Caminar

[DailyWord]

This is a discussion thread for the Daily Spanish Word for August 16, 2009

caminar (verb) — to walk, travel, journey, cover, move, go, act, flow. Look up caminar in the dictionary

Caminamos junto al río por horas y nunca encontramos la cascada.
We walked beside the river for hours and never found the waterfall.

[EmpanadaRica]

Originally Posted by DailyWord

This is a discussion thread for the Daily Spanish Word for August 16, 2009

caminar (verb) — to walk, travel, journey, cover, move, go, act, flow. Look up caminar in the dictionary

Interesting, most words seem to have cognitive relations (i.e. all meaning to walk or move /travel).

Unas preguntitas.

1. Cover = to cover a certain distance (not to cover with a blanket eg?).
E.g. we covered a stretch of 3 miles today?
If you use 'caminar' here would people usually assume you covered this distance walking or can it be used more generally?

2. To act. This strikes me as interesting because it seems rather different from the other meanings? In the translations list it is said to be 'to behave'.

So could one say e.g.:
'Ayer el niño (se?) caminó muy mal durante la cena' e.g.?

3. Flow - Is this pertaining to a river or water flowing or more in figurative speech? e.g.
'El río camina del norte del país al sur' ?

Or can you also say this for instance about tears flowing, or a runny nose?

4. If you would use 'caminar' in terms of a journey or trip could you use this regardless of the type of vehicle or transportation (bike, train, car etc) or would it be more usual to use other verbs in that case?

[María José]

Today's word reminded me of a famous Spanish poem that was turned into a song years ago by Serrat.

Poema Caminante No Hay Camino de Antonio Machado


Todo pasa y todo queda,
pero lo nuestro es pasar,
pasar haciendo caminos,
caminos sobre el mar.

Nunca persequí la gloria,
ni dejar en la memoria
de los hombres mi canción;
yo amo los mundos sutiles,
ingrávidos y gentiles,
como pompas de jabón.

Me gusta verlos pintarse
de sol y grana, volar
bajo el cielo azul, temblar
súbitamente y quebrarse...

Nunca perseguí la gloria.

Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino y nada más;
caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.

Al andar se hace camino
y al volver la vista atrás
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.

Caminante no hay camino
sino estelas en la mar...

Hace algún tiempo en ese lugar
donde hoy los bosques se visten de espinos
se oyó la voz de un poeta gritar
"Caminante no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar..."

Golpe a golpe, verso a verso...

Murió el poeta lejos del hogar.
Le cubre el polvo de un país vecino.
Al alejarse le vieron llorar.
"Caminante no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar..."

Golpe a golpe, verso a verso...

Cuando el jilguero no puede cantar.
Cuando el poeta es un peregrino,
cuando de nada nos sirve rezar.
"Caminante no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar..."

Golpe a golpe, verso a verso.

[EmpanadaRica]

That's a beautiful poem María José

Do you perhaps know if this song can be found/downloaded online somewhere?

[Chris]

Caminamos mano que mano.

We walk hand in hand.

Es correcto?

[bobjenkins]

¿Cuál diferencia entre caminar y andar?

[María José]

Originally Posted by Chris

Caminamos mano que mano.

We walk hand in hand.

Es correcto?

We say: Caminamos de la mano

[María José]

Originally Posted by bobjenkins

¿Cuál diferencia entre caminar y andar?

As far as I know they both mean the same.

[bobjenkins]

Hay no razón para caminar en eses tiempos revueltos porque todo el mundo tiene un coche. Yo a veces camino para hacer más lento el mundo, es decir que se puede caminar para relajarse

[María José]

Originally Posted by EmpanadaRica

That's a beautiful poem María José

Do you perhaps know if this song can be found/downloaded online somewhere?

There is a video in YouTube (probably more). Check:

[irmamar]

Precioso poema de Antonio Machado, Maria José

[Elaina]

There must be a reason why there are doubles of some words.....

caminar - andar
empezar-comenzar
(I can only think of these two for the moment)

Maybe a little research into this is in order.........

