Any Spanish speakers here?
- Redwolf
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Any Spanish speakers here?
In a letter to the editor in our local paper, a woman was absolutely incensed by this wording on a sticker that the city sent for her to put on her curbside recycling bin:
Removiendo Botellas y latas es robando
It is meant to say, I believe, "removing bottles and cans is stealing." The letter writer said that it is "almost incomprehensible" and "full of errors." I don't speak Spanish, but I've seen so many grammatical errors on "semi-official" things in Irish (not to mention more than my fair share of "Google translate" garbage), I find myself curious...is it as bad as the letter writer says?
Redwolf
Removiendo Botellas y latas es robando
It is meant to say, I believe, "removing bottles and cans is stealing." The letter writer said that it is "almost incomprehensible" and "full of errors." I don't speak Spanish, but I've seen so many grammatical errors on "semi-official" things in Irish (not to mention more than my fair share of "Google translate" garbage), I find myself curious...is it as bad as the letter writer says?
Redwolf
...agus déanfaidh mé do mholadh ar an gcruit a Dhia, a Dhia liom!
- pipersgrip
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Re: Any Spanish speakers here?
Well growing up in Urban Florida, you catch on to Spanish easily, and I took Spanish for 4 years in high school. Spanish is sort of a backwards language to English. This phrase isn't too horrible, but it is incorrect. They are missing a lot of words like "se" and "la". I hope that helps a little.
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- emmline
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Re: Any Spanish speakers here?
Should probably be "Remover botellas y latas es robar."Redwolf wrote:In a letter to the editor in our local paper, a woman was absolutely incensed by this wording on a sticker that the city sent for her to put on her curbside recycling bin:
Removiendo Botellas y latas es robando
It is meant to say, I believe, "removing bottles and cans is stealing." The letter writer said that it is "almost incomprehensible" and "full of errors." I don't speak Spanish, but I've seen so many grammatical errors on "semi-official" things in Irish (not to mention more than my fair share of "Google translate" garbage), I find myself curious...is it as bad as the letter writer says?
Redwolf
Not sure, but I know that putting the verbs in gerund form is incorrect.
As it stands, it comes out something like "Removed bottles and cans is stolen."
And to be completely picky, it should probably be "o" (or) not "y" (and) because as is suggests that you must remove both bottles and cans in order to be guilty of stealing.
Come to think of it, it should be "quitar" not "remover."
Remover usually means something like "to stir" in cooking. So, I correct my original bad translation. The notice suggests that stirred bottles and cans are stolen. (Perhaps it's best if your recyclables don't look too randomly distributed, or someone might accuse you of stirring them.)
Last edited by emmline on Sat May 08, 2010 5:15 pm, edited 3 times in total.
- mutepointe
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Re: Any Spanish speakers here?
This is a trick to ask to see our papers. They're Arizonians.
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白飞梦
白飞梦
- MTGuru
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Re: Any Spanish speakers here?
Yes, it's pretty darn bad.
It's a literal word-for-word, morpheme-for-morpheme translation of the English, and it's simply ungrammatical non-Spanish. It sounds like what my mom calls pocho. It uses the progressive form of the verbs remover and robar as gerunds (nominalized verbs) - and there are no noun gerunds in Spanish. There's the nominal use of the infinitive, something like "remover X es robar", but that doesn't sound right either.
Remover is fine as the verb, meaning remove. Sacar or robar would be better.
I'd simply say something like: Robar latas y botellas es un crímen = Theft of bottles and cans is a crime.
It's a literal word-for-word, morpheme-for-morpheme translation of the English, and it's simply ungrammatical non-Spanish. It sounds like what my mom calls pocho. It uses the progressive form of the verbs remover and robar as gerunds (nominalized verbs) - and there are no noun gerunds in Spanish. There's the nominal use of the infinitive, something like "remover X es robar", but that doesn't sound right either.
Remover is fine as the verb, meaning remove. Sacar or robar would be better.
I'd simply say something like: Robar latas y botellas es un crímen = Theft of bottles and cans is a crime.
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Dr. Mierzwiak: Well, technically speaking, the procedure is brain damage.
Joel Barish: Is there any risk of brain damage?
Dr. Mierzwiak: Well, technically speaking, the procedure is brain damage.
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Re: Any Spanish speakers here?
Reminds me of a joke in our household. When we're frustrated with something, we shout "Yo doy arriba!"
A few years ago, my company decided to order some promotional T-shirts to give away with our product. The front of the shirt was to be a multilingual parallel text of the English expression "What's up?" in English, Spanish, French, German, etc. So "¿Qué hay de nuevo?", "Quoi de neuf ?", "Was ist neues?" etc.
Naturally, the marketing guys ordered a gross of shirts before checking with the Director of Linguistics (er, me). When they finally sent me one, the Spanish read: "Qué está arriba?" I kid you not.
Needless to say, 144 employees ended up with free T-shirts ...
A few years ago, my company decided to order some promotional T-shirts to give away with our product. The front of the shirt was to be a multilingual parallel text of the English expression "What's up?" in English, Spanish, French, German, etc. So "¿Qué hay de nuevo?", "Quoi de neuf ?", "Was ist neues?" etc.
