Suspender vs. reprobar

[laepelba]

When I'm talking about failing a test or a class or something school related, which word is more common? Is this a regional difference? Most of the families of my students are from Mexico & Latin America, and the word "suspender" sounds a lot like "suspended", which is an extremely different concept, so I want to be very sure that I have the right word for the right thing.

THANKS!!

[chileno]

I am not sure what do you think "suspender" means, but "suspender" = "to suspend"

Use reprobar if you are failing your grade/test

[Don José]

reprobar (conjugate⇒) verbo transitivo

1. ‹actitud/conducta› to condemn;
   repruebo el favoritismo I disapprove of any kind of favoritism

1. (AmL) ‹estudiante› to fail;
   ‹materia/curso› to fail;
   me ~on en física I failed physics

As far as I can remember, "to suspend a student" means that he can't go to his class for a certain period of time. Here we use "expulsar". I don't know if it is the same in Mexico.

"Suspender", again here, means to fail an exam/subject/course. (I didn't know they use "reprobar" in AmL).

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

@Lou Ann: "Reprobar" is the Mexican use.

·María reprobó el examen.
María failed the test.

·Estudia mucho para que no repruebes el curso.
Study much so you won't fail the course.

[aleCcowaN]

"Reprobar" in Argentina. Here nobody "suspende un examen" unless he or she is a member of the faculty and reschedules such test.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Glad to know it's not only the Mexican way to understand both verbs. Thanks Alec.

[JPablo]

In Spain (I believe exclusively) we use "suspender"
Oxford gives
fail (in exam, test) ser reprobado (AmL), suspender (Esp)
and
flunk ‹ student › reprobar, catear (Esp), bochar (RPl fam), rajar (Andes fam);
I was flunked in French or (BrE also) I flunked French = me reprobaron en francés, me catearon (Esp) or (RPl) me bocharon or (Andes) me rajaron en francés (fam)

(Me suspendieron en francés...)

[laepelba]

My exercise book used the sentence: No estudiaste mucho. Por eso suspendiste. I was confused because I had never heard of a student being suspended for not studying, so I looked up the word and saw the definitions that you all have pointed out. Like I said, I want to be sure I'm using the best words with the families that I work with - and you have confirmed that for me - "reprobar" for failure when talking with Latin American families, "suspender" for suspend... Thanks all!!

[aleCcowaN]

"... por eso suspendiste" looks like anglicismo towards Spanglish to me. "Suspender" is a transitive verb, so teachers suspenden students and students son suspendidos by teachers. I don't know of any meaning of suspender implying that "yo suspendo" is the action of any will power other than mine.

[laepelba]

Well, technically, a teacher would never suspend a student, only the administrators (principals and assistant principals) have that power.

Most often we use the word in a passive voice ("the student is suspended today" or "he was suspended last week") or as a noun ("he has a 5 day suspension"). But it would not sound strange for my assistant principal to say "I will suspend her for the next 10 days".

And all of that (above) is only in the school sense. The verb "suspend" has several other meanings, and the school meanings really come from the idea of "to cease". If I want, I can suspend my study of Spanish for the next couple of months because I have to do more work for my school. I can imagine any person (1st, 2nd, 3rd) using "suspend".

The other meaning of suspend is more like "to hang" - and again, many times used in the passive voice. "The bungie jumper was suspended above the water for what seemed like hours." But I could also say "I suspend my plants from the ceilings around my porch so that they have room to grow."

[aleCcowaN]

I've just looked for examples from Spain and it's true, it looks like they use suspender that way [(2 * + )/3], in spite of what DRAE says: "El republicano Quayle suspendió el examen al que le sometió Bentsen"

DRAE has "suspender: Negar la aprobación a un examinado hasta nuevo examen", and it looks specifically designed to avoid uses like the one in the headline, as "El republicano Quayle negó la aprobación al examinado (él mismo) hasta nuevo examen" makes no sense.

This meaning used in Spain first comes with the 1899 edition of DRAE, so it's not strange it is not used in América. I found instances of it that are 100% clear to me in CORDE and CREA (for examples, "...con aquel que precisamente te suspendió en el examen de Preceptiva Literaria") and just a couple of examples from the last decade with an approach like that one in the headline. It looks as if this peculiar meaning of suspender has lost its agent in Spain so it somewhat resembles an intransitive verb used as a pronominal, in a way that resembles English, hence my wrong perception it was Spanglish.

