Tomar simpatía por/a alguien

Question

Hola a todos:

Quisera saber ¿hay alguna diferencia entre las dos frases?

? Tomó simpatía por mi hermano.

? Le tomó simpatía a mi hermano.

Gracias a todos de antemano

Answer 1

Lorenzo wrote:

After further research, the second means "He took a liking to my brother."

Thanks so much for taking the time to look into this, Lorenzo. I really appreciate your efforts.

Using the DRAE definition for simpatía, "Inclinación afectiva entre personas, generalmente espontánea y mutua," your assertion makes sense. However, it was not actually the second expression which had given me trouble as I had already seen the expression "tomar simpatía a alguien" translated by several authors as "to take a shine to somebody."

However, the use of tomar in the first sentence still looks strange to me; "He took favor in place of my bother"???. . .sentir would make more sense:

Sintío simpatía por mi hermano. = He felt affection for my brother at some time in the past, but doesn't anymore.

Sentía would probably work better.

To my eyes, this comparison seems a bit odd as there appear to be inconsistencies in the translation of the phrase "por mi hermano." That is they have been translated differently when you compare both expressions (i.e. "in place of my brother" vs. "for my brother.") I imagine if you were to turn it around, it would look just as strange to say, "He felt affection in place of my brother"???

Regarding the use of "sentía simpatía por alguien," what you say makes sense (although it could probably also be translated as "he felt sympathy or compassion for someone"); however, in this case, I was actually specifically interested in the expression, "tomar simpatía por alguien (o algo)." I have seen some evidence to suggest that this expression might be used in the Americas, and I was interested to know whether it is simply an alternative way of expressing the idea of "taking a liking to someone (or something)" or whether there was some nuance that I was missing.

For example, the following passages were excerpted from books originally published in Spanish by American authors (i.e. North and South American), and to my eyes, they seem to be using the expression in the same way, but I wanted to be sure that I wasn't missing some subtle difference in meaning:

Los hombres de la transición (2007) by Chilean author Ascanio Cavallo

Allí fue donde finalmente se hallaron, y el general tomó simpatía por este joven ejecutivo tan correcto y tan franco, que hablaba el lenguaje sin florilegios de su padre.

Breve historia del PRD: ideología e interpretación (1982) by Dominican author Fulgencio Espinal

Galíndez, luchador anti— franquista, representante del gobierno vasco en el exilio, tomó simpatía por la causa dominicana y después de haber laborado 6 años en Santo Domingo, decidió escribir su gran obra "La Era de Trujillo"

La Industria Perdida (2004) by Argentinean author Walter Bonetto

Pero esto no fue todo porque el señor de Arteaga me identificó y tomó simpatía por mí, así fue que yo pude ser inscripto como aprendiz de oficio y comencé a trabajar de ayudante en la carpentaría....

All of your examples should have used the plural simpatías, which has an entirely different meaning than the sentence you quoted. In English, there is a difference between feeling pity for someone and liking them. - lorenzo9, Dec 24, 2010

Answer 2

After further research, the second means "He took a liking to my brother."

However, the use of tomar in the first sentence still looks strange to me; "He took favor in place of my bother"???. . .sentir would make more sense:

Sintío simpatía por mi hermano. = He felt affection for my brother at some time in the past, but doesn't anymore.

Sentía would probably work better.

Answer 3

Neither one makes much sense to me, but I'm just a beginner at Spanish.

Please refrain from answers like this. It is neither helpful to the person who asked the question nor the SD Community. - --Mariana--, Dec 23, 2010