Spanish Word of the Day

Quote: Pacomartin

Pooh intentó lavar el piso, ¡pero el jabón lo puso muy resbaloso! - professional translation
Pooh intentó lavar el piso, ¡pero el jabón lo HIZO muy resbaloso! - Nareed

For what it's worth I think the professional translation is awkward.

I got a response from Gonzalo his translation of the sentence. Gonzalo is a 60 year old man from Galicia. For those of you unfamiliar with the geography, Galicia is near the birthplace of the Spanish language, and you would expect a very old-style Spanish. There is a Galician language as well which offers up some loan-words to Spanish.

Gonzalo did not like the "professional translation" either.

Quote: Gonzalo

This "lo había puesto" is definitely more proper than "lo puso", anyone with some knowledge of the Spanish language will tell you that.
Pooh intentó lavar el piso, ¡pero el jabón lo había puesto muy resbaloso!

For grammarians:
The professional translation used preterite conjugation of "poner"
Nareed used the preterite conjugation of "hacer"
Gonzalo used the compound version of the imperfect conjugation of "poner" which consists of the imperfect of "hacer" followed by the past participle of "poner" This tense is sometimes called the "pluperfect" in English.

It's interesting, especially the change from preterite to imperfect tense.

He had a secondary comment of less importance.

Quote: Gonzalo

"Resbaloso" sounds somewhat funny to the Spanish ear; I am afraid I cannot give any reasonable explanation about why this word is so funny to us. If you are going to use this translation in Spain you will be safer with "resbaladizo".

Son sinónimas (el DRAE te remite a "resbaladizo" si buscas "resbaloso").

Fecha: 12-1-13
Palabra: Apoderar

Today's SWD means to empower.

Ejemplo time.

Todo de Harry, era increíble. Los Dursley no debían de saberlo, o se habrían apoderado de todo en un abrir y cerrar de ojos. = All Harry's -- it was incredible. The Dursleys couldn't have known about this or they'd have had it for m him faster than blinking.

poder = (verb) to be able {use can when appropriate}
el poder = (noun) the power
apoderar = (verb) to empower
apoderarse de =(verb) to take over
poderosamente = (adj) powerfully
no se puede = (phrasal verb) it can't be done


poder has an irregular conjugation of an -er verb
apoderar has a regular conjugation of an -ar verb

The verb "apoderar" looks like both an -er and an -ar verb. But it is a coincidence since "poder" is both a verb and a noun

Fecha: 13-1-13
Palabra: contrabandear

Today's SWD means to smuggle. It is an obvious cognate to contraband.

The assignment for the advanced readers is to explain the root of both words.

Creo que voy a molestar a mi padre hasta que me compre una y la meteré de contrabando de alguna manera. = I think I'll bully Father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow.

Quote: Wizard

The assignment for the advanced readers is to explain the root of both words.

It's a complex etymology since the concept of ban comes from both Old English, Old Norse and Latin. They are cognates from further back in history than Latin.

NOTE: Old English or Anglo Saxon is thought to begin about 500 AD with the invasion of the Germanic tribes into England, for the 1000 years before that you usually refer to Proto German languages. Classical Latin goes back to 75 BC, and before that you have Old Latin. So the word "ban" was borrowed from Proto Germanic in this period.

The Medieval Latin: bannum "a command"
Old English: bannan "to command, summon, proclaim"
Old Norse: banna"to curse, prohibit"

So ban originally mean a proclamation of the king, and contraband went the opposite of the proclamation of the king.

But today in English ban means specifically proclamations that prohibit some practice. To banish is to exile someone. And banal was related to something communal provided by the king (probably an oven or a mill), so "banal" came to mean "trite or commonplace".


Atrapado contrabandeando colibríes en su pantalón.

I kind of think this idea was not thought through very well.

Quote: Wizard

Today's SWD means to empower.

In a word: no.

In many words, there is no good translation for some of the meanings of "empower." If you mean to give official or legal power, then the word you want is "facultar." If you mean to make able or possible, there is no translation.

Anyway, "apoderar" means to take possession of something, often by force or through coercive means. Example "Para el año 47 AC, Roma se había apoderado de todo el mundo Mediterraneo."

Quote:

Todo de Harry, era increíble. Los Dursley no debían de saberlo, o se habrían apoderado de todo en un abrir y cerrar de ojos. = All Harry's -- it was incredible. The Dursleys couldn't have known about this or they'd have had it for m him faster than blinking.

Your Spanish seems fine, but your English needs help. I don't think "m" is a word.

Dursleys couldn't have known about this or they'd have had it for m him faster than blinking.-typo
Dursleys couldn't have known about this or they'd have had it from him faster than blinking.-correct

Quote: Pacomartin

Dursleys couldn't have known about this or they'd have had it from him faster than blinking.-correct

Dursleys [whatever they are, ed.] couldn't have known about this, or they'd take it from him in the blink of an eye. -really correct.

Keep in mind that the original book is in English, so if the translation is bad I'd prefer to see how it should have been in Spanish.

The Dursleys were Harry Potter's aunt and uncle and the ones who raised him until age 10 or so.

Quote: Wizard

Keep in mind that the original book is in English, so if the translation is bad I'd prefer to see how it should have been in Spanish.

I've no idea about the quality of the translation. But "en un abrir y cerrar de ojos" is Spanish for "in the blink of an eye."