Naturally, the marketing guys ordered a gross of shirts before checking with the Director of Linguistics (er, me). When they finally sent me one, the Spanish read: "Qué está arriba?" I kid you not.
Needless to say, 144 employees ended up with free T-shirts ...
Vivat diabolus in musica! MTGuru's (old) GG Clips / Blackbird Clips
Joel Barish: Is there any risk of brain damage?
Dr. Mierzwiak: Well, technically speaking, the procedure is brain damage.
Joel Barish: Is there any risk of brain damage?
Dr. Mierzwiak: Well, technically speaking, the procedure is brain damage.
- Redwolf
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Re: Any Spanish speakers here?
We see that quite a lot with Irish. For a long time it was people pulling words out of dictionary and plugging them into English syntax (sometimes even going so far as to add English endings, such as "s," "'s" and "ing"!). Now it's Google "translate" doing essentially the same thing (and plugging in English words where it doesn't know the Irish). For example, right now, if you plug in "removing bottles and cans is stealing" and ask for an English-Irish translation, you get:MTGuru wrote:Reminds me of a joke in our household. When we're frustrated with something, we shout "Yo doy arriba!"
A few years ago, my company decided to order some promotional T-shirts to give away with our product. The front of the shirt was to be a multilingual parallel text of the English expression "What's up?" in English, Spanish, French, German, etc. So "¿Qué hay de nuevo?", "Quoi de neuf ?", "Was ist neues?" etc.
Naturally, the marketing guys ordered a gross of shirts before checking with the Director of Linguistics (er, me). When they finally sent me one, the Spanish read: "Qué está arriba?" I kid you not.
Needless to say, 144 employees ended up with free T-shirts ...
bhaint buidéil agus cannaí is stealing
The Irish part comes out to "Bottles and cans extracted (past tense) [is stealing]
I'm always surprised, on the IGTF, at how people don't realize that idioms don't translate directly between languages. If asked to translate "what's up" to Irish, I'd probably use something like "aon scéal?" ("any tale/story?")...definitely not "cad é atá thuas?" (literally "what is up?")
Redwolf
...agus déanfaidh mé do mholadh ar an gcruit a Dhia, a Dhia liom!
Re: Any Spanish speakers here?
All kidding aside, are you going to tell us what that says????MTGuru wrote:Naturally, the marketing guys ordered a gross of shirts before checking with the Director of Linguistics (er, me). When they finally sent me one, the Spanish read: "Qué está arriba?" I kid you not.
Unless it's filthy . . . I wouldn't want to know if it was filthy. Although I might make an exception to get a free t-shirt.
Cotelette d'Agneau
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Re: Any Spanish speakers here?
Lambchop wrote:All kidding aside, are you going to tell us what that says????
Unless it's filthy . . . I wouldn't want to know if it was filthy. Although I might make an exception to get a free t-shirt.
It means "What's up?" Literally. As in lift your head and raise your eyes, and watch out for that anvil about to flatten your cranium.
Vivat diabolus in musica! MTGuru's (old) GG Clips / Blackbird Clips
Joel Barish: Is there any risk of brain damage?
Dr. Mierzwiak: Well, technically speaking, the procedure is brain damage.
Joel Barish: Is there any risk of brain damage?
Dr. Mierzwiak: Well, technically speaking, the procedure is brain damage.
Re: Any Spanish speakers here?
This isn't particularly related, but I had to tell
someone. I saw a bumper sticker on a car the
other day which mimicked the old Virginia State
motto, except it said "Guster is for lovers".
I liked it.
someone. I saw a bumper sticker on a car the
other day which mimicked the old Virginia State
motto, except it said "Guster is for lovers".
I liked it.
Re: Any Spanish speakers here?
What's up there? With the size of the Hispanic population here, I would want a t-shirt that said that!!!MTGuru wrote:Lambchop wrote:All kidding aside, are you going to tell us what that says????
Unless it's filthy . . . I wouldn't want to know if it was filthy. Although I might make an exception to get a free t-shirt.
It means "What's up?" Literally. As in lift your head and raise your eyes, and watch out for that anvil about to flatten your cranium.
I'm mystified about Guster is for Lovers now, though.
Cotelette d'Agneau
- emmline
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Re: Any Spanish speakers here?
I think it's supposed to be "gustar" and it's just the Spanish verb used to describe whether something is pleasing or not. (Whether you like something or not, it's just that in English the liker is the subject and the liked thing the object--opposite in Spanish.)Lambchop wrote: I'm mystified about Guster is for Lovers now, though.
So, it's a play on the slogan "Virginia is for Lovers," but it's stating that the word "gustar" is for people who want to say they love something.
I think. Maybe guster signifies something else, and I'm missing it.
Re: Any Spanish speakers here?
Sorry, typo. It's supposed to be Gustar.emmline wrote:I think it's supposed to be "gustar" and it's just the Spanish verb used to describe whether something is pleasing or not.
emm got it right.