# what are the itemize symbols used by babel's spanish option?

I like the default bullet symbols for itemize that babel sets up with the spanish option, and I would like to change the default latex symbols to match via \labelitemi et al. What are the symbols that spanish' babel uses for itemize?

• See § 2.1,Listas, p.3 of the babel-spanish documentation. – Bernard Jan 7 '17 at 21:04

You find this in spanish.ldf:

\def\spanishsymbitems{%
\es@itemize
{\leavevmode\hbox to 1.2ex
{\hss\vrule height .9ex width .7ex depth -.2ex\hss}}%
{\textbullet}%
{$\m@th\circ$}%
{$\m@th\diamond$}}


which is an indirect way for setting

\makeatletter
\renewcommand{\labelitemi}{%
\leavevmode\hbox to 1.2ex{\hss\vrule height .9ex width .7ex depth -.2ex\hss}%
}
\renewcommand{\labelitemii}{\textbullet}
\renewcommand{\labelitemiii}{$\m@th\circ$}
\renewcommand{\labelitemiv}{$\m@th\diamond$}
\makeatother

• Thanks! Do you know what \m@th does? The bullets symbols are already enclosed in \$s. – ltcomdata Jan 7 '17 at 21:16
• @ltcomdata It is a precaution in case a style file sets \mathsurround to a nonzero value; the parameter sets an an additional kerning around math formulas, which is not wanted in this case. It's zero by default, but better safe than sorry. – egreg Jan 7 '17 at 21:18
• I think you have an extra } at the end of the last renewcommand line? – ltcomdata Jan 7 '17 at 23:00
• @ltcomdata Yes, removed – egreg Jan 7 '17 at 23:07