English translation: (she) failed a lot of subjects (at school)
Login or register (free and only takes a few minutes) to participate in this question.
You will also have access to many other tools and opportunities designed for those who have language-related jobs (or are passionate about them). Participation is free and the site has a strict confidentiality policy.
10:02 Jun 8, 2011
Spanish to English translations [PRO] Social Sciences - International Org/Dev/Coop / Commercial Sexual Exploit
Spanish term or phrase:perdía muchas materias
Sentence: Mi papa tiene un genio muy bravo, perdía muchas materias y cuando me va iba a regañar me decía muchas groserías y varias veces me pegó hasta con cosas por la cara.
I'm not sure whether this refers to the father losing things because of his temper or breaking the child's things. Also, the father is a construction worker so it could be that he's lost construction materials, maybe because of his temper. Here's what I have:
"My father is very hot tempered, I lost a lot of things and when I went away he would argue, swear at me and sometimes even hit me in the face with things."
You're correct, Adolfo. When I talked about the father losing his temper I was referring to "me va iba a regañar" - "he bawled me out", for example, He RAKED me over the coals. He bawled me out. ...
www.youheardthatright.com/R.htm - En caché
Both the context and the expression used indicate this is about failing subjects at school, not about losing one's temper or losing physical objects. The speaker failed subjects and the father got mad. "Perder una materia" is a very common, everyday expression for failing a subject or a final exam at school in many Spanish speaking countries, like mine (Uruguay) for instance.
No. She failed subjects at school and then her father lost his temper, sometimes resorting to violence. Sometimes it would be nice to have the subject specifically stated in Spanish sentences...
Jenni Lukac Local time: 04:36 Specializes in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 123
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.
24 mins confidence:
I lost a lot of (his) materials
Explanation: Hi Louise, the sentence could go either way and as there are some errors in the original it is probably best checking who the “perdía”, refers to with your client but based on the context you have provided, I would agree that it should be “I” rather than “he” as it explains why he would get annoyed with the child.
I would suggest the sentence should read: “Mi papa tiene un genio muy bravo, perdía muchas materias y cuando me iba a regañar me decía muchas groserías y varias veces me pegó hasta con cosas por la cara.”
“me va iba” is incorrect, which is why I would suggest double-checking with the client as to your query in case other words have been missed from or incorrectly added to the sentence.
Rather than “and when I went away he would argue”, I would suggest something along the lines of “whenever he told me off/gave me a row”
I hope that is of some help to you.
Good luck,
Carla
Carla Davidson United Kingdom Works in field Native speaker of: English
Explanation: "perder una materia" is a common expression for failing a subject at school or college.
I believe the problem here is that the person failing the subjects is the speaker, not the father (i.e. yo perdía y por eso él me regañaba), therefore the confusion.
Adolfo Ossi Local time: 23:36 Works in field Native speaker of: Spanish
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +2
