Ejercicio 15-6 (Preposiciones)

[laepelba]

I just finished another translation exercise and have a few questions about the answers:

1) Given English sentence: I'm reading a book by John Steinbeck.
The book's Spanish translation: Estoy leyendo un libro de (or por) John Steinbeck.

12) Given English sentence: The novel Les Miserables is by Victor Hugo.
The book's Spanish translation: La novela Les Miserables es de (por) Victor Hugo.

Same question for both #1 and #12: The book says that either "de" or "por" are acceptable. But I always thought that you only use "por" for authorship/"creatorship" when you are following a term like "escrito". For example, "Estoy leyendo un libro escrito por JS." Are both "de" and "por" truly acceptable here?

15) Given English sentence: I'm tired and for this reason I'm going to take a nap.
The book's Spanish translation: Estoy cansada, y por esta razón voy a dormir una siesta.
My question: I wrote: "Estoy cansada, y a causa de esta razón voy a dormir una siesta." Is that also correct? Or does it sound awkward?

Thank you for any help you can give me with these questions....

[chileno]

Originally Posted by laepelba

I just finished another translation exercise and have a few questions about the answers:

1) Given English sentence: I'm reading a book by John Steinbeck.
The book's Spanish translation: Estoy leyendo un libro de (or por) John Steinbeck.

12) Given English sentence: The novel Les Miserables is by Victor Hugo.
The book's Spanish translation: La novela Les Miserables es de (por) Victor Hugo.

Same question for both #1 and #12: The book says that either "de" or "por" are acceptable. But I always thought that you only use "por" for authorship/"creatorship" when you are following a term like "escrito". For example, "Estoy leyendo un libro escrito por JS." Are both "de" and "por" truly acceptable here?

15) Given English sentence: I'm tired and for this reason I'm going to take a nap.
The book's Spanish translation: Estoy cansada, y por esta razón voy a dormir una siesta.
My question: I wrote: "Estoy cansada, y a causa de esta razón voy a dormir una siesta." Is that also correct? Or does it sound awkward?

Thank you for any help you can give me with these questions....

Everything is correct.

What's more, on #15 your translation some people will say, "... y por esta causa voy a ..."

Which is also correct.

[laepelba]

Originally Posted by chileno

Everything is correct.

That's not quite what I was asking for the first two. Please see my questions, repeated below...

Originally Posted by laepelba

Same question for both #1 and #12: The book says that either "de" or "por" are acceptable. But I always thought that you only use "por" for authorship/"creatorship" when you are following a term like "escrito". For example, "Estoy leyendo un libro escrito por JS." Are both "de" and "por" truly acceptable here?

[Rusty]

Either 'de' or 'por' is acceptable. Each may be interpreted as 'by' when used in this way.

If you do a Google search for 'un libro escrito por Juan' and 'un libro por Juan', you'll see that it isn't necessary to use the participle before the preposition 'por'. For giggles, see which phrase is more popular: 'un libro por Juan' or 'un libro de Juan'.

Happy National Preposition Day!

[chileno]

Originally Posted by chileno

Everything is correct.

Originally Posted by laepelba

That's not quite what I was asking for the first two. Please see my questions, repeated below...

I am sorry if you didn't understand that everything is correct to mean that everything in your post was acceptable.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Originally Posted by laepelba

15) Given English sentence: I'm tired and for this reason I'm going to take a nap.
The book's Spanish translation: Estoy cansada, y por esta razón voy a dormir una siesta.
My question: I wrote: "Estoy cansada, y a causa de esta razón voy a dormir una siesta." Is that also correct? Or does it sound awkward?

"A causa de esta razón" would be understood, but it feels unnecessarily long and kind of pleonastic. I'd prefer "por esta causa", "por esta razón", "por esto/eso", "a causa de esto"...

And a little remark on the use of "por esta razón": I think the book example is chosen to clearly show what this expression means and the syntax it needs, but it is rather used in formal written sentences, and doesn't feel suitable for daily life statements.

·El señor M. nos ha presentado una queja al respecto del comportamiento del señor L.; por esta razón/causa, hacemos un llamado al señor L. a que reconsidere su conducta. *stiff upper lip*

·Estoy cansada, por eso me voy a dormir.

[Don José]

I agree with Angelica. Usually I would say "por eso" in a standard conversation.

I think nobody would say:

"Estoy leyendo un libro por John Steinbeck."

It seems that Mr Steinbeck recommended you a book.

And I think this is not Spanish at all:

"La novela Les Miserables es por Victor Hugo."

Finally, both of these are perfect:

"Estoy leyendo un libro escrito por JS."
"Estoy leyendo un libro de JS." (but not "un libro escrito de JS")

[aleCcowaN]

"Estoy leyendo un libro por John Steinbeck." sounds very Spanglish to my ears. In "escrito por John Steinbeck" por is OK because that preposition shows the agent -who wrote it, or "better", "who had it written"-. Escribir is an action that requires an agent, but libro is not, so por sounds weird -or an English usage-.

"Estoy leyendo un libro de John Steinbeck" is the standard way. De implies possession, so either John Steinbeck lend us the book -long time ago- or he is its author.

"a causa de esta razón" mean "a causa de esta causa", so "por esta causa", "por esta razón" or "a razón de esto" are the ways to introduce an overkilling explanation about why you'd take a nap. "Estoy cansada y por eso voy a dormir una siestita" usually is enough.

[laepelba]

Thanks for all of these great explanations about de/por and about "a causa de", etc. Very helpful!!

By the way, I didn't use "por eso" because it wasn't part of the given list prepared for that exercise, but I typically say "por eso" when I am speaking Spanish and have never been corrected for that by a native speaker. I would SAY: "Estoy cansada, y por eso voy a dormir una siesta."

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

That was alright, that's what the exercise was about. You needed to know how this structure works, and you can see it straightforward from the example; however, you also needed to know more about its usage.