Spanish syntax
my question is what order words go in like if i want to say school board i would think to say conseja escuela but really it is del consejo escolar or if i wanted to say fishing pole i would say caña de pescar but if i said light house i would say faro but not casa de la luz please enlighten me
4 Answers
Here is my restatement of the question.
I would like to know how to name specific items in Spanish. For example, if I want to say "school board", I think the name would be "conseja escuela" but the correct name is "consejo escolar". In another example, if I wanted to say "fishing pole" I would think the name would be "caña de pescar". But if I want to say "light house" in Spanish, the name is "faro" and not "casa de la luz". Please enlighten me.
It sounds as if the member is asking for a standardized rule to determine nomenclature for things.
I can only answer the question by saying that things are usually called different names in different language. I have not found a universal rule for translating nomenclature from English to Spanish. The dictionary is the rule. Common usage is another guideline, but can quickly lead to ambiguity.
I hope to help by restating the question. Perhaps a more advanced member can help answer the question more accurately.
Hugh, please correct my restatement of the question if it is inaccurate.
Welcome to the forum!
I think you've got a couple of good answers here, hughjones. Hope so! Is Spanish the first language you are learning besides the native one you learned growing up? You will learn a lot about learning languages while learning one. It is a real adventure.
By the way, I Iearned something from your question too. I did not know that Spanish generally forbids combining two nouns to form another without "de"!!......hmm...what does one call such a new "word" (In German it probably would be a single word, I know.) Is it a compound noun? a new "concept"? Anyway, it is another name of something different from or more than either of the two combined :--) I will have to go learn the word to describe this in grammar for next time.
To me, by the way, your question really sounds like a question about vocabulary rather than syntax. But I had better go try to learn a little more about what syntax really refers to ....in other words, I am not sure.
If you get a good dictionary, the entries will give more than a one-to-one translation of the word you are looking for. The entry will provide you with sentences to illustrate how the word is used and how it might change in combination with another word.
Here is an example for a simple word such as "cuando" which one always starts out learning to mean "when":
• de cuando en cuando; de vez en cuando from time to time, now and again, every so often
And look here:
• cuando más --- at (the) most
Example: >
tardaremos, cuando más, una semana
which means: >
It will take us a week at (the) most or at the outside
• cuando menos ---- at least
Example:
Esperamos llegar, cuando menos, a las semifinales
which means: >
we are hoping to reach the semifinals, at least
• cuando mucho ---- at (the) most
• cuando no --- if not
Docenas, cuando no cientos, de películas
which translates to:
dozens, if not hundreds, of films
See what I mean? it's like working out a puzzle and lots of fun.
One could always ask how come English does not have a word for "faro" (light house), like many other languages have?
It does: lighthouse.
I wish someone could translate your request into proper English, so it is easier to understand. In the meantime, I guess you have problems differentiating words that are morphologically verbs from adjectives, because "consejo escuela" or "caña pescar" are two nouns, a combination that it is generally forbidden in Spanish without "de". The term "light house" happens to be translated as a single word (faro), which makes this a completely different issue. The fact that English says "house of light" does not imply that the entire UNIverse does the same thing. One could always ask how come English does not have a word for "faro" (light house), like many other languages have? The answer is "there is no answer". English is a very illogical language (like most languages), so the question makes no sense.
