Thoughts on the Spanish Language

glennmagusharvey · 2015-10-09 21:16:25

Oh, I forgot about de meaning "about".

By the way, what is the difference conditional and subjunctive moods in Spanish? I have an idea of what subjunctive mood is used for since I've studied Latin before (which has subjunctive mood), but not conditional. Then again I probably use it in English without thinking much about it lol. I mean, they're sorta all clustered together and spread out between the tenses when we get to would, could, should, might, may, etc.

The way I've usually done it is:
* present subjunctive = may
* past/perfect/preterite subjunctive = might
* present possible, i.e. with poder (Sp.) / possum (Lat.) = can
* past/perfect/preterite possible, i.e. with poder (Sp.) / possum (Lat.) = could
* is owed to / ought to, i.e. with deber (Sp.) = should
* conditional (Sp. only?) = would

vandro · 2015-10-10 07:38:10

present subjunctive (when I work)[cuando yo trabaje]
imperfect Subjunctive (If I were)[si yo fue-se/ra]

pluperfect subjuctive(if I had been)[si yo hubiese/ra sido]

glennmagusharvey · 2015-10-10 23:03:30

No prioritario: Bosques con más del 30% de su hábitat protegido o bien con una cobertura en Parques Nacionales mayor a 30 mil ha.

"Not priority: Forests with more than 30% of their habitat protected or well[?] with a coverage in National Parks greater than 30,000 ha."

Is "bien" an adverb, adjective, or a noun? It seems like an adverb, but I can't figure out a proper translation for it.

glennmagusharvey · 2015-10-10 23:15:04

Also I'm not sure whether it's the authors I'm reading, but it seems like Spanish tends not to use as many commas/semicolons/dashes as English does, to set off things like prepositional phrases and dependent clauses. Or at least as much as I'd like English to do so.

Example:

De este modo cada una de las 1878 cuencas en las que fue dividido el territorio nacional fue clasificada de acuerdo a estas tres categorías de prioridad.

In this manner, each one of the 1878 watersheds -- into which the national territory was divided -- was classified according to these three priority categories.

Stormtroper · 2015-10-10 23:25:46

^^^^ *shrug* I just do it on a case by case basis.

^^ It's a set expression, the "o bien" there means simply "o".

^ Depends on the author. I don't really pay attention to it, but I don't think it's too different.

glennmagusharvey · 2015-10-10 23:54:01

Is this just a bad typo or is this something about the way "more than one type" is worded in Spanish?

Como una cuenca puede tener uno más tipos de hábitat, las mismas fueron clasificadas de acuerdo al hábitat dominante (con más del 50% del área de bosque en la cuenca).

As one watershed can have one more types of habitat [more than one type of habitat?], these were classified according to the dominant habitat (with more than 50% of forest area in the watershed).

Stormtroper · 2015-10-11 00:15:42

It's wrong, it should be "más de un tipo".

MillerCross · 2015-10-11 22:27:04

resucite enteramente para decir que estaba seguro que este thread era sobre Metal Gear Solid y que quiero mi dinero

Stormtroper · 2015-10-11 23:21:04

Juan-chan! Cuanto tiempo.

vandro · 2015-10-14 18:55:52

hola!

Noimporta · 2015-10-14 19:18:32

>resucite enteramente para decir que estaba seguro que este thread era sobre Metal Gear Solid y que quiero mi dinero

Serpiente? Serpiente! Serpienteeeeeeeee!

glennmagusharvey · 2015-11-10 05:11:18

(with reversed subject and object) to like very much, love, enjoy

Me encantan los mariscos. - 'I love seafood'

What
the hell, Spanish? Reversed subjects and objects? I guess it goes
further than just tasks doing themselves for passive voice.

de todos modos...

me encantan los fandoblajes (en español) de las canciones de anime.

(did I get that right? I know Spanish uses more articles, and in these two instances it felt right to put them there for some reason...)

glennmagusharvey · 2015-11-14 17:18:14

What part of speech exactly is "conózcanos"? I know it's used as the Spanish translation of "About Us", as in telling people what an organization or website is about. I'm guessing it's derived from the verb conocer...

...is it a formal imperative form (conozcan) with an attached "nos"?

Stormtroper · 2015-11-14 17:41:25

It is. It means "know us" the same way "mirenos" means "look at us", "óiganme" means "hear me", etc.

Also:

glennmagusharvey · 2015-11-14 18:48:04

I am guessing that a series of Spanish puns was involved in when choosing A: E and

I.

