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Pret vs imp question plus choice between pret vs past perfect

 

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  #1  
Old July 24, 2012, 03:46 PM
LearningSpanish LearningSpanish is offline
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Pret vs imp question plus choice between pret vs past perfect

Hi guys

Could I please check the grammar in this phrase:

I felt bad because he had slipped over on my banana peel.

Me sentí mal (or preocupado/a?) porque se había resbalado debido a mi cáscara de plátano.

My reasoning is that the feeling was due to an event at a specific time so pret over imperfect for sentir.

And then theres the 'had slipped over bit' - literally I've translated that as
se había resbalado' but I've noticed that perfect tenses are not always translated into the corresponding perfect tenses between English and Spanish.

I'm probably not explaining myself well but sometimes a sentence using the preterite in English will be most commonly translated using the past perfect tense in Spanish. This phenomenon seems more common with Spanish from Spain than LAm Spanish but perhaps the perfect in English is not quite the same as the perfect in Spanish? Any thoughts?
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  #2  
Old July 24, 2012, 03:53 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LearningSpanish View Post
Hi guys

Could I please check the grammar in this phrase:

I felt bad because he had slipped over on my banana peel.

Me sentí mal (or preocupado/a?) porque se había resbalado debido a mi cáscara de plátano.

My reasoning is that the feeling was due to an event at a specific time so pret over imperfect for sentir.

And then theres the 'had slipped over bit' - literally I've translated that as
se había resbalado' but I've noticed that perfect tenses are not always translated into the corresponding perfect tenses between English and Spanish.

I'm probably not explaining myself well but sometimes a sentence using the preterite in English will be most commonly translated using the past perfect tense in Spanish. This phenomenon seems more common with Spanish from Spain than LAm Spanish but perhaps the perfect in English is not quite the same as the perfect in Spanish? Any thoughts?
Preocupado/a: worried.

Last edited by Dam; July 24, 2012 at 03:57 PM.
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  #3  
Old July 24, 2012, 04:40 PM
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Did you mean 'slipped over on'?

'Banana' isn't always translated as 'plátano'.
I would've translated it as '... se había resbalado en una cáscara de banana.'
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Old July 24, 2012, 04:46 PM
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Originally Posted by Rusty View Post
Did you mean 'slipped over on'?

'Banana' isn't always translated as 'plátano'.
I would've translated it as '... se había resbalado en una cáscara de banana.'
Las palabras "plátano" y "banana", hacen referencia a la misma fruta.
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Old July 24, 2012, 06:51 PM
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Ok - thanks guys, or apparently in Venezuela, concha de cambur works for banana peel
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Old July 24, 2012, 08:00 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dam View Post
Las palabras "plátano" y "banana", hacen referencia a la misma fruta.
No en todos los países. Depende de dónde estás.
En los países que conozco se come una de las dos sin preparación ninguna y siempre madura. La otra se come verde o madura, pero no sin haberla cocido primero. Son frutas muy diferentes en sabor, color, consistencia y tamaño. No me atrevía a llamarle banana al plátano y viceversa. En los países centroamericanos, el plátano y la banana no son la misma cosa y lo que se les llama no concuerda de país en país.

In the United States, we have access to both bananas and plantains. We eat the former only when they're ripe and we never cook them. We eat the latter when they're green or ripe, but only after cooking them in some way. I would venture that a large majority of Americans haven't even tried plantains.

Last edited by Rusty; July 25, 2012 at 01:49 AM.
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Old July 25, 2012, 07:40 AM
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Originally Posted by Rusty View Post
No en todos los países. Depende de dónde estás.
En Argentina, la palabra "plátano" se usa para referirse a la banana.
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Old July 25, 2012, 07:35 PM
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That's very interesting. In Mexico we think it's just the same fruit, but we never use "banana", only plátano.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rusty View Post
Son frutas muy diferentes en sabor, color, consistencia y tamaño. No me atrevía a llamarle banana al plátano y viceversa. En los países centroamericanos, el plátano y la banana no son la misma cosa y lo que se les llama no concuerda de país en país.
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Old August 20, 2012, 10:49 PM
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A esto en España se le llama "plátano" y también "banana"...
A finales de los 60, el eslogan de TVE era: "Todos los días un plátano... ¡por lo menos!" "Plátanos de las Canarias".
Y la canción de El Libro de la Selva decía: "Para no quedarte enano, tú comer mucho platano"... (Obsérvese la gramática selvática, y la falta de tilde en 'platano' para que rime con 'enano'...)

Usamos "banana" para lo mismo, aunque se usa menos.

Supongo que el "plantain" que se usa para cocinar es el "plátano grande" aunque supongo que los usos (y el fruto) cambian, como menciona Rusty, según los países...
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