis comparativo de ofertas.

Neil Ashby May 16, 2015:

More context please!! What is the complete sentence and the sentences before "Este comparative que estamos pendiente....." - surely the sentence/s before are going to explain what this "comparativo" is.

Billh - tell the original author, s/he's obviously decided otherwise and used it as a noun, we can't do much about that.

Billh May 16, 2015:

comparativo is, according to the RAE, solely an adjective, not a noun.

Andy Watkinson May 16, 2015:

I'd say it can't be a simple "quote", "estimate" because the term itself indicates otherwise. Try looking at "cuadro comparativo" which it may refer to and is used to compare bids, etc....

philgoddard May 15, 2015:

I don't understand what's wrong with "comparison".

Cristina Gonzalez May 15, 2015:

I would presume they are talking about the new estimate.