[irmamar]

There is a rule: avoid redundancy when writing or speaking, so you can use synonyms, to prevent it. So you can say caminar, andar, pasear, etc. in a text without repeating the same word. I Spanish, if you can't avoid redundancy, there is a sentence used when writing: "valga la redundancia". For instance:

Finalmente el equipo local ha sido el ganador. Los locales
–valga la redundancia- golearon a su rival…”


http://castellanoactual.blogspot.com...dundancia.html

And sorry for my redundancy here, I'm not so good at English

[bobjenkins]

Originally Posted by irmamar

There is a rule: avoid redundancy when writing or speaking, so you can use synonyms, to prevent it. So you can say caminar, andar, pasear, etc. in a text without repeating the same word. I Spanish, if you can't avoid redundancy, there is a sentence used when writing: "valga la redundancia". For instance:

Finalmente el equipo local ha sido el ganador. Los locales
–valga la redundancia- golearon a su rival…”


http://castellanoactual.blogspot.com...dundancia.html

And sorry for my redundancy here, I'm not so good at English

ES bueno que ahora sepa. Pensaba que fue bueno que se escribiera con consistente (consistentemente)
muchas gracias por me dices!

valga la redundancia = pardon the redundancy ()

[irmamar]

Originally Posted by bobjenkins

ES bueno que ahora sepa. Pensaba que fue bueno que se escribiera con consistente (consistentemente)
muchas gracias por me dices!

valga la redundancia = pardon the redundancy ()

"Valga", pres. subj. de "valer". Es como decir "espero o deseo que valga".

Do you say "pardon the redundancy" in this case?

[bobjenkins]

Originally Posted by irmamar

"Valga", pres. subj. de "valer". Es como decir "espero o deseo que valga".

Do you say "pardon the redundancy" in this case?

Gracias, probablemente se diría..

Pardon my redundancy pero ambos son correctos

[sosia]

Originally Posted by EmpanadaRica

Interesting, most words seem to have cognitive relations (i.e. all meaning to walk or move /travel).

Unas preguntitas.

1. Cover = to cover a certain distance (not to cover with a blanket eg?).
E.g. we covered a stretch of 3 miles today?
If you use 'caminar' here would people usually assume you covered this distance walking or can it be used more generally?

It's asumed walking, unless the context allow us other assumption

2. To act. This strikes me as interesting because it seems rather different from the other meanings? In the translations list it is said to be 'to behave'.


The "behave" here it's a "way to behave"/camino de comportamiento. it's not very used.
ex: Durante todo el proceso, su caminar fue cambiando de protesta a sumisión
"during the trial, his acctitude changed from rebel to submission"
x: "El Ché hizo su caminar político hasta el final"
"Ché (Guevara) walked his own politic way (acted the same) till the end"



So could one say e.g.:
'Ayer el niño (se?) caminó muy mal durante la cena' e.g.?

NO, No way

3. Flow - Is this pertaining to a river or water flowing or more in figurative speech? e.g.
'El río camina del norte del país al sur' ?

"
water flowing: El Nilo camina de Sur a Norte por varios países........."
time flowing: La nuevos tiempos caminaban por el país y la televisión fue sustituyendo a la radio."


Or can you also say this for instance about tears flowing, or a runny nose?

No, not really

4. If you would use 'caminar' in terms of a journey or trip could you use this regardless of the type of vehicle or transportation (bike, train, car etc) or would it be more usual to use other verbs in that case?

You can use "caminar " in a poetry-way (like with Ché Guevara) but usually you use other verbs (viajar, navegar, recorrer, etc.)

Saludos

[chileno]

Originally Posted by Elaina

There must be a reason why there are doubles of some words.....

caminar - andar
empezar-comenzar
(I can only think of these two for the moment)

Maybe a little research into this is in order.........

You mean like:

Walk - stroll?
or
start -begin?

Originally Posted by irmamar

There is a rule: avoid redundancy when writing or speaking, so you can use synonyms, to prevent it. So you can say caminar, andar, pasear, etc. in a text without repeating the same word. I Spanish, if you can't avoid redundancy, there is a sentence used when writing: "valga la redundancia". For instance:

Finalmente el equipo local ha sido el ganador. Los locales
–valga la redundancia- golearon a su rival…”


http://castellanoactual.blogspot.com...dundancia.html

And sorry for my redundancy here, I'm not so good at English

Not only in Spanish Irma...

[EmpanadaRica]

Originally Posted by sosia

Saludos

¡Es muy claro, muchisimas gracias Sosia!

Una pequeña pregunta más por favor.

¿Por qué se dice ' La nuevos tiempos' en este caso?

[irmamar]

It must be a typo, Empanada, surely he wanted to say "Los"

I guess, Chileno, but I only can speak about Spanish. And I'm not able to avoid redundancy in English