Spanish word of the day

Quote: Nareed

In Spanish Pretender also means "to pretend" and "pretense" But it can mean "intent," "desire," "want," too.

These are considered archaic meanings in English.

Google offers up these three alternative translations. Which is the most natural one to you?

Let's pretend to be cowboys and indians.
Vamos a suponer que los vaqueros y los indios.
Vamos a preteder que los vaqueros y los indios.
Vamos imaginemos que los vaqueros y los indios.

Quote: pacomartin

These are considered archaic meanings in English.

Google offers up these three alternative translations. Which is the most natural one to you?

Let's pretend to be cowboys and indians.
Vamos a suponer que los vaqueros y los indios.
Vamos a preteder que los vaqueros y los indios.
Vamos imaginemos que los vaqueros y los indios.

They're all missing "somos" as a translation of "to be," and all have superfluous articles.

"Vamos a pretender que somos vaqueros e indios."

But a child would say "Vamos a jugar a indios y vaqueros" Which is "let's play cowboys and indians."

We're going to get tagged as racists, too :P

Fecha: 11 de Mayo
Palabra de la dia: CLANDESTINO

This is an easy one. According to spanishdict.com, it is an adjective meaning Clandestine, secret, or private. However, the translation of the song Clandestino by Manu Chao translates it as "outlaw." I think you get the general point. Check out the video, it is a pretty catchy song.

By the way, I welcome others to post any word of the day they choose if I don't get to it first.

Quote: Wizard

Fecha: 11 de Mayo Palabra de la dia: CLANDESTINO

sinónimos: secreto, oculto, subrepticio, furtivo, encubierto, anónimo, prohibido, ilegal, ilegítimo

I think that grammatically translating the adjective into a non-abstract noun is a bit of a stretch. People translate adjectives into abstract nouns all the time, happy (adjective) become happiness (abstract noun).

I think in Spain "clandestino" or "clandestine" people implies illegal immigrant in Spain. The use of "outlaw" is geared more for Americans who would not catch the hidden meaning. Notice that he refers to Ceuta and Gibralter as the primary terminal points for illegal immigration from Africa to Europe via Spain. The fuzzy voices in the background I think are Subcomandante Marcos making his speeches from Guatemala.

I was trying to pick love songs and dance songs. But for political protest songs, one of the most complex is Ojala, written in 1969 (13 years after Castro took over Cuba) by a young Cuban man named Silvio Rodrigues. He combines very romantic music with his ideals of revolution. Ojala is a Spanish variation of "By Allah", and it is one of the loan words from the centuries of occupation of Spain by the Moslems. The most famous of such word is "Ole".
Silvio in concert gives you an idea of how wildly popular the song, Ojala. It is a very difficult song to translate since it uses the subjunctive tense which is mostly archaic in English, and a lot of very poetic license.

Ojalá que las hojas no te toquen el cuerpo cuando caigan
para que no las puedas convertir en cristal.
Ojalá que la lluvia deje de ser milagro que baja por tu cuerpo.
Ojalá que la luna pueda salir sin tí.
Ojalá que la tierra no te bese los pasos.

Ojalá se te acabé la mirada constante,
la palabra precisa, la sonrisa perfecta.
Ojalá pase algo que te borre de pronto:
una luz cegadora, un disparo de nieve.
Ojalá por lo menos que me lleve la muerte,
para no verte tanto, para no verte siempre
en todos los segundos, en todas las visiones:
ojalá que no pueda tocarte ni en canciones

Ojalá que la aurora no dé gritos que caigan en mi espalda.
Ojalá que tu nombre se le olvide a esa voz.
Ojalá las paredes no retengan tu ruido de camino cansado.
Ojalá que el deseo se vaya tras de tí,
a tu viejo gobierno de difuntos y flores.

Quote: Wizard

This is an easy one. According to spanishdict.com, it is an adjective meaning Clandestine, secret, or private."

Right. it can also mean "covert."

Fecha: 12 de Mayo
Palabra de la dia: CABELLO


The word for day is CABELLO = hair, in particular the hair on your head. A similar word is pelo, which also means hair, but refers to hair on other parts of the body or on an animal. I have seen pelo used for fur too, although piel can also mean fur.

Here are some ejemplos.

Mi cabello es sucio. = My hair is dirty.
La cabello de ella es castaño. = Her hair is brown.
Necesito lavar mi cabello. = I need to wash my hair. (corrected -- thx Nareed)

Quote: Wizard

The word for day is CABELLO = hair, in particular the hair on your head. A similar word is pelo, which also means hair, but refers to hair on other parts of the body or on an animal. I have seen pelo used for fur too, although piel can also mean fur.

Piel also means leather and skin. It's used as fur mostly when referring to clothes, such as a fur coat. In that sense it may be closer to "pelt."

Cabello ideally is used only for human scalp hair, but usages do vary.

Quote:

Necesito limpiar mi cabello. = I need to wash my hair.

That would be "necesito lavar mi cabello." Lavar means to wash, while limpiar means to clean. Not quite the same thing.

Quote: Wizard

Palabra de la dia

Sorry, I just caught this one.

It's "Palabra DEL Día." For reasons best known to someone, I'm sure, "día" is a "male" word. You can also say "de el día" but "del día" is by far the preferred usage.

Quote: Nareed

It's "Palabra DEL Día." For reasons best known to someone, I'm sure, "día" is a "male" word.

Día is masculine?! This is the part of Spanish that drives me nuts. I knew that del = de el, but didn't know that Día is masculine. If I had anything to do with it I'd make all the nouns ending in "a" feminine, and "o", masculine.

Then again, maybe Paco can explain the logic behind it.

Quote: Wizard

Día is masculine?! This is the part of Spanish that drives me nuts.

Join the club. My advantage lies in being exposed to the alnguage all day, every day, for decades.

Quote:

If I had anything to do with it I'd make all the nouns ending in "a" feminine, and "o", masculine.

If it were up to me I'd make up an article for things and make all nouns neutral. What's the use of gender in nouns?

Quote:

Then again, maybe Paco can explain the logic behind it.

I'm sure it has something to do with the original Latin word it derives from.