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02:31 Nov 28, 2008
Spanish to English translations [PRO] Art/Literary - Linguistics
Spanish term or phrase:¿A que sí? ¿A que no?
Let's have a look at this context.
1) "Juanita, dicen por ahí que hablas muy bien inglés, ¿a que no?" [Here the asker doesn't believe what it is told about Juanita]
"Juanita, people say you speak English very well, don't you?"
2) "Juanita, dicen por ahí que hablas muy bien inglés, ¿a que sí?" [Here the asker does believe what it is told about Juanita]
"Juanita, people say you speak English very well, do you?"
My question is: what are the better translations into English for "¿A que sí? ¿A que no?"
Hi Sam. If you're talking about the Spanish text, I hadn't thought about it, but I think you're right - they'd certainly look better to me in Spanish as sentences on their own.
If you mean it's the way they should stand in English, then definitely. It's probably no coincidence that we all capitalised both answers. :O)
There's something about that tag question ("..., don't you?") in your first example that doesn't seem quite sound right to me. Maybe it's because of the change in subject from "people say" to "don't you," I'm not sure. I think the suggestions from Patricia, Álvaro and femme would all work, but ?maybe better as discrete sentences instead of tag questions?
Automatic update in 00:
Answers
2 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +7
I bet you don't, I bet you do...
Explanation: I would translate it that way.
jmleger Local time: 04:15 Native speaker of: French PRO pts in category: 4
The translation workplace 
Software comparison tool
peer agreement (net): +7