Una persona

[jellybabe]

A person wouldn't do that in England, not in front of everyone because if they did, they could be reported"

"Una persona en Inglaterra no lo haría, no delante de los demas porque si lo hizo, lo denunciaría!

In English when we speak about "a person" we them put it in the plural tense "if they did it " but does that happen in Spanish too or do you say "una persona, no lo haría"?

[wrholt]

Originally Posted by jellybabe

A person wouldn't do that in England, not in front of everyone because if they did, they could be reported"

"Una persona en Inglaterra no lo haría, no delante de los demás porque si lo hizo hiciera, lo denunciaría!

In English when we speak about "a person" we them put it in the plural tense "if they did it " but does that happen in Spanish too or do you say "una persona, no lo haría"?

Up until 50 years ago your English sentence would have used 'generic he' rather than 'singular they', at least in formal writing:

"A person wouldn't do that in England, not in front of everyone because if he did, he could be reported."

Many people have written essays about alternatives to 'generic he'; 'singular they' is certainly quite common when speaking, but at least here in the US there are some people who object to using it in writing, especially in formal writing.

Traditionally all gender agreement in Spanish is based primarily on the gramatical gender of the noun rather than on the perceived sex (if any) of the person/being/thing that the noun references. As 'la(s)/una(s) persona(s)' is grammatically feminine, pronouns that reference it normally should be feminine. However, it seems to me that the word 'persona(s)' is used less often in Spanish in comparison to 'person' in English. I can think of a few different ways to translate your English sentence that don't use "persona" and that express the same idea. For example, I might try saying something like:

"En Inglaterra uno no lo haría, no delante de los demás porque si lo hiciera, lo denunciaría."

[Julvenzor]

Originally Posted by jellybabe

A person wouldn't do that in England, not in front of everyone because if they did, they could be reported"

"Una persona en Inglaterra no lo haría, no delante de los demás porque si lo hiciera/hiciese, ¡lo denunciaría!

In English when we speak about "a person" we them put it in the plural tense "if they did it " but does that happen in Spanish too or do you say "una persona, no lo haría"?

Decir "lo denunciaría" es ambiguo; pues podría significar "he would report it". La forma en que solventamos esta dualidad se basa en utilizar una oración activa con un sujeto "ellos" indeterminado.

Su frase puede traducirse literalmente en:

Una persona no haría eso en Inglaterra enfrente de los demás, porque si lo hiciera/hiciese, podrían denunciarlo/podría ser denunciado.


Un saludo cordial.