The letter H

Question

This was on my Spanish phrase of the day

Cita de ayer
Le tengo cariño a la H. Es como unos zapatos viejos, que no valen para nada, pero que no te animas a tirarlos porque te recuerdan por dónde has caminado con ellos. (José Antonio Millán, filólogo)

Translation
I'm fond of the letter H. It's like some old shoes ? they aren't worth anything, but you're not inclined to throw them away because they remind you of where you have walked with them. (José Antonio Millán, linguist)

Answer 1

HI MOtley,

valer para: to be good for something

Answer 2

Motley, are you asking a question, or just sharing'

Answer 3

Just sharing, thought you might like it.

Answer 4

What I find interesting is that filólogo is translated as linguist. A filólogo is a philologist, someone involved in literary study or classical scholarship. A linguist is a lingüista.

Answer 5

Interesting how one thing leads to another

http://www.ucm.es/info/especulo/numero8/jmillan2.htm

James Santiago said:

What I find interesting is that filólogo is translated as linguist. A filólogo is a philologist, someone involved in literary study or classical scholarship. A linguist is a lingüista.

>

Answer 6

motley, ¿de dónde tienes una cita del día? Es muy interesante.

Answer 7

aquí está el sitio. Puede recibir varios newsletters.

http://spanish.about.com/

Natasha said:

motley, ¿de dónde tienes una cita del día? Es muy interesante.

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Answer 8

Nice one!
As a pragmatic, I find the H useless unless it has a sound, but a etymology-lover, I have to agree. I can see myself using this quote sometime in the future.

Answer 9

Muchas gracias, acabo de subscribirme.

motley said:

aquí está el sitio. Puede recibir varios newsletters. http://spanish.about.com/

Natasha said:

motley, ¿de dónde tienes una cita del día? Es muy interesante.

>

Answer 10

I just signed up, too, and I already have a question.

Si los recipientes de cocina se tiznan por el humo de la llama, la combustión no está siendo buena.
If the kitchen containers become black from the smoke of the flame, the combustion isn't good.

I don't remember having seen the underlined construction before. The meaning is obvious, even without the translation, but could someone give me some other natural examples of this usage?

BTW, I would have translated this as follows. It's looser, but more natural, in my opinion.

If the cookware turns black from the smoke of the flame, this indicates incomplete combustion.

Answer 11

Don't we need 'h' to go with 'c'?

m,f (presuntuoso) show-off
(insolente) cocky: tu primo me pareció un chulo, your cousin's a bit of a show-off

Answer 12

If you search for "está siendo" on this forum you'll get a couple hits; on wordreference there are quite a few. Here are the most relevant:

<http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php't=228106>

<http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php't=58735>

(They don't seem to be in agreement there about whether "está siendo" sounds natural or not.)

Answer 13

Thanks, N. I'd still like to see some other examples from our natives here.

Answer 14

lazarus1907 said:

Nice one! As a pragmatist, I find the H useless unless it has a sound, but as an etymology-lover, I have to agree. I can see myself using this quote sometime in the future.
It is a graceful simile! (As Shakespeare [or a person whose native language is Spanish] might have said).

Answer 15

samdie said:

lazarus1907 said:

Nice one! As a pragmatist, I find the H useless unless it has a sound, but as an etymology-lover, I have to agree. I can see myself using this quote sometime in the future.

It is a graceful metaphor! (As Shakespeare [or a person whose native language is Spanish] might have said).

Did I really write "pragmatic" instead of "pragmatist"? Shame on me!