Beginners Translation Exercise (Eng to Sp) - Your Sense of Taste

Question

Here is another exercise in 'thinking in Spanish' for beginners. The objective is to translate this in a natural way from English to Spanish.

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Bite into your favorite food, and immediately your sense of taste is activated. But just how does this amazing process work?

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Give it your best try. Do you think it won't be just right? Do it anyhow! That leap into the possible unknown may prompt you to do even better than you thought you could!

If you haven't already seen the 'answer' to the previous exercise, click here.

Update: Click here for the 'answer'!

Can we use the dictionary, translator, and conjugator? I did, because I want to learn to do it correctly. But maybe that's cheating if we're supposed to do this all out of our active knowledge. Help! - Lrtward, ENE 27, 2010

Use whatever will help you learn! :-) - chaparrito, ENE 27, 2010

Although the 'translator' tool does a lot of the work for you. ;-) Try it first with just the dictionary and conjugator, if you need to. :-) - chaparrito, ENE 27, 2010

Answer 1

Muerdes en tu comida favorita y inmediatamente tu sabor de gusto está activado. ¿Pero cómo trabajo este proceso increíble?

Blockquote Heidita answered:
Prueba algo de tu comida favorita e inmediatamente se activa el sentido del gusto. ¿Pero cómo funcionará este proceso tan fascinante?

(This is just my do-over for the practice...I need it!)

Prueba algo de tu comida favorita e inmediatamente se activa el sentido del gusto. ¿Pero cómo funcionará este proceso tan fascinante?

Just wondering: Would using another adjective for "amazing" work in this case?

I'm thinking that instead of me trying to translate 'verbatim', I should be more focused on conveying the over-all feel or ideal of the translation message. I do that with everything else (and Still make mistakes) but, am I on the right track about that?

This is Fantastic practice!!!

Muy bien, Dee! :-) - chaparrito, ENE 29, 2010

¡Gracias, chaparrito! :-) - Dee914, ENE 29, 2010

Answer 2

ok, just for once, jeje

Bite into your favorite food, and immediately your sense of taste is activated. But just how does this amazing process work?

Prueba algo de tu comida favorita e inmediatamente se activa el sentido del gusto. ¿Pero cómo funcionará este proceso tan fascinante?

Morder is not correct here.

Wow...I forgot all about "probar" (jajaja) Thx for supplying the answer! :-) - Dee914, ENE 28, 2010

chaparri will have to forgive me, after all this is his thread;) - 00494d19, ENE 28, 2010

Te perdono. ;-) - chaparrito, ENE 29, 2010

Answer 3

How about a round of applause to all who posted an answer! Keep in mind that there really is no 'one correct' answer to this. I'm going to post what I have, which is one way to say it naturally in Spanish, but that does not mean it is the only way. Heidita (who is obviously a native speaker) illustrates this with her answer, which is also fine.

One learning point from this challenge is about the word 'Bite'. As Heidita's answer pointed out, Morder is not correct. The English phrases: 'take a bite of this', or 'he bit into his food', are really conveying the idea of tasting, not the action of chomping down with the teeth. And that is better translated as Probar. If you haven't already, you would benefit by reading over Samdie's answer for a little more detail about this point.

Another little detail to think about is how the sentence begins: "Bite into..." This may sound like a command (or the imperative), but when you read the entire sentence you see that no one is being told to take a bite, but rather 'When you bite into your food...' That 'when you' part is implied by the context.

There were of course errors in each of the posts, but that's part of learning, ¿verdad? So compare your answer with this one and see what you can learn for next time.

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Cuando probamos nuestro bocado favorito, el sentido del gusto se activa de inmediato. Ahora bien, ¿cómo funciona este asombroso proceso?

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And now to address some of the questions raised:

Dee914 asked:

Would using another adjective for "amazing" work in this case?

Sure! 'Asombroso' and 'Fascinante' work. Everyone else used 'Increíble', which is also fine in this context.