The other two are obvious, porque ce es be pero be no es ce pero be es ce pero ce no es be.

The joke at the end got a laugh out of me.

Then I realized that it's the same in English -- the third letter of the alphabet is also E.

(Serious question: would it be more normal in Spanish to say "En el abecedario" instead?)

Stormtroper · 2015-11-14 19:15:15

The host changed to D:I because the participant said "y..." ("and..."), and changed to A:E because he said "eh?".

And "en el abecedario" is not only more natural, it's mandatory. "En abecedario" is wrong if you're referring to "abc..." and not the word itself as in that sketch (or something else also called "abecedario").

glennmagusharvey · 2015-11-14 20:03:47

Stormtroper wrote: »

The host changed to D:I because the participant said "y..." ("and..."), and changed to A:E because he said "eh?".

I guessed the first one.

I also forgot to write the word "puns" in my last post lol

glennmagusharvey · 2015-11-23 00:25:37

Es Sash Lilac un dragón chica, una chica dragón, un dragón hembra, o una dragona?

To be fair, I'm not sure whether I'd call her a girl dragon, dragon girl, or what... I know "dragón hembra" is "female dragon"; I just encountered "dragona" in Wiktionary and I'm not sure how that's even used.

I kinda think that I should be using a preposition ("de") here between dragón and chica (or the other way) but somehow it also doesn't quite feel right.

Stormtroper · 2015-11-23 23:36:37

Never heard of "dragona", although apparently it exists.

"Chica dragón" would be the natural way to say it, and "dragón chica" emphasizes the fact that she's a girl.

Come to think of it, I dunno about the "un" vs. "una" thing too.

vandro · 2015-11-24 06:20:32

I do use dragona but not dragón chica, it sounds weird to me.

glennmagusharvey · 2016-01-08 07:55:07

Original English text:

I look across a raging war
and feel the steady beating of my heart

My attempt at a translation:

Miro a través de una guerra furiosa
y siento el latido estable de mi corazón

Someone else's translation:

"Veo una guerra rugir
y siento el constante latido de mi corazón"

I
think "Veo" is "I watch", or thus "I look across" less literally.
Turns out that "Miro" isn't quite "I look" either, but more like "I look
at"...so maybe "Veo" might just be cleaner and better?
"rugir" means "to rage"...can the infinitive form really be used to represent the English present participle like this?
"constante
latido" is more like emphasizing an inherent quality (the steadiness)
of the heartbeat, while I guess my version suggests that my heartbeat
might not always be as steady, which may imply a degree of confidence. I
dunno how well this latter idea jives with the rest of the song's
lyrics.

FYI the song is "SAVIOR OF SONG", composition credited to MY FIRST STORY, performed by nano feat. MY FIRST STORY. Also, sources disagree on whether the first line is "the raging war" or "a raging war".

Stormtroper · 2016-01-08 08:19:16

It's not a literal translation (it's a poetic-sounding text so it really shouldn't be). "Miro" and "veo" almost always work the same, I believe it's a matter of context which one is right but in that case both work (think "see" and "look"). "Rugir" means "roar", not "rage". "Latido estable" sounds like some medical term, the same way "stable beating" does.

glennmagusharvey · 2016-01-08 18:09:30

Stormtroper wrote: »

"Latido estable" sounds like some medical term, the same way "stable beating" does.

Ah, that makes sense.

glennmagusharvey · 2016-05-24 18:43:26

In Spanish, if you want to say that something is shit, would you use "es" or "vale" (or some other word)?

Stormtroper · 2016-05-24 21:49:23

"Vale" means worth, so you normally say "es mierda" (or "es una mierda") unless you want to say that you don't care about it (then you can also use "me sabe a mierda").

glennmagusharvey · 2016-05-24 22:02:00

Stormtroper wrote: »

(then you can also use "me sabe a mierda").

Lit. "it is known to me as shit"?

Stormtroper · 2016-05-24 22:17:14

"Sabe" de ~~"saborear"~~ que tiene sabor a X, i.e. "it tastes like shit to me".

Edit: Wait, no, wrong verb.

vandro · 2016-05-26 17:42:02

me vale verga is used here. worth dick to me.

glennmagusharvey · 2016-05-30 04:59:32

vandro wrote: »

me vale verga is used here. worth dick to me.

"Tu waifu me vale verga" could have unfortunate implications lol

vandro · 2016-05-30 05:39:22

Tu waifu sí me vale verga, ya que de seguro es una de esas que son mierda.

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