Use of 'y' between adjectives

[chileno]

Originally Posted by ookami

Actually, I believe that the option the book gives would be the most common if you are not translating literally, and it's not a poem.

Originally Posted by irmamar

A list of adjectives is separated by commas and an "y" at the end:

El perro tiene el hocico pequeño y negro.
La casa está pintada de amarillo, verde y azul.

What about:

The dog's nose is little and black.

There you go...

[tmember]

wafflestomp, you probably haven't heard of the book because it's so new, just published.

Sorry it's taken me so many days to get back here to write a paragraph from the book for translation. (And today I can't get the accent to go over the "n" in words.) Here it is for your translation:

Entonces ella se enteró acerca del programa de ayuda familiar. Este programa les da a sus participantes la posibilidad de pasar uno o dos anos en otro país de América Latina viviendo con una familia, y a cambio la persona debe cuidar de los ninos de la familia y aprender el idioma en un cursillo. Ya que Mike estaba estudiando en Puerto Vallarta, Sofía le escribió un correo electrónico. Ella le pidió que buscara una familia de acogida para ella en Méjico. Mike miró en algunos periódicos y en páginas web con anuncios.

[wafflestomp]

It's ok

The accent over the n is the tilde, you can find it in the "accents" bar when you make a post.
I didn't translate them word for word, just to convey the same meaning in English. Let's see how it matches up.

Then she heard about the family support program. This program gives its participants the opportunity to spend one or two years in a Latin American Country living with a family. For taking care of the family’s children, the person will be able to learn the language in a course/workshop. Since Mike was away studying in Puerto Vallarta, Sofía had to write him an email. She asked him to find a host family for her in Mexico. Mike looked in (miró looks weird here to me, I think it should be the verb “ver” but I could be wrong) some newspapers and websites with advertisements [to find a host family] -- ends kind of abruptly.

[tmember]

Okay, here's the translation the book gives (it ended abruptly because I ended it before it gave all the internet sites.) First, I'll copy the Spanish paragraph so it's closer for comparison:

"Entonces ella se enteró acerca del programa de ayuda familiar. Este programa les da a sus participantes la posibilidad de pasar uno o dos anos en otro país de América Latina viviendo con una familia, y a cambio la persona debe cuidar de los ninos de la familia y aprender el idioma en un cursillo. Ya que Mike estaba estudiando en Puerto Vallarta, Sofía le escribió un correo electrónico. Ella le pidió que buscara una familia de acogida para ella en Méjico. Mike miró en algunos periódicos y en páginas web con anuncios."

"Then she learned about the program de au pair. This program gives its participants the possibility to spend a year or two in another country of Latin America living with a host family, looking after children and learning at a language course. Since Mike was studying in Puerto Vallarta, Sofia wrote him an e-mail. She asked him to find a host family for her in Mexico. Mike looked through some newspapers and Internet sites with adverts."

Do you think they did a pretty accurate translation in English?

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Yes, they did.

[CrOtALiTo]

Originally Posted by tmember

I appreciate your kind response. At this moment I am sad.... I bought an expensive book from Amazon just published this year and it has no reviews yet. It looked very good and is also bilingual so I bought it. But it seems from the very first chapter to have many errors in it.

It's called "First Spanish Reader for Beginners". Would you mind if I type one paragraph from it for you to translate so I can compare your translation to the English translation in the book?

You buy the books from internet, then I guess that you have a kind to book that I can download from internet, or at least you could to have the idea where I can download ones.

I have ones book in English the book's name is the second language of my life all the book wrote in English, but they aren't translation in Spanish and well just sometimes I don't understand everything it say.

I hope your answer soon.

[wafflestomp]

Originally Posted by tmember

Okay, here's the translation the book gives (it ended abruptly because I ended it before it gave all the internet sites.) First, I'll copy the Spanish paragraph so it's closer for comparison:

"Entonces ella se enteró acerca del programa de ayuda familiar. Este programa les da a sus participantes la posibilidad de pasar uno o dos anos en otro país de América Latina viviendo con una familia, y a cambio la persona debe cuidar de los ninos de la familia y aprender el idioma en un cursillo. Ya que Mike estaba estudiando en Puerto Vallarta, Sofía le escribió un correo electrónico. Ella le pidió que buscara una familia de acogida para ella en Méjico. Mike miró en algunos periódicos y en páginas web con anuncios."

"Then she learned about the program de au pair. This program gives its participants the possibility to spend a year or two in another country of Latin America living with a host family, looking after children and learning at a language course. Since Mike was studying in Puerto Vallarta, Sofia wrote him an e-mail. She asked him to find a host family for her in Mexico. Mike looked through some newspapers and Internet sites with adverts."

Do you think they did a pretty accurate translation in English?

Yes, it was a perfect translation. You have a good book.

[tmember]

Maybe the book is better in their later paragraph translations but it sure isn't in the beginning. It says the Spanish word for mother is mother.

In another simple sentence its English translation says, "Kazuki has four new green notebooks" but 'green' (verde) appears no where in the Spanish sentence. Elsewhere it translates "Aquella tienda grande no tiene muchas ventanas" as saying "That big shop has many windows." Where's the negative (no) in the English sentence? 'Another sentence says, "Y estas habitaciones no tienen muchas ventanas" which they translate "And these rooms have not many windows." I've never heard an English speaking person talk like that.

CrOtALiTo, the name of the book is "First Spanish Reader for beginners" and it's new and expensive. You can't download it but you can buy it. You may be disappointed though, with all the errors it has in it.

Thanks to those who looked over that paragraph translation for me!

[wafflestomp]

Lol, looks like they just kinda blasted through making it then... kinda sucks. At least they got that paragraph right.

[CrOtALiTo]

Originally Posted by chileno

In essence is correct...

Consider:

His dog has a little black nose - Su perro tiene una pequeña nariz negra.

His dog has a little and black nose.

Man.
It's necessary to add the and in the phrase, I mean it is a rule in English.

His god has a little back nose.

Tmenber.

The book has a lot of errors in the writing.
Can you give me the download's link please?