problem with gerunds
I 'm having a sort of confusion about translating a particular sentence into spanish, mainly because of the gerund in the sentence: "This knife cannot cut humans at all, making it safe to use in any kitchen."
I was just wondering whether u would translate "making" into haciendo or use the infinitive, because the gerund rule in Spanish is really confusing me >.<
Also, it'd be a big help if you could help me translate the entire sentence as well please.
5 Answers
"This knife cannot cut humans at all, making it safe to use in any kitchen."
This is another alternative:
Este cuchillo no puede cortar a nadie, haciéndolo seguro de usar en cualquier cocina.
"making" in your sentence is not a gerund; it's a participle (verbal adjective). In Spanish, participles (gerundios) can be used as adverbs but not as adjectives. The Spanish translation already provided corresponds (syntactically) to the (slightly rewritten) English sentence "This knife cannot cut humans at all, which makes it safe to use in any kitchen."
If you want a real gerund, consider "Making noise is forbidden." = "Hacer ruido es prohibido." (a gerund is a verbal noun)
thanks ian for the translation, i really appreciate it, but I still would like to know what Spanish word replaces the word "making" in the sentence, just so i can be aware of these kinds of situations in the future.
Still, thanks for the translation though :D
I agree with Ian-hill. A nicely placed gerund in English does not necessarily make for a good one in Spanish. There is no point in using the word making here.
Hello Cook
Welcome to the forum. English gerunds are a problem to translate in Spanish.
I suggest you try the translator on our site.
This is what it came up with.
"Este cuchillo no puede cortar a todos los seres humanos, por lo que es seguro de usar en cualquier cocina."
What might be better is this:
"Este cuchillo no puede cortar a ninguno sere humano, por lo que es seguro de usar en cualquier cocina."
