Preposition 'en'

Question

Ok, I'm back to having preposition nightmares again!

The Spanish 'en' can translate to the English 'in, on or at' right!

So, if I said "Estoy trabajando en la oficina" - this would translate as "I am working in the office".

But what if I want to say "I am working on the office" - ie I am actually doing some work on the office (eg fitting desks etc)?

Gracias mis amigos.

Answer 1

But what if I want to say "I am working on the office" - ie I am actually doing some work on the office

"En" is a preposition to locate things in general, which is why it can be "in", "on" or "at". However, in "work on", that "on" is not just an isolated preposition, but it works together with the verb to create a new meaning. In these cases, you'd only use "trabajar en" if other meanings like being inside or above wouldn't make sense, like "trabajar en una novela", but otherwise, we'd probably choose a different verb to avoid the potential ambiguity, e.g.

Estoy arreglando/decorando/remodelando/modificando... la oficina.

If you check good translations from English, you'll see "to work on" translated in more than 30 different ways depending on the context.

thank you very much Lazarus. I was hoping you'd be around :) This is really helpful. I will go away and look more deeply into the 'to work on' translation. - billygoat, Sep 10, 2011

Answer 2

Hey, normally when I have this problem (in other languages ) I try to abstract myself from the form (syntax) of the sentence and just translate the meaning.. I'm pretty new to Spanish, but I hope this helps. I thought of trying to translate something of the sort of "I do (finishing) works at the office" and here's what I came up with (please no laughing if it sound ridiculous ): "Yo hago unas obras en la officina" or "Dando los toques finales del interior de la officina".. Please don't trust my Spanish but I hope the method will help you translate around the problematic preposition

I'm not at all sure, but thank you very much for your thoughts :) - billygoat, Sep 10, 2011

Answer 3

Estoy trabajando sobre la oficina, could mean that you are working on the roof.

But I believe that what you are asking is still "en"... but I'm curious what others will say.

I'd considered 'sobre' but came to the same conclusion as you. - billygoat, Sep 10, 2011

No native would ever think of the roof here, Tosh. - lazarus1907, Sep 10, 2011

Again, I was being sarcastic. Sobre la oficina... like outside ON the office... like ON the roof. - Tosh, Sep 10, 2011

Tosh - there we are! It makes sense to me now :) - billygoat, Sep 10, 2011

Answer 4

I have to "bump" this because I'm curious what the correct answer is, too.

125 views and no answer! Either its a difficult one, or all our Spanish friends are sleeping ;-) - billygoat, Sep 10, 2011

Maybe we have each looked at it 60+ times? - Tosh, Sep 10, 2011