Monday, February 6, 2012

Why can I translate from spanish to english, but not english to spanish?

I can translate from spanish to english with little problem, but I can't do it from english to spanish. Why? Is there anyone on here that I can talk to that speaks fluent spanish and english? Thanks.Why can I translate from spanish to english, but not english to spanish?
I speak fluent Spanish and my native language is English. Evidently you are the same, although maybe your Spanish isn't quite so fluent ; hard to see how it could be. I speak English at home but outside the house we work and live 100% in Spanish. Your problem is a simple one. You are thinking in English.



When you hear or see a word in Spanish, it rings a bell and the English word pops into your head. When you want to translate from English to Spanish, you don't have enough familiarity with the Spanish word for it to pop into your head.



There is no way round this but practice.



Its interesting that after 10 years in Spain, sometimes I have the opposite problem and can't remember the English word for something.



Si te gustaria abrir una conversaci贸n para permitirte practicar tu Castellano (la idioma que se llama espa帽ol fuera de Espa帽a se llama Castellano en Espa帽a, es que hay 5 idiomas diferentes por aqui) no me importar铆a nada. Tu mismo.



pa Stevenxtreme, Spanish has Latin roots, but English is Germanic. The vocabulary in English which is Latin based is largely thanks to the French invasion in 1066
Very good answer.

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Why can I translate from spanish to english, but not english to spanish?
Lots of translation sites on line. Babelfish works for me.Why can I translate from spanish to english, but not english to spanish?
Hey Robin, you ever been anywhere outside of USA? There are places in Europe with signs in 15 LANGUAGES!! So chill out and think before you speak. Many many countries accomodate immigrants better than the USA. Most countries will speak english to you! And their hotels are americanized, food is americanized, etc...



Maybe you are being ironic? If so, I apologize, but you are being a little to literal for me to see the humor.
Since the English and Spanish languages both share Latin roots, it is often easy to notice similar patterns. This is why people who primarily speak English can often infer the meanings of Spanish words and phrases.



However, to adequately translate something to spanish, one must understand all the grammatical rules. Verbs must be conjugated properly into the right tenses, and sentences must be constructed properly.



If you study spanish for a few years, you'll become familiar with how to construct sentences much easier. That should help you a lot if you are trying to translate things into spanish.
One issue with translating from English to Spanish is that the adjective precedes the noun in English. In Spanish the adjective follows the noun. "Casa Blanca - White House".
Perhaps because English is more complicated, sorry I only speak fluent English and very little Spanish, and ROFLMAO to Robin, Americans speak English hahahaha, that's so funny, Americans speak American, English people speak English.
I'm assuming you are a native speaker of English. I think that most translators only do work where they translate into their native language, because translating into the other language is more difficult. Also, they can produce more native-like translations in their native language.



I believe it might be more comfortable for you to translate from Spanish to English because the language system that allows you to understand (receptive knowledge) is different from the knowledge system that allows you to produce language (productive system). Linguists believe in general that we have a lot more receptive knowledge of a language than productive knowledge.

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