"...Se tomó..." Translation help needed

Question

Hi, I´m currently translating an article for one of my courseworks and I´m struggling on one certain bit.

The sentence is: "Ya terminé", le dijo Anders Breivik el 22 de julio pasado al escuadrón de Policía Antiterrorista que se tomó la isla de Utoya en Noruega."

The se tomó bit of that sentence confuses me as I don't feel that the verb to take applies here as in "that took the Island of Utoya in Norway"

Do any of you have suggestions about translating se tomó in this sentence??

Thanks, olivia

Very observant! - Jeremias, Oct 4, 2011

Of course! I've just started my degree in spanish and I'm finding that I'm much more observant when translating now :) - 0088b3fa, Oct 5, 2011

Answer 1

Olivia,

I wouldn't use "to take" either. I have the impression that the sentence (in Spanish) refers to an invasion or attack of some sort. I would suggest that you use "invaded" or "took over/control of" (or something along those lines) depending on the rest of the paragraph.

Good luck!

Thankyou, I was thinking about using "took over/control of" myself as it made more sense that way! - 0088b3fa, Oct 5, 2011

Answer 2

I have another phrase that I am uncertain about.

"A la sombra del moderno despacho del primer ministro, un hombre rubio estacionó su camioneta Volkswagen, justo frente a la entrada principal."

After translating the whole sentence, I didn't feel that translating "A la sombra de" as "In the shadow of" made total sense.

What do you all think??

Answer 3

Written like that, it doesn't make sence, really! Could you give us more information?

Sense not sence :) - 0088b3fa, Oct 5, 2011

Answer 4

This is weird, probably a bad translation?

I thought that but it was the first sentence in the article that I got given by my university lecturer so I thought it must be correct it just has a weird meaning - 0088b3fa, Oct 5, 2011

Answer 5

Could this be one of the pronominal uses of se to express completeness?

Answer 6

I don't know, I think usually you would just say tomó. Our dictionary does say that tomarse can mean to take, but it's a different meaning, to take time for oneself, or to take medicine for oneself. So you raise a good question, and maybe it's just "one of those things." Personally, I don't worry about stuff like that. I try to look at the big picture and so I gloss over things like this without paying attention, and this shows in my speaking and writing of Spanish where I make lots of little mistakes.

tomarse pronomial verb 1. to have (comida, bebida) ; to take (tiempo, medicina)