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(un) semen?This is the place for questions about conjugations, verb tenses, adverbs, adjectives, word order, syntax and other grammar questions for English or Spanish. |
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#1
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(un) semen?
I was reading El Mundo when I came across a headline, which I thought was a bit funny, grammatically. It goes like this:
Más de la mitad de los jóvenes españoles tiene un semen de mala calidad. And again, in the context: El 57,8% de los jóvenes españoles presenta un semen de calidad inferior [...] Is it common to refer to semen in this way in Spanish? It's the first time I have seen semen being referred to in this way, like there's only "one" of it. I would say simply just, semen, or at least, alguno semen. And also, are there other common constructions like this, where a thing is just referred to as "one" of it, or alike.
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#2
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One semen, I don't like as named to that in the life, Semen, good I believe that all places in, it's named of the same way (semen), please you that are another country different to mine, tell me if you have another way to say semen.
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We are building the most important dare for my life and my family feature now we are installing new services in telecoms. |
#3
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I'm not talking about the word, semen, itself, but rather why it is referred to as singular: un semen. I have never seen it being referred to like that before. As an example: In English you wouldn't say: More than half of the Spanish youth have one semen of bad quality; but: More than half of the Spanish youth have
Quote:
It's all about what language family the language comes from. Here I mostly used the Indo-european family, except for Chinese (which I included, to show a completely other word) and Finnish.
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¡Correcciones son muy bienvenidas! Last edited by ElDanés; October 02, 2008 at 08:43 AM. |
#4
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Hi El Danés
Could it be that the word semen is a collective noun that is singular in form but refers to a group of sperm ? Collective nouns are often uncountable. ?? Just a thought Ruby |
#5
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Oh, yeah, that could be the case. But still, normally you wouldn't use an indefinite article, when you are working with collective nouns? Like, you don't say, I have one news for, or, one news of bad quality.
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#6
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I suppose you could use the definate article 'the' as non countable nouns do not take a/an before them either.
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#7
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Ohhh, Danes, you are very but very informed in the thread, BUT GUY, I did't understand the words or text wrote in Chinise.
Ajajaja, please you only speaking me in English or Spanish.
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We are building the most important dare for my life and my family feature now we are installing new services in telecoms. |
#8
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Sólo mencionó la palabra en chino para semen, así que sí lo podemos entender.
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If you find something wrong with my Spanish, please correct it! |
#9
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Yeah, I know.
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We are building the most important dare for my life and my family feature now we are installing new services in telecoms. |
#10
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The examples above use the definite article; the same is true for the indefinite article. El joven tiene una fuerza tremenda. = The young man hasI don't know if these examples help or not. This is not something specific to semen, it's about how Spanish uses the articles more often than English.
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