Off topic: english-spanish "translation funnies" Thread poster: Marjory Hord
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Marjory Hord
Mexico
Local time: 09:40
English to Spanish
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My grandson, 4, was explaining something to his sister, 2 when his mother said "WAIT!" to some request of theirs. "Wait significa ahorita"! I suppose it is not only in Mexico that !ahorita" means "wait a sec" as well as (sometimes) "right now!" A funny contrast.
| | | | Nicole Schnell 
United States
Local time: 08:40
English to German
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In memoriam
Sooo, that is comparable to the famous "ASAP"?
The Germans have a similar term: "Gleich!", which can mean anything from a harsh "Immediately!" to "shortly", "in a little while", or if used by a teenager: "never".
| | | | | I have to inject a bit of German here. | Sep 7, 2008 |
My mother could never get over the "mixed signals" we were sending our children when we wanted them to stop what they were doing. "¡No! ¡Ya!" we would yell, which to her German background was "No! Yes!"
Jane
| | | | Parrot
Spain
Local time: 17:40
Spanish to English
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Marjory Hord wrote:
I suppose it is not only in Mexico that !ahorita" means "wait a sec" as well as (sometimes) "right now!"
In a school subject roughly called "Spanish Semantics" (given in Spain), it was pointed out that only in Mexico did an adverb have a diminutive like a noun
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Henry Hinds
United States
Local time: 09:40
English to Spanish
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In memoriam | Ahorita no... | Sep 8, 2008 |
...más tardecito.
The Mexican language has a lot of things that the Spaniards have either forgotten or never had in the first place!
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Here's a story:
A Spaniard asks an Arab how to say "mañana" in Arabic. The Arab ponders a while and replies "I don't think the Arabic language has a word that conveys that sense of urgency".
I know it's an old chestnut, but I like to keep them aired from time to time.
Jenny
| | | | Paul Dixon
Brazil
Local time: 12:40
Portuguese to English
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| Common in Portuguese | Sep 8, 2008 |
Parrot said:
In a school subject roughly called "Spanish Semantics" (given in Spain), it was pointed out that only in Mexico did an adverb have a diminutive like a noun.
Well, FYI, in Portuguese this is a very common feature, especially in Brazil:
Examples:
Estou indo agorinha mesmo. (Agora = now, agorinha = right now, in a flash)
Ele mora bem pertinho. (Perto = near, pertinho = really near, a stone's throw away)
With ... See more Parrot said:
In a school subject roughly called "Spanish Semantics" (given in Spain), it was pointed out that only in Mexico did an adverb have a diminutive like a noun.
Well, FYI, in Portuguese this is a very common feature, especially in Brazil:
Examples:
Estou indo agorinha mesmo. (Agora = now, agorinha = right now, in a flash)
Ele mora bem pertinho. (Perto = near, pertinho = really near, a stone's throw away)
With adjectives it is even more common:
Eu comprei a casa bem baratinho. (Barato = cheap, baratinho = dirt cheap, for a song) ▲ Collapse
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One of my favorite answers from my Andalusian husband when I ask him to get something done right away is "ahora después" (now later), as in "ahora después del partido" (now after the game)...
Luckily, we've been married longer than I care to remember, and I can proudly say that I no longer actually expect him to get it done before anytime soon, which is quite a feat for someone from Detroit, the birthplace of assembly-line time-motion efficiency.
| | | | Sara Senft
United States
Local time: 11:40
Spanish to English
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| This one is from my friend | Sep 22, 2008 |
A friend of mine did student teaching in a Spanish classroom. One of his students tried to write "Tengo catorce años." (I am 14 years old) Instead, the student left out the mark on the 'n' in 'años.' That student end up referring to......a body part.
| | | | Marjory Hord
Mexico
Local time: 09:40
English to Spanish
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TOPIC STARTER | more on the lack of ñ! | Sep 22, 2008 |
I began to discover the existence of online translators when English students of mine in Mexico began writing funny things like "I spent an anus in Canada" (año), "I need to improve my groins" (inglés), and "Maradona juice with Pelè" (jugó); once the verb "tenía" came out as "tapeworm" (tenia). Either they wrote words wrong or the trans. programs didnt pick up accents, ñ's.
You can imagine those homework assignments didnt get very good grades!
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