Response to ¿Cómo se dice?

[El Gato]

One of the first things I learned was "¿Cómo se dice?" How do you say?

But I don't know the response phrase: ???? is ????? in English/Spanish.

Say someone asked me, "¿Cómo se dice el caballo en inglés?", and I wanted to respond in Spanish, "El caballo is horse in English."
How would I phrase that?

[Rusty]

¿Cómo se dice el caballo en inglés?
- Se dice 'the horse'.

¿Cómo se dice caballo (en inglés)?
- Se dice 'horse'.

[El Gato]

Thank you for your response.


Would there be differences based on word gender or if it were a noun, verb, adjective, or a preposition?

So would the response to "¿Cómo se dice la ciudad?" be "Se dice 'the city'"?

And would the same be true for "Se dice 'run'", or "'Se dice 'round'" or "'Se dice 'quickly'"?

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by El Gato

Would there be differences based on word gender or if it were a noun, verb, adjective, or a preposition? No.

So would the response to "¿Cómo se dice la ciudad?" be "Se dice 'the city'"? Yes.

And would the same be true for "Se dice 'run'", or "'Se dice 'round'" or "'Se dice 'quickly'"?

Yes, yes and yes.

The translation of the question is "How does one say ...?" The translation of the response is "One says ...."

The impersonal question uses a construct called the "impersonal 'se'," and so does the impersonal response. There is no need to worry about the word in question, in either event.

[El Gato]

Good. Thanks again.

If they had asked me a couple questions and I wanted to anticipate what they would ask next by telling them: Pig is cerdo, goat is cabra etc., would a simple "Cerdo es 'pig', and "Cabra es 'goat'" be alright and would there be gender problems with that?

And if I were to say, "Rabbit is conejo in English," would the translation be "'Rabbit' es conejo en inglés."? Or, "Zebra is cebra in English," would the translation be, "'Zebra es cebra en inglés."?

[Rusty]

Those anticipated sentences are fine. Gender isn't the issue. You're matching person (third person) and number (singular or plural). If the vocabulary is plural, the verb needs to agree.

Vacas son cows.

[El Gato]

'Turtles' son tortugas en inglés.