Neslita asked:

Shall I put the question mark at the beginning of the sentence or can you use it right before the question word como?

As you see, Neslita, Heidita put hers at the beginning and I put my just before the word 'cómo'. But the answer to the question is that it depends on context. However don't just look for question trigger words (like 'qué' or 'cómo') the '¿' has to proceed the entire question. (Example: "Pero, ¿de dónde eres?")

Dee914 speculated:

I'm thinking that instead of me trying to translate 'verbatim', I should be more focused on conveying the over-all feel or idea ... am I on the right track about that?

Absolutely. Word-for-word rarely works to convey an idea from one language into another in a way easily understood by a native speaker. (Simple example: 'make a decision' is not 'hacer una decisión'.) While there will always be some differences in translating from one language to another, it is generally most import to convey the same idea.

I picked the answer of Dee914 (click here to see it) because she came back and gave it a second shot. And like my pappy used to tell me "Boy! If that thar horse throws you, you'd best get right back on 'im!"

Chaparrito, what a GREAT followup. I learned a lot. Thank you so much. - Lrtward, ENE 29, 2010

Answer 4

Well, a lot of people seem to like "morder" (or found it in the dictionary as a primary meaning for "bite") but "bite" in "bite into your favorite ..." is not really about using your teeth to obtain a mouthful of something. Rather, it means "start to eat ..." / "try eating ..." / "taste ...". It is this that makes "prueba" (try) a good (the best) choice for translation. Consider some of the alternative verbs in English that basically mean "morder": "gnaw", "masticate", etc. Being less common verbs, they have not participated in wide-spread idioms but (because they are near synonyms and, nonetheless, unacceptable) they help to highlight the fact that "bite into" is often used as an idiom (meaning "start/attempt to eat").

You are *always* welcome to contribute in threads like this, samdie! These kinds of comments really help the participants see things from various perspectives. (Of course, I'm glad you waited until quite a few had answered.) Thanks! - chaparrito, ENE 29, 2010

Answer 5

Muerde en su comida favorita e inmediatamente su sentido del sabor está activado. Pero ¿justo cómo este proceso increíble trabaja?

Answer 6

Ok I haven't checked any answers and I don't have a clue if this is even close to be a right sentence but let's give it a try!

Muerde tu comida favorita y inmediatamente tu sentido de gusto activa.(couldn't figure out how to make it passive sorry!). Pero justamente ¿cómo trabaja este proceso extraordinario?

1-Shall I put the question mark at the beginning of the sentence or can you use it right before the question word como? 2-Please correct me!!

Thanks very much!

Answer 7

Toma un muerde de tú comida favorita, y nota que de repente tú senido de sabor está activado. ¿Pero, cómo funciona, este proceso tan increíble?

Answer 8

Me gusta llamarme "intermedia" pero empiezo creer soy un principiante. Grácias por la oportunidad practicar.

Muerda ud. en su comida favorita, e inmediantemente es activado su sentido de gusto. ¿Pero cómo, exácatmente, funciona este proceso increíble?

Answer 9

Bite into your favorite food, and immediately your sense of taste is activated. But just how does this amazing process work?

(Bite) en tu comida favorita y de repente tu sensación de probar es activado. Pero, ¿(just) cómo hacer este (process) increíble ayuda?

Answer 10

Mastica en su comida favorita, y inmediatamente su sentido de sabor está activado. ¿Pero cómo trabaja éste increíble proceso?

Answer 11

Cuando probamos nuestro bocado favorito, el sentido del gusto se activa de inmediato. Ahora bien, ¿cómo funciona este asombroso proceso?

Hands up for banning this guy!! His translation is better than mine

Great chappari, ahora bien, superb!

Answer 12

¿Alguien más? Anyone else?

Answer 13

HI Joa, chaparri is the moderator on this thread, just peeking in to welcome you

good attempt, some mistakes though, stay put until chapparri offers the corrections

Answer 14

Hmmm, se admiten avanzados??