In English, I feel that I encounter parataxis more often than in the Romance languages (though I have no good evidence to back this up). Parataxis is putting together sentences without any coordinating conjunctions to spice up a text, make it move quicker, and not repeat the same conjunctions over and over. I find that […]
The principal function of quotation marks is to mark quotes and dialogues. In Spanish, there are two formulas for dialogues: dashes and quotation marks. The latter are used when dialogues are incorporated in the paragraph or within a dialogue that is marked off by quotation marks. Quotation marks are also used with memories and thoughts. […]
The custom in English today of having expository clarity give precedence to short sentences that are separated by periods, whereas in Spanish the are considered as subordinate elements within a main sentence. The greatest extension of the period in English in relation to Spanish is seen in the capacity of English to construct a series […]
In English, unlike Spanish, uses the indefinite article before the generic predicate. The article plays its essential role, which is to singularize an object among the class designated by the noun, which is a possibility that does not exist in English, since it uses the article in both cases. The individualization becomes apparent, and in […]
In English, we generally use a comma in front of the conjunctions “and” and “or”. The structures in English allow for us to skip the comma when working with other conjunctions. In certain sentences, the pause indicated by the comma will not be enough and a semi-colon must be used instead. Subordinate adverbial clauses between […]
The majority of the people I have exchanged emails and comments with on this blog are not just translators of one language pair, but polyglots who love and appreciate many languages. As such, we all have an affinity for words we learn in other languages that express things much more succinctly than any word in […]
In the Roman Empire, spoken language (vulgar Latin) differed from written language (literary Latin). Romance languages derive from vulgar Latin, the spoken variety. The language that today we know as Italian is the one that has remained closest to the original Latin base, while other Romance languages have had external influences: French has been affected […]
Both English and Spanish follow the S-V-O (subject – verb – object) order, though each to a different degree. In contemporary English, this scheme is preferred by the majority of speakers and writers. In Spanish, it is a basic order that the language often moves away from as a result of style guidelines and individual […]
What do we mean when we say that the RAE (Real Academia Española) Dictionary is the only “accepted” dictionary for translating into or from Spanish? Simply put, it means that our work must be able to base itself on the norms and standards established by the institution. That is the reason that its dictionary is […]
The administration of the City of Buenos Aires, headed by the businessman Mauricio Macri, appears to have translated and adopted a common environmental campaign slogan in Brazil for its own faux environmental policy marketing and political greenwashing purposes. However, the direct translation to Spanish of the Brazilian phrase “Jogue Limpo” loses the polysemy which makes […]