POST: Week 4, Day 1, Friday, September 19

READING STRATEGIES

In rendering a complex translation of a long sentence, remember these tips:

1. Remove anything between dashes. Translate it LAST and then add it back into your translation.

2. Separate out all the “que” structures in the sentence, since each of those mark at least one clause.

Example:

Quienes se cercioraron de la causa del llanto durante las noches de luna llena, dijeron

que la iluminación les permitió ver

que las calles se llenaban de una neblina espesa a ras del suelo y también a alguien parecido a una mujer joven y bella aún, vestida de blanco con un velo en su rostro recorriendo con pasos lentos las calles de la ciudad.

3. Translate the noun phrases first. Move left to right.

4. Then translate the verbs.

STRATEGIES FOR TRANSLATING “SE.”

“Se” is a structure you’ll see with a lot of verbs in articles written in Spanish. Be alert! Here are some of the common ways to translate it:

1. As an intransitive. It’s important to understand what an “intransitive” means. English and Spanish have structures called “transitives” and “intransitives.” In English, a verb is intransitive if it has no direct object.

Example: The man left.

Contrast this with the transitive:

The man left the plate on the table.

Spanish often (but not always) marks intransitives with the reflexive particle (which in the case of the third person is “se.”)

El hombre se fue. (The man left).

2. As a reflexive, translatable by “himself” or “herself” or “themselves.”

Example: The woman threw herself at the problem.

La mujer se lanzo al problema.

3. As a passive.

In English, the passive is made with a form of the verb “be” (am/is/are/was/were/has been/have been/will be/had been) and the past participle form of the verb (see the previous blog):

Example: A book is used to explain the problem.

In Spanish, the “se” can be used. What in English would be the grammatical subject of the passive is often found AFTER the verb.

Example: Se usa un libro para explicar el problema.

4. As an impersonal.

In English, we often use “they” informally or “one” or “people” (more formally) to express, in a vague sort of non-specific way, the idea that somebody did/does something.

Example: One enters here. People study here.

In Spanish, the “se” can be used to accomplish this. This is mostly done with intransitive verbs and non-specific transitive verbs.

Example: Se entra aqui. Se estudia aqui.

5. As part of a verbal phrase that is idiomatically translated.

An example of this in Spanish is: tratarse de --- to be about.

Example: Me gusta mucho la pelicula. Se trata de la leyenda de la llorona. (I like the movie a lot. It’s about the legend of la llorona.)

6. As an indirect object “to someone” when there is another object particle in front of the verb.

Example: The woman gave it to him.

La mujer se lo dio.


HW: FIVE SENTENCES FOR PRACTICE. Translated these five sentences as perfectly as possible. I will give you two more sentences from the same article for translation on Friday (as an in-class translation).

These five sentences were taken from an article entitled:

Las Ballenas: El Problema de la Contaminación de las Aguas Marinas

A la muerte directa por envenenamiento, se unen los efectos sub-letales sobre la capacidad reproductiva y el sistema inmunitario.

Se han encontrado delfines con niveles de más de mil partes por millón (ppm) de PCB (Bifénilos policlorados) y otras sustancias altamente tóxicas.

Por desgracia, además de los peligrosos organoclorados, los cetáceos reciben fuertes dosis de metales pesados, hidrocarburos y otras sustancias, a las que se añaden las basuras flotantes, sobre todo, los plásticos.

También sufren enfermedades que, al alcanzar altos niveles de incidencia, se llaman epizootías (epidemias, entre los humanos).

Se desconoce cómo han llegado estos virus a los hábitats marinos, qué papel juegan en las mortandades masivas o la incidencia de otros factores (en los animales muertos, se encontraron altos niveles de contaminantes y un pobre estado alimenticio).