Metaphors

[xamaicano]

Less exotic idioms y expression

Guys, for those of us that are learning Spanish, idiomatic expression without their english equivalent is kind of useless since by their nature we most likely won't get their meaning by translating them.

 

[juancarlos]

All of those are called refranes or dichos in Spanish. In English you would say: There is a saying...

Here are some others:

A buen hambre no hay pan duro.
Arbol que crece torcido jam?s su tronco endereza.
El que a buen arbol se arrima, buena sombra lo cobija.

Nunca digas de esa agua no beber?.

Al que madruga, Dios lo ayuda.

etc. etc.

Lesley or Chirimoya or Pib- by the way, where is she?- or Hillbilly could provide translation because I am too tired and I am going to bed now.

Well, since nobody has come to the rescue, I will try to find a close equivalent in English for some. It's not that easy.

a) A buen hambre no hay pan duro. Meaning that where there is a will, there is a way. You can translate it as: When you are really hungry, no bread is too
hard to eat.

d) Nunca digas de esa agua no beber?. Meaning never say never. Don't say "from that water I shall never drink". You may regret those words some day. You may find yourself doing exactly what you said you would never do. It is applied to many different situations in life, like " I will never marry someone like her or him" etc.

e) Al que madruga, Dios lo ayuda. Something about the early riser. Is he the one who gets the bird? Well, in Spanish they say The early riser is helped by God. Meaning that if you really want something, be there first or start your preparations early or something like that. Of course, there is a counter saying that goes: No por mucho madrugar, amanece m?s temprano.

That's just for tonight because those Spanish refranes are really hard to translate and to find their English equivalent is even harder, at least for me.

 

[aegap]

the colmadon favorite

No Fio Hoy; Ma?ana Si

 

[YaniKK]

A couple more

Te agarre con las manos en la masa. "I cought you red-handed"

Mas para alante vive/hay gente. Kind of like saying "There are other sea shells on the beach"

Te conozco bacalao, aunque vengas disfrasao. " I know you even if you are disguised"

 

[juancarlos]

Te conozco bacalao, aunque vengas disfrasao. " I know you even if you are disguised"

Meaning " You can't hide your true intentions from me, no matter how hard you try to".

 

[rellosk]

Te agarre con las manos en la masa. "I cought you red-handed"

Mas para alante vive/hay gente. Kind of like saying "There are other sea shells on the beach"

Te conozco bacalao, aunque vengas disfrasao. " I know you even if you are disguised"

Welcome to the board. Those are the types of phrases I wanted to find.

Being that this is Spanish 101, I won't be embarrassed to ask what does alante mean?

 

[juancarlos]

Being that this is Spanish 101, I won't be embarrassed to ask what does alante mean?

Alante means: In front, ahead, forward. It's similar to adelante. In the DR they use the phrase " E p'alante que vamos" We are moving forward. Now, honestly, even though it means the same as adelante, I am not sure it is correct to say alante. But everyone does. I"ll have to check with the Royal Academy. I"ll be right back.

 

[juancarlos]

Well, I checked and the result is that The Royal Academy of the Spanish Language does not recognize alante as a word. It is not listed in their dictionary. In fact, it states that "The word alante does not exist". But people still use it.

 

[mkohn]

I learned many words orally when I learned Spanish in the DR.
I don't know how many years it was before I learned that pe'cueso had two s's.
Delante means in front.
Adelante means forward.
Pa' lante just has more movement in it - in my opinion. Very Dominican!
Same with pa' tras, no?
I think the words are atras and detras. Anybody got any accents I can borrow?

mkohn

 

[rellosk]

Well, I checked and the result is that The Royal Academy of the Spanish Language does not recognize alante as a word. It is not listed in their dictionary. In fact, it states that "The word alante does not exist". But people still use it.

Thanks for the definition and the explanation.

 

[YaniKK]

alante

Of course words like "alante" or "palante" are not going to be in the dictionary because they are short cuts. For example "Para alante" would be the proper way of saying "palante". Same as "alante" which is short for "adelante". Adelante means in front of, proceed or ahead.

There are tons of words in the English language that we use day by day that are not going to be found in the dictionary.

But "refranes" are known to be inproper in grammar, FYI. If you prefer to say "Mas para alante vive gente" than more power to you, it will still mean the same thing.

 

[rellosk]

YaniKK, thanks for your explanation.

Your posting leads me to wonder if there is a Spanish dictionary for Dominican speakers. Does anyone know if such a dictionary exists?

BTW, I disagree when you say, "There are tons of words in the English language that we use day by day that are not going to be found in the dictionary."

I believe that almost all of the English spoken words will be found in the dictionary, albeit there is a time lag for words to make it into a published dictionary. They are constantly adding (and deleting) words from the Websters dictionary.

 

[YaniKK]

Dominican Dictionary

Your posting leads me to wonder if there is a Spanish dictionary for Dominican speakers. Does anyone know if such a dictionary exists?

I don't know, but I think it's a good idea to make one.
I believe someone wrote a post about Dominican Language and had a link to a book but I don't know exactly if the book contained modern day Dominican lingo.

BTW, I disagree when you say, "There are tons of words in the English language that we use day by day that are not going to be found in the dictionary."

I believe that almost all of the English spoken words will be found in the dictionary, albeit there is a time lag for words to make it into a published dictionary. They are constantly adding (and deleting) words from the Websters dictionary.

We'll I guess there is a lot more shortcuts in spanish, more specifically in Dominican speaking than in english, including slang terminology as well.

 

[s1m0ne]

Your posting leads me to wonder if there is a Spanish dictionary for Dominican speakers. Does anyone know if such a dictionary exists?

I was wondering the same thing once, and I found this page on the internet with "dominicanismos". It is only useful if you speak spanish since the dominican words are explained in spanish.

http://usuarios.lycos.es/jallite/diccionario.htm

Maybe this is helpful.

Simone

 

[mkohn]

There have been some threads with Dominican phrases in the past.
Probably 2001 or 2002 for the ones I remember.
mkohn

 

[rellosk]

I was wondering the same thing once, and I found this page on the internet with "dominicanismos". It is only useful if you speak spanish since the dominican words are explained in spanish.

http://usuarios.lycos.es/jallite/diccionario.htm

Maybe this is helpful.

Simone

Thanks. Even though my Spanish is at the 101 level, this will help. It will allow me to look up words that are not in other dictionaries.

 

[rellosk]

Is the expression, "If the shoe was on the other foot" used in the DR. If so, how is it said in Spanish?

 

[Piojosa]

I can't figure out what they mean.

This means that you are trying to cover up a bigger problem with pointless attempts. Basically being doing something to make urself feel better, knowing you are really not helping the problem out.

For example, you put ur finger to ur eye, and u cover the sun, you a really arent doing anything, just making urself think you actually are covering the sun....