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He would sooner have had...If you need help translating a sentence or longer piece of text, use this forum. For translations or definitions of a single word or idiom, use the vocabulary forum. |
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He would sooner have had...
I am wondering how can I understand this sentence:
"...he would say that God had given him a tail to keep the flies off, but that he would sooner have had no tail and no flies." I read somewhere that could be "hubiera sido mejor que" Is it correct?
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... ...'cause you know sometimes words have two meanings. |
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#2
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(preferiría ser sin cola y sin moscas)
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Me ayuda si corrige mis errores. Gracias. |
#3
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Last edited by Luna Azul; April 13, 2011 at 01:16 PM. |
#4
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If you say that, you have problems with neither... nor. Actually, even better would be
He would have preferred to have had neither tail nor flies. |
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Esta oración
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Muchas gracias, chiquillos.
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... ...'cause you know sometimes words have two meanings. |
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You can't translate that..
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Last edited by Luna Azul; April 13, 2011 at 02:18 PM. |
#7
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It is a peculiar use of the comparative of the adverb 'soon'. Imagine you have two things to do, one which you like (task A), one which you do not like (task B). Human nature is such that if you can choose the sequence, you do task A, then task B. To express the preference,
I would sooner do task A than task B = I prefer task A to task B = I do task A sooner than task B So 'sooner' indicates a preference: sooner … (than): I'd sooner not go, to be honest a decir verdad, preferiría no ir; sooner than go against her principles, she handed in her notice antes que actuar en contra de sus principios, prefirió dimitir; sooner you than me! mejor tú que yo, me alegro de no ser yo el que tiene que hacerlo Does that help? |
#8
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Sí, ha sido de gran ayuda. Buen jueves para los dos.
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... ...'cause you know sometimes words have two meanings. |
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