Manantial

[DailyWord]

This is a discussion thread for the Daily Spanish Word for May 22, 2009

manantial (masculine noun (el)) — spring, fountain, source, origin, wellspring. Look up manantial in the dictionary

Aún existen algunos manantiales de agua pura.
A few springs with pure water still exist.

[María José]

One can usually see: agua fresca de manantial on water bottles. Hope it's true...

[Marsopa]

Depende de manantial, verdad?

[laepelba]

Se dice que el manantial de humanidad está ("estuvo"? o "es"? o "fue"?) en África.

[CrOtALiTo]

How is translated Manantial?

[Tomisimo]

Originally Posted by CrOtALiTo

How is translated Manantial?

Hay cinco traducciones en el primer mensaje o puedes consulatar el diccionario. manantial.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Originally Posted by laepelba

Se dice que el manantial de la humanidad está ("estuvo"? o "es"? o "fue"?) en África.

@Lou Ann: "Está" or "estuvo" would be correct.
Still, there is something that bothers me about that use of "manantial" as "origin". Also when used in a figurative sense (not that often, btw.), "manantial" is the origin from where something flows and in this case I feel humanity as a product, not as a streaming current.

Las ideas de Platón son el manantial de la filosofía.
Plato's ideas are the source of philosophy.


So, for reasons of style, I would use "se dice que el origen de la humanidad está/estuvo en África"... Less poetic, but more accurate.

[laepelba]

Thanks, Malila. You gave me exactly the answer that I was looking for. "Estar" not "ser" ... and that stylistically "manantial" wouldn't be used in that sense. Is it "estar" because "estar" is used for location?

By the way, I personally like "está" and not "estuvo" when I'm thinking about this ... but am still thinking in English......