What is the plural for "leitmotiv"? Or is it like "gente"?
Since there is such different info on the web, I can't decide which form of the word is correct, it is spelled several different ways.
leitmotives?
6 Answers
A lot of good information already here. It's a German word, so there's no need to worry about how to use it in Spanish.
If you are wondering about how to use this word, I recently watched the film El Secreto en sus Ojos and in the commentary, the director used the word "leitmotivs" in the middle of his Spanish commentary, so it works in Spanish too, and the plural is found by simply adding an "s".
Hope this helps!
The word leitmotiv is German, although widely used in many academic languages from the musical use, initially applied to the recurrent themes in Richard Wagner's Operas. The German plural form of leitmotiv is simply leitmotive, but in Eng. and Sp. is often regularized making the plural with the normal addition of an s: leitmotivs
leitmotiv is German.
A melodic passage or phrase, especially in Wagnerian opera, associated with a specific character, situation, or element.
A dominant and recurring theme, as in a novel.
Is it a Spanish word or a foreign word? (I know that it is in the RAE dictionary, but is it a foreign word to Spanish)? If it is a foreign word used in Spanish it may not follow the normal rules for forming plurals of Spanish nouns.
In English
- leitmotiv (plural leitmotivs)
- leitmotif (plural leitmotifs) Alternate spelling
Here is a Spanish definition that says its plural is the same as in English.
The plural is leitmotivs, but you can avoid this term altogether by saying motivo principal/recurrente.
The word is used in every Spanish literature book that I own, just never in its plural form....It is not used in English or American literature as far as I know, but then I don't know much about that...
So had it become an accepted word in the Spanish language?
