To climb over

[LearningSpanish]

What is the best way to express climbing over something?

for example

If you just use trepar or subir el muro to me that sounds like someone's climbed onto a wall but not over.

Would you use saltar or cruzar as well as subir or trepar?

All suggestions gratefully accepted.

Eg The children climbed over the wall.

[aleCcowaN]

saltaron/brincaron el muro/la pared

saltar la ... (climb over)
saltar a la ... (climb onto)
saltar de la ... (climb down)

[LearningSpanish]

Thanks Ale, so there isn't really any distinction between jumping over and climbing over? How could you tell the difference for instance between someone climbing over a high wall and someone jumping over a low wall?

[aleCcowaN]

We leave it to imagination and we better describe the wall (saltaron una pared de tres metros de alto) than the climbing method.

[LearningSpanish]

mmm interesting, thanx. Would you ever say anything like this? Los niños treparon y cruzaron el muro.

[aleCcowaN]

Nope. One action voids the other one.

Maybe you are not aware of all the meanings of saltar.

[LearningSpanish]

Yes, that's probably it, I do usually think of jumping when I see saltar.

So los niños saltaron al muro = the children climbed onto the wall but los niños saltaron el muro = the children climbed over the wall.

And would there be a difference in meaning to - los niños saltaron por encima del muro, and, los niños saltaron el muro or would they both mean 'the children climbed over the wall'?

Oh and what about trepar?

[aleCcowaN]

Los niños saltaron el muro
Los niños saltaron por encima del muro

basically the same, but "saltaron el muro" focus in the result while "saltaron por encima" vividly describes the action as a jump probably without the feet touching the wall.

[LearningSpanish]

Thanks for bearing with me Ale, so what role does 'por' play here? Does it have to be 'por encima de' = over? or could you just have por el muro? I've also just seen to climb over a wall -> trepar por un muro

[aleCcowaN]

"trepar por un muro" is like "conducir por un camino", it describes the media

saltó encima del muro (he landed on the top of the wall)
saltó por encima del muro (he flew over the wall without touching it -or just with his hands, in an acrobatic way-)

[LearningSpanish]

Ok, perfect. Thank you

So if I have it straight now, for 'the children climbed over the wall' I'm good to go with any of the following:

Los niños saltaron el muro.

Los niños treparon/pasaron por encima del muro.