The mysterious "they"...does it exist in Spanish?
You know....they say you shouldn't go out after dark...they say that eating too many apples will keep the doctor too far away etc... Does this mysterious they exist in Spanish too? Dicen que no debe salir despues de la oscura..." Which brings up another question...Can you use oscura to mean dark in the sense of "Don't go out after dark?" thanks...
8 Answers
Oh, yes! "They" are out there... "They say" is "se dice", which literally means "it is said" (which is what "they" are doing, anyway, right?)
"oscura" is an adjective..."La noche es oscura" - the night is dark. Don't go out after dark - "No salgas después del anochecer." (nightfall)
they say you shouldn't go out after dark
Se dice que no es bueno salir después de anochecer.
In this case both they and you are impersonal. so we need to rephrase.
You can also use the direct translation here. it is quite common in Spain to use the plural form as impersonal.:
Dicen que no se debe salir despues de anochecer.
We don't use they as much, more common is "la gente".
People say this,,, People say that
Sometimes we also generalize and say "ustedes", this is whaen we are trying not to be too direct with someone.
Oscuro, oscuridad --- dark and darkness
We usually say Don't go out it is late. --- No salgas que ya es tarde.
Tinieblas is another way of saying oscuridad but using it in a plural form. We never say "La gente está en las oscuridades" --- We say: "La gente está en la oscuridad" this could be figurative for: "People are ignorant" --- "La gente está en las tinieblas" (tinieblas, plural) tinieblas is a more abstract way of conveying the idea of ignorance.
El apagón puso a todo el país en las tinieblas. --- The blackout put the whole country in darkness.
La tiniebla de la ignorancia--- The darkness of ignorance. (singular and abstract)
El jefe nos mantuvo en las tinieblas acerca del proyecto --- The boss kept us in darkness about the project.
Other entries I found were:
El príncipe de las tinieblas --- The prince of darkness.
Oficios de tinieblas de Semana Santa --- Especial religious service during Easter (Holy Week).
Tenebroso = oscuro cubierto de tinieblas --- Sinister, shady, gloomy = dark, covered by darkness.
You can run but you can't hide. THey are everywhere.
HI mand, well, we do use it in religious context and for movies
In my English and spanish bible (an older version) has darkness being translated to tinieblas....
I don't know if it would fit here or not or if spanish doesn't use this anymore. It was used in reference to God creating light & darkness. but this is from 1569 with other revisions to it to be a little bit more modern in speach. Just wondering if this word ever gets used anymore.lol
So it would be "Se dice que no salgas después del anochecer."?
