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Developer English guide

GitHub Vocabulary in English: Pull Requests, Issues and Actions

August 18, 2026

Learn the essential GitHub vocabulary in English: pull requests, issues, actions, code review and more. With templates and examples for teams working in English.

Key Takeaways

  • A draft PR signals that the work is in progress and not ready for review.
  • 'Request changes' asks the author to fix something before you approve.
  • Squash and merge combines all commits into one. Rebase keeps them separate but linear.
  • GitHub Actions workflows are triggered by events like push, pull_request, or schedule.
  • Use 'Closes #123' in your PR description to automatically close the linked issue on merge.

1. Pull Request vocabulary

These are the terms you encounter when opening, reviewing, and merging pull requests.

draft PR / draft pull requestPR borrador / pull request en borrador
Example:

“I opened a draft PR so you can see the direction before I finish.”

request changessolicitar cambios
Example:

“I requested changes. The error handling needs to be improved before I approve.”

approveaprobar
Example:

“I approved the PR. You're good to merge.”

mergefusionar / mergear
Example:

“The PR is approved. Go ahead and merge it.”

squash and mergecombinar en un commit y fusionar
Example:

“We use squash and merge to keep the main branch history clean.”

rebase and mergerebase y fusionar
Example:

“Rebase and merge keeps the commits linear without a merge commit.”

cherry-pickcherry-pick (seleccionar commit específico)
Example:

“Can you cherry-pick that hotfix commit into the release branch?”

conflict / merge conflictconflicto / conflicto de fusión
Example:

“There's a merge conflict in package-lock.json. Resolve it before merging.”

reviewerrevisor
Example:

“Add me as a reviewer. I know this part of the codebase well.”

assigneeresponsable / asignado
Example:

“The assignee is responsible for addressing the review comments.”

labeletiqueta
Example:

“Add the 'bug' label so the team can filter by type.”

milestonehito / milestone
Example:

“Link this PR to the v2.0 milestone so it shows up in the release notes.”

2. Issues vocabulary

Issues track bugs, feature requests, and tasks. These are the most common terms.

open an issueabrir un issue / reportar un problema
Example:

“I opened an issue for the login bug. See #312.”

close an issuecerrar un issue
Example:

“Closes #312 — add this to your PR description to auto-close the issue.”

reopenreabrir
Example:

“The bug is back. I reopened the issue.”

duplicateduplicado
Example:

“This is a duplicate of #299. Closing.”

wontfixno se corregirá
Example:

“We tagged it wontfix. It's by design.”

mention / @mentionmencionar / mencionar con @
Example:

“@sarah can you take a look at this? You worked on this module.”

referencereferencia (a otro issue o PR)
Example:

“This is related to #200. Not a duplicate, but connected.”

lockbloquear (conversación)
Example:

“The issue is resolved. I'll lock it to prevent further comments.”

3. GitHub Actions vocabulary

GitHub Actions is the CI/CD system built into GitHub. These terms appear in workflow YAML files and run logs.

workflowflujo de trabajo / workflow
Example:

“The CI workflow runs on every pull request.”

triggerdisparador / evento que activa el workflow
Example:

“The trigger is push to main. It deploys automatically.”

jobtrabajo / job
Example:

“The build job failed. Check the logs.”

steppaso
Example:

“Add a step to run the linter before the tests.”

runnerejecutor / runner
Example:

“We're using a self-hosted runner to speed up the builds.”

artifactartefacto
Example:

“Upload the build artifact so other jobs can use it.”

secretsecreto / variable secreta
Example:

“Store the API key as a secret. Never hardcode it.”

environmententorno
Example:

“We have three environments: development, staging, and production.”

matrixmatriz (de versiones)
Example:

“Use a matrix strategy to test on Node 18, 20, and 22.”

4. PR description template in English

A good pull request description helps reviewers understand what you changed and why. Here is a template you can copy.

## What does this PR do?

Adds user authentication via Google OAuth. Closes #89.

## Why?

Users requested social login to reduce friction during signup.

## Changes

- Add Google OAuth provider to NextAuth config
- Add login button component
- Update session handling in API routes

## How to test

1. Run `npm run dev`
2. Click "Sign in with Google"
3. Verify redirect and session creation

## Notes

This requires a `GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID` and `GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET` in `.env.local`.
What does this PR do?:A one-sentence summary of the change.
Why?:The motivation behind the change.
Changes:A bullet list of what you modified.
How to test:Steps the reviewer should follow to verify the change works.
Notes:Any extra context: env vars needed, known limitations, follow-up work.

Related articles

Guide

Code Review Comments: 50 Phrases in English

Vocabulary

Advanced Git Vocabulary: English Terms for Modern Dev Workflows

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Roxana Lafuente

Written by

Roxana Lafuente

Lingua-e's founder

Roxana Lafuente is a software engineer with 8+ years of experience. At the beginning of her career, even though she had already passed the First Certificate in English, she still froze every time she had to speak up in the daily standup. That was a gap nobody was fixing. After 2,000+ standups, she figured out what actually builds fluency: practice that looks like your real work. She built Lingua-e so other developers wouldn't have to take the long road to feel confident working in an international development environment.