Court - