Suburb is generally thought of as a good area, with big houses, garages, well mown lawns... Meanwhile, a suburbio is quite the opposite: a bad, dodgy neighbourhood with cheap flats or low-quality houses with a lot of crime where no one wants to live.
The Spanish definition by the Real Academia backs my view: "Barrio o núcleo de población situado en las afueras de una ciudad y que, generalmente, constituye una zona deprimida", vs. Collin's: "residential district situated on the outskirts of a city or town."
In short, the two words are false friends. Sub weighs more in Spanish than urb, so to speak. I think the translation should be corrected.
The Spanish definition by the Real Academia backs my view: "Barrio o núcleo de población situado en las afueras de una ciudad y que, generalmente, constituye una zona deprimida", vs. Collin's: "residential district situated on the outskirts of a city or town."
In short, the two words are false friends. Sub weighs more in Spanish than urb, so to speak. I think the translation should be corrected.
This entry was revised recently to make the proposed translations clearer (now suburbio won't be the main translation and some usage notes were added.) The new version of this entry will be visible once our databases are updated in the next months.