Sugarlugs

Can anyone translate this into in to Spanish for me please,

If you are interested in this house please get a English translator to ring us, as we do not speak Spanish sorry.

Thanks in advance for anyone that translates this for me.

Huevos

Something like this:
Si usted está interesado en esta casa, por favor pida a un intérprete de Inglés que nos llame por teléfono, como no hablamos castellano. Lo siento.

Sugarlugs

Thank you,karma for u

Huevos

You're welcome.

marisol

Hello Sugarlugs
Huevos has made a very good translation, but i would say the following:

"Si estás interesado en esta casa, por favor, contacta con un traductor de Ingles para que nos llame por teléfono porque nosotros no hablamos español, lo siento"

It is almost similar but it sounds a little better.

Sorry Huevos, i hope you don't get angry with me

Huevos

Marisol, you're a native, right? I haven't got that luxury so unfortunately I can't tell what sounds best through instinct. Personally I never use Usted when speaking but I chose to here because nine times out of ten when I see a notice it is written that way. How do you decide what is more appropriate?

Also one other thing, interpret is to speech what translate is to text. I know the general public often use the terms interchangeably but inside the industry that's not the case. In the dictionary of the Real Academia Española under interpretar it says "Traducir de una lengua a otra, sobre todo cuando se hace oralmente" while under traducir it says "Expresar en una lengua lo que está escrito o se ha expresado antes en otro".

marisol

God! if i had known it i wouldn't say anything!! Your spanish is more correctly than mine although i'm a native!!. You are right, i should have said "interprete" instead of saying "traductor"

About when you use "usted" and when you say "tu" (tutear), i don't really like to address anybody as Usted, it sounds as if you were putting a wall between you and the person you are talking to, that is why i dont use it, but, sometimes, when you have a job in wich you are facing people (i don't know if this is right in English) i mean, when you are working in a reception for instance, you should use "usted", it's more polite and you can find very vain people, so, in this way you avoid having to listen something like "Wouldn't you mind addressing me as "usted" and it is something very unpleasant, belive me.

In short, your Spanish is great as long as you want to be a part of "la Real Academia Española", nevertheless, if talking as a Spaniard is what you want, you should be less perfectionist. But it is just my opinion, of course.

marisol

I have kept thinking about "traductor" and "interprete" if you want my honest opinion, i have never looked these words on a dictionary but i can say that "interpretar" means, not only someone who is translating a conversation but also means "to understand a hieroglyph" "to understand the real meaning of a letter"... and "traducir" only means to change something from one language to another one, so, if someone ask you something in a language that you don't know how to speak and you want to ask for help, you would say "could you help me "traduciendo" this? but you wouldn't ever say "could you please help me "interpretando" this?.
About Usted, almost ever you say Usted without writing it, for instance, in the sentence Sugarlugs needed to be translated, the "usted or tu" goes at the end of the verb, i mean:
Si están interesados... - when you are addressing as Usted in plural
Si estais interesados.... - when you are addressing as Tu in plural
Si estas interesado.... - when you are addressing as tu in singular
Si esta interesado.... - when you are addressing as Usted in singular

and you even could say the same without using Usted nor tu, for example:

si alguien está interesado - you are not addressing anybody as Usted nor tu.

Sorry, my English is very poor but i hope you can understand me

rachelk

Oh I'm sorry. I know this is petty but I just can't resist.

And, from last week

Huevos

That's right! Interpretar can be applied to many things, for example art, when used in the general sense (explicar o declarar el sentido de una cosa), but when used specifically for language it means the source is spoken. OK, but that's the verb though, not the noun. Also "this" would always be a text; you wouldn't use "this" to refer to a person. As for the job title most people use traductor and interprete interchangably. The Ministry of Foreign affairs uses interprete (interprete jurado). Who knows best? I don't know. It's not always clear to me when it can be omitted. I tried a google search for "si usted esta interesado" and it turns up 685,000 results so it seems normal use for some people in some situations. In other situations it is mandatory because the antecedent is ambiguous, for example on a road sign, "Usted no tiene prioridad". That is completely different. There I was talking about when to use ser or estar. Normally that is a question of right and wrong. Here though we are talking about subtle stylistic differences of two grammatically correct sentences.

me me

[QUOTE=Huevos;6882862]. for example on a road sign, "Usted no tiene prioridad". That is completely different. There I was talking about when to use ser or estar. Normally that is a question of right and wrong. Here though we are talking about subtle stylistic differences of two grammatically correct sentences.[/QUOTE]

You have solved the problem of why there are so many road accidents in Spain. By the time people have read "Usted no tiene prioridad" never mind translating it by the Non Spanish speakers , you would have crashed into another car.

rachelk

You'll need to work on developing your instinct a bit more then.

How about watching a bit more Spanish TV?

lynnxa

instinct is instinct, and with language comes from exposure, so you've probably got a point


I'd rather speak as a spaniard does myself It's just like foreigners often speak 'better' english than the english - they may be 'correct', but it just doesn't 'sound right'

me me

Morning all,

Just a word about speaking like the Spanish in a broader sense. Dont go TOO FAR. What I mean is I hear a lot of "joders" and suchlike being bandied about by Brits who speak some Spanish, when a simple SI???? would do. I hate it. Try to imitate the higher level of Spanish.
I remember as a child listening to Spanish friends of my parents in the UK.
I would feel "verguenza ajena" listening sometimes.
It sounds bad enough when a native English speaker uses "bird" for woman. For example when a foreigner says "I went out with a bird last night" it sounds 10 times worse.
You dont need to use "low level slang" in order to be fluent and fit in.
Try listening to the refined ladies who play cards and have hair like crash helmets. Their conversations are usually very informative and funny, without being crass.

Huevos

Better than whom? It's "Standard English" which is just another dialect, and since English, unlike Spanish, doesn't have a standards body who's to say what's correct and what's not, apart from self appointed pedants who want to say 99% of the population are wrong and they are right.