ADDENDUM

It looks like the popular use of suspender in Spain regarding any kind of test is cast on aprobar. The last one can be transitive "calificar o dar por bueno o suficiente algo o a alguien" and transitive "obtener una calificación de aprobado en una asignatura o examen", which is widely used in both shores of the pond. Regarding suspender, it looks like DRAE hasn't yet a definition of "obtener una calificación que implica la suspensión de un examen o en una asignatura", or something along these lines, but we can say they use it that way, and thinking it that way it no longer seems strange to me.

[JPablo]

You're right, Alec.

“Por eso suspendiste el examen” is what anyone of the 45 millions of Spanish people would say instead of the Latin American version, “por eso reprobaste el examen”.

I doubt anyone in Spain would say “reprobé”... Probably the most colloquial way in Spain is “me catearon en física”...


Moliner (Diccionario de Uso) gives,
4 Declarar a ÷alguien no apto en un ÷*examen u *oposición: ‘Le han suspendido en tres asignaturas’. ¤ tr. e intr. No ser declarado apto en un ÷examen u oposición: ‘He suspendido inglés’.

Of course, this usage is not common in Latin America, as already covered in this thread, but it is the most common in Peninsular Spanish.

[Don José]

Originally Posted by JPablo

Probably the most colloquial way in Spain is “me catearon en física”...

A bit out of date nowdays, I would say. I am a teacher and I think none of my students say it.

[JPablo]

Yes, Don José, I agree that "catear" is now "dated" even in Spain, but here are a couple of examples in CREA, that show the usage,

QUOTE:
- Concéntrate. Estudia. Te van a catear.
Allá le decíamos catear a suspender, a ser reprobado. Con qué nitidez lo vuelvo a ver ahora: ella junto a la ventana, yo sentado sobre el umbral. Una tarde de verano. Y, sin embargo, en vez de disfrutar de tanta paz, de tal plenitud, yo entonces añoré fuertemente no tener un interlocutor capaz de comprender de verdad mi relato y que pudiese ayudarme a resolverlo: pensaba en Palaz. Aunque el tiempo está ya mezclado de tal modo que no sé si tuve noticias de Palaz antes de conocer a Susana o si ambas cosas sucedieron en dos días sucesivos -entonces, vamos a ver, yo llevaría los recortes en el bolsillo mientras la ayudaba a empujar la tartana- por aquellas fechas ya tenía de Palaz, según creo, largo conocimiento, sabía de memoria sus artículos, había leído un par de veces su novela y hasta había perdido toda confianza en que el periódico y la editorial contestasen a aquellas cartas mías pidiendo su dirección. Pensaba en Palaz y hablaba con
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
AÑO: 1985 AUTOR: Merino, José María TÍTULO: La orilla oscura PAÍS: ESPAÑA TEMA: 07.Novela PUBLICACIÓN: Alfaguara (Madrid), 1995
UNQUOTE.

QUOTE:
(Saca dos pequeños paquetes, se los entrega. NORMA y SEPPO se miran, se ponen a llorar, con gran abundancia de mucosidades y lágrimas. En ese momento se abre la puerta de los Hellman y aparece OLIVIA llorando. HUGO la coge por el hombro).
HUGO.- Vamos, mujer..., deja de llorar...
OLIVIA.- ¡Ay! Tan joven y tener que marcharse a esa asquerosa Universidad a que le sigan suspendiendo... ¡Ay! ¡Criminales! Suspenderle con esa saña... año tras año... ¡Quitármelo durante once meses para volverle a catear!
HUGO.- Aprobará..., mujer... Verás cómo este año por lo menos aprueba una...
OLIVIA.- ¡O media! ¡Por qué no dividen las asignaturas en mitades, cuartos y mitad de cuartos! ¡Como la harina, ****!... (Llora). Con que aprobara cien gramos de alguna asignatura me daría por contenta...
(De pronto coge a HUGO del brazo). ¿Quién es aquel señor! ¡El que está sentado en aquella silla?
HUGO.- ¿Quién va a ser? Tom...
OLIVIA.- ¡Tom, vida mía! ¡Con tanta lágrima se me han debido de secar los ojos!
(Va hacia él con los brazos abiertos, tropieza contra la mesa).
TOM.- Se te han debido de caer las lentillas, mamá... Con las
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
AÑO: 1980 AUTOR: Vallejo, Alfonso TÍTULO: Cangrejos de pared PAÍS: ESPAÑA TEMA: 07.Teatro PUBLICACIÓN: La Torre (Madrid), 1980
UNQUOTE