The invisible 'demasiado'

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by irmamar

I'm not sure if I can say in English the same difference that I say in Spanish.

I believe you = te creo.
I believe in you = confío en ti.

I wouldn't mean that I believed that the words were written in Greek, but I believed that "sólo sé que no sé nada" was written in Greek.

I think it works in this way.

I believe in you is a very strong general statement of faith which is not really applicable to a specific instance of believing something to be true.

I believe in angels
I believe in God
I believe in my boss = I have faith that generally he/she will be a good boss and make the right decisions.

confío en ti. = I trust you (to be correct in this instance)

If somebody says something which you can prove or disprove, and you think it may be correct because you trust their judgement, you could say

OK - I'll believe you.

If someone promises you something, and you think they will keep their promise, you could say

OK - I'll trust you.

[chileno]

Originally Posted by irmamar

I'm not sure if I can say in English the same difference that I say in Spanish.

I believe you = te creo.
I believe in you = confío en ti.

Originally Posted by Perikles

I believe in you is a very strong general statement of faith which is not really applicable to a specific instance of believing something to be true.

I believe in angels
I believe in God
I believe in my boss = I have faith that generally he/she will be a good boss and make the right decisions.

confío en ti. = I trust you (to be correct in this instance)

If somebody says something which you can prove or disprove, and you think it may be correct because you trust their judgement, you could say

OK - I'll believe you.

If someone promises you something, and you think they will keep their promise, you could say

OK - I'll trust you.

And "believe in you" wouldn't work as for having faith in someone other than God?

I believe in you, I know you can make it.

Wrong English, not English?

Poli or any American in the forum would you please answer to this...

[laepelba]

Originally Posted by chileno

And "believe in you" wouldn't work as for having faith in someone other than God?

I believe in you, I know you can make it.

Wrong English, not English?

Poli or any American in the forum would you please answer to this...

I agree with Perikles on this. To say "I believe in...." implies a more generalized sense. If I say "I believe in you", I mean that I have a general sense of confidence in you. "I believe in you, you can make it!" In other words, I am confident that you are going to be able to finish your Georgetown Law degree, or that you are going to learn how to ride your two-wheel bike, etc.

To say "I believe you" implies a specific instance. You said something of which someone wasn't previously aware, and not able to decide for themselves, they say, "Okay, I believe you."

[chileno]

Originally Posted by laepelba

I agree with Perikles on this. To say "I believe in...." implies a more generalized sense. If I say "I believe in you", I mean that I have a general sense of confidence in you. "I believe in you, you can make it!" In other words, I am confident that you are going to be able to finish your Georgetown Law degree, or that you are going to learn how to ride your two-wheel bike, etc.

To say "I believe you" implies a specific instance. You said something of which someone wasn't previously aware, and not able to decide for themselves, they say, "Okay, I believe you."

Correct. I just reread what Irma wrote.

Sorry and thanks to you and Perikles.

[irmamar]

Originally Posted by Perikles

I believe in you is a very strong general statement of faith which is not really applicable to a specific instance of believing something to be true.

I believe in angels
I believe in God
I believe in my boss = I have faith that generally he/she will be a good boss and make the right decisions.

confío en ti. = I trust you (to be correct in this instance)

If somebody says something which you can prove or disprove, and you think it may be correct because you trust their judgement, you could say

OK - I'll believe you.

If someone promises you something, and you think they will keep their promise, you could say

OK - I'll trust you.

OK, I understand you. But I can't understand why you "believe in your boss" and "trust anybody".

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by irmamar

OK, I understand you. But I can't understand why you "believe in your boss" and "trust anybody".

Maybe "boss" is a bad example. To believe in someone is to have faith in them, in the sense that you trust their judgement or probity generally, not specifically. A better example is given above "I believe in my husband" expressing a general belief that he will eventually succeed in something difficult, or that despite rumours about his secretary, he is behaving himself.

[irmamar]

Originally Posted by Perikles

Maybe "boss" is a bad example. To believe in someone is to have faith in them, in the sense that you trust their judgement or probity generally, not specifically. A better example is given above "I believe in my husband" expressing a general belief that he will eventually succeed in something difficult, or that despite rumours about his secretary, he is behaving himself.

OK, I understand it. I'll try to trust instead of believe in. Thanks.

[pjt33]

Originally Posted by Perikles

Ah OK we have a problem with character sets. I'll retype in uppercase without accents, in normal script:

EN OIDA OTI OUDEN OIDA

(the previous lowercase statement looked OK to me because I have a Greek font on my computer)

I think it's character encodings rather than font representations because I have fonts which support Greek and I saw the same nonsense. How does λμξ come out? (Should be lambda mu xi).

[laepelba]

Originally Posted by pjt33

I think it's character encodings rather than font representations because I have fonts which support Greek and I saw the same nonsense. How does λμξ come out? (Should be lambda mu xi).

I see lambda mu xi!

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by laepelba

I see lambda mu xi!

So do I.

[irmamar]

Pues yo veo lambda, mi y xi.

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by irmamar

Pues yo veo lambda, mi y xi.

pero los griegos dijeron μῦ

There was a young curate of Kew
Who kept his pet cat in a pew
He taught it to speak
The alphabet Greek
But it never got further than μῦ

[laepelba]

Originally Posted by Perikles

pero los griegos dijeron μῦ

There was a young curate of Kew
Who kept his pet cat in a pew
He taught it to speak
The alphabet Greek
But it never got further than μῦ

[laepelba]

In another thread, I just wrote the following sentence:
¿Es Nueva York demasiado grande para se llama un "town"?

I assume that the sentence makes sense, and hopefully it's grammatically correct. If, as I believe you're saying here, "demasiado" isn't used by native Spanish-speakers as often as by non-native speakers, how could I re-word the sentence without using "demasiado" and use "ya" instead?

[irmamar]

Originally Posted by Perikles

pero los griegos dijeron μῦ

There was a young curate of Kew
Who kept his pet cat in a pew
He taught it to speak
The alphabet Greek
But it never got further than μῦ

Are you sure? Have you ever heard them?

I was taught that mi is like a French u and transcribed into "y". So "mu" is "my" (rounding lips).

Originally Posted by laepelba

In another thread, I just wrote the following sentence:
¿Es Nueva York demasiado grande para se llama un "town"?

I assume that the sentence makes sense, and hopefully it's grammatically correct. If, as I believe you're saying here, "demasiado" isn't used by native Spanish-speakers as often as by non-native speakers, how could I re-word the sentence without using "demasiado" and use "ya" instead?

You must use "demasiado", even if you use ya:

N.Y ya es demasiado grande para...

Puedes decir

N.Y. ya es una ciudad (pero hace mucho tiempo que lo es ).

[poli]

Originally Posted by laepelba

In another thread, I just wrote the following sentence:
¿Es Nueva York demasiado grande para se llama un "town"?

I assume that the sentence makes sense, and hopefully it's grammatically correct. If, as I believe you're saying here, "demasiado" isn't used by native Spanish-speakers as often as by non-native speakers, how could I re-word the sentence without using "demasiado" and use "ya" instead?

Nueva York es muy grande y por eso no es un town; es una ciudad.
(although people refer to it as town all the time)
Muy takes the place of damasiado a lot of times, but if you want a direct translation you can say(and I hope I'm not .):
Nueva York es excesivamente grande por la palaba town.

[irmamar]

¿Qué rango de habitantes puede tener un town? ¿Entre 200 y 20.000, por ejemplo?

[bobjenkins]

Originally Posted by irmamar

¿Qué rango de habitantes puede tener un town? ¿Entre 200 y 20.000, por ejemplo?

Probablemente algo así , pero es a tu discreción

[irmamar]

Originally Posted by bobjenkins

Probablemente algo así , pero es a tu discreción

Ah, entonces N.Y. puede ser un town.

[laepelba]

Originally Posted by irmamar

You must use "demasiado", even if you use ya:

N.Y ya es demasiado grande para...

Puedes decir

N.Y. ya es una ciudad (pero hace mucho tiempo que lo es ).

But what would the word order be in the question that I was trying to write?