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Ken Cooke
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Straight, Right
Derecho = Straight
Derecha = Right
Is this for real? 
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Tano
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Derecho also means 'right', and 'law', 'right handed' and 'righteous'.
El Derecho de Nacer.
Ella estudia Derecho.
El es derecho.
The last El should be written with an accent, but many scholars discourage accentuating capital vowels.
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DENNIS
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Tano
Derecho also means 'right', and 'law', 'right handed' and 'righteous'.
El Derecho de Nacer.
Ella estudia Derecho.
El es derecho.
The last El should be written with an accent, but many scholars discourage accentuating capital vowels. |
Might be discouraged, but:
El = the
Él = he
I would imagine that "scholars" would opt for correctness, but maybe not.
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Ken Cooke
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This is what anyone would consider correct, but...
| Quote: | Originally posted by DENNIS
| Quote: | Originally posted by Tano
Derecho also means 'right', and 'law', 'right handed' and 'righteous'.
El Derecho de Nacer.
Ella estudia Derecho.
El es derecho.
The last El should be written with an accent, but many scholars discourage accentuating capital vowels. |
Might be discouraged, but:
El = the
Él = he
I would imagine that "scholars" would opt for correctness, but maybe not. |
The Spanish I hear/respond to daily is generally "Thrown" at me without many of these rules to benefit me.
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DENNIS
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Ken Cooke
The Spanish I hear/respond to daily is generally "Thrown" at me without many of these rules to benefit me. |
Yeah....I know what you mean. I hear people talk like unschooled clods in English all the time as well.
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Ken Cooke
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Is it also possible that the English-language (or, Germanic languages) are in, "Active Voice" while the Spanish-language (or, Romance languages)
typically are, "Passive Voice" languages?
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Tano
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English and Spanish are the languages today I know the best, and I never heard admonitions against using the passive voice in Spanish, but I’ve heard
it often enough when writing in English. Even Word for Windows will warn you, something I’ve don’t remember happening in Spanish. Maybe we use it more
in English because we are sometimes reluctant to mention who did what. I was just done.
I should add that grammar mistakes are much easier to spot in English than in Spanish, even for native speakers of either language. Maybe that’s
another reason for “passive voice” faux pas warnings.
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Ateo
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I always ask my wife (a Mexican) about this......
Why make straight and right so similar? Think of English - straight, right, left. All very different and distinguishable. I've had a hard time with
this too......
Hang in there.
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Ken Cooke
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My examples....
If a gamine (street urchin) is begging for money in the street, in English you say, "I'M NOT INTERESTED!" and you walk away.
In Spanish, that is construed as being rude, borderline confrontational. The polite way of addressing someone asking for money from you is to say,
"Tomorrow" or "Mañana cuando yo lo tengo..."
I have learned it's best to just keep your mouth shut and keep walking.
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Riom
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| Quote: | Originally posted by ateo
Why make straight and right so similar? Think of English - straight, right, left. All very different and distinguishable. I've had a hard time with
this too......
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It's similar in French. Droit = right. Tout droit (literally "all/everything right") is straight ahead.
And there is a similar usage in English: "go right on until..." or "right ahead you'll find...".
Rob
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Ken Cooke
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No, but French is worse!
| Quote: | Originally posted by Riom
It's similar in French. Droit = right. Tout droit (literally "all/everything right") is straight ahead.
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I find that VERY confusing/archaic!
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Tano
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| Quote: | Originally posted by lencho
| Quote: | Originally posted by Tano
I should add that grammar mistakes are much easier to spot in English than in Spanish, even for native speakers of either language. Maybe that’s
another reason for “passive voice” faux pas warnings. |
That surprises me. Care to go some more into it? Any idea why? |
My fault. I thought of including a short explanation for why that is so, but I didn’t: English grammar is much simpler than that of Spanish.
English grammar is rather modular. Except for “to be,” verbs have only four different forms: present, past, participle and gerund, as in “go, went,
gone, going.” You combine them with names and pronouns, a few auxiliary verbs, and you can come up with a good number of different sentences.
In Spanish, on the other hand, verbs have several forms, as the infamous “amar,” which is used in schools for conjugation primers.
Additionally, they are combined with pronouns to form new words with specific meanings. In English, you use “I” and “went” together, as in “I went,”
but you can use them separately in countless combinations with other verbs, nouns, pronouns, proper names, adverbs, adjectives, etc. In Spanish you
say “I went” by saying fuí and you have an additional word that only means “I went” and you cannot use it to come up with a different
meaning, as you can with “I” and “went.” And so it goes.
In general, I would say that languages are not about words attached to meanings, but meanings that can be described with words. That is why
‘su’, in the other thread, and ‘derecho, derecha’ here are confusing until you realize what they mean in a specific context.
English also has its confusing side: it is rare for a native Spanish speaker to ask another to spell a word, whereas in English it is commonplace.
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vgabndo
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More proof that English can be pretty ugly (sic), there is certainly a place that is right on the left right after the bridge.
Isn't the spelling thing related to Spanish letters and combinations of letters always being pronounced the same way. Even with all the extra
conjugations, I always thought that attribute made the idiom a winner.
[Edited on 2-15-2012 by vgabndo]
Undoubtedly, there are people who cannot afford to give the anchor of sanity even the slightest tug. Sam Harris
"The situation is far too dire for pessimism."
Bill Kauth
Carl Sagan said, "We are a way for the cosmos to know itself."
PEACE, LOVE AND FISH TACOS
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AASelf
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Crazy thing is, it's the same in French:
Straight - 'droite' or tout droite
Right droit or a la droit
I thought that was interesting when I saw the similar problem in Spanish. Latin roots?
As an aside, the word for above in French is dessus and the word for below is dessous. That's not confusing at all.
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Tano
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| Quote: | Originally posted by lencho
| Quote: | Originally posted by Tano
In Spanish you say “I went” by saying fuí and you have an additional word that only means “I went” and you cannot use it to come up with a
different meaning, as you can with “I” and “went.” And so it goes. |
Which is why I am surprised by the thought that in English it's easier to spot errors. At least on the verb side, although more complex, Spanish
seems more precise to me, and it's usually "obvious" when things are put together wrong. Assuming, of course, that one has a handle on the
"additional" forms... |
Based on the general premise that Spanish grammar is more complex than that of English, I would say that the number of people in an English speaking
culture who can detect mistakes in the speech of others is higher than that of those in a Spanish culture.
I grew up speaking Spanish but I learned English as an adult, and yet, I can tell mistakes in the English language much more easily than in Spanish.
A great number of people in Spanish cultures have trouble deciding where, and if, the accent goes on a word, and sometimes they have problems with
adverbs for different genders, and even choosing the right article. Try asking native Spanish speaking people to tell you off the top of their heads
what the gender of a simple word as hambre is, and when they answer, ask them if they are absolutely sure.
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SFandH
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Ken Cooke
Derecho = Straight
Derecha = Right
Is this for real? |
I had trouble with these two words when driving and I would have a Spanish speaking passenger giving me directions until I realized that the Spanish
words for the directions "left" and "right" both end with the letter "a".
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Oso
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Una mujer vestida en "shorts" y una blusa translucente quiere entrar al catedral cuando le prohiba la entrada el sacristan.
Indignada, la mujer protesta "No puede prohibirme la entrada. Tengo el derecho divino."
"Tambien el izquierdo." dice el sacristan, "pero no puede entrar vestida asi."
All my childhood I wanted to be older. Now I\'m older and this chitn sucks.
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Janzie
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I really like your example, Oso. These tricks are a good way to learn; so much better than complaining that a language 'should be' one way or
another. It is what it is - get on with learning to communicate.
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alacran
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I like the word "ajar"and "jump a car" "jump bail" etc explain that to a non native american.
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BajaBlanca
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here is what is really hard in English:
go on
go out
go in
go by ( a bldg. ) go by ( a rule)
go over to (visit) go over (review)
go around
go down
go up
go for
go under
There are more but can you imagine memorizing all these? Not for the faint of heart. It is the only time I don't tell my students that English is
easy ... I cannot tell a lie.
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