Glossary entry

English term or phrase:

Normal Christian Life

Spanish translation:

Vida cristiana normal

Added to glossary by Oso (X)
Mar 21, 2001 13:19
23 yrs ago
English term

placement of a series of adjectives in Spanish

Non-PRO English to Spanish Art/Literary
How do you place (in what order) a sequence of adjectives modifying a single noun in English when translating into Spanish?
E.g.: "Normal Christian life",
"this modern effective interactive computer system"

Proposed translations

3 mins
Selected

Vida cristiana normal

Sistema de computación moderno, efectivo e interactivo.

Depende el caso, en el primero, creo que es más importante destacar primero que se trata de una vida cristiana y después normal.

En el segundo caso, el orden es el mismo que en inglés.

Saludos afectuosos de OSO ¶:^)
Peer comment(s):

Yllart Martinez
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
48 mins

Este moderno y efectivo sistema informático interactivo

Spanish collocation of the elements in the sentence is not as rigid as English one. As you can see, you get different answers from different people.

Hope it helps
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1 hr

Vida Cristiana normal

As the above answer says, adjectives and complements in general have a more flexible pattern:

This modern effective interactive computer system:

"Este moderno y efectivo sistema computacional interactivo"
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4 hrs

Normal placement = in exactly a reverse symmetry as in

English. In English the most objective description is closest to the noun described. Usually, when one noun describes another (as in "earth connection"), this is the adjective closest to that noun and comes BEFORE the word described. In Spanish, the adjectives comes AFTER (in this category, "buque escuela"). As you get more and more subjective (material, form, color, esthetic qualities) you get further and further away from the noun IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS. Since this can lead to an abusively lengthy style, such constructions as bl.rod's are resorted to, and the language in this manner is really quite flexible (use of prepositions, relative clauses, etc.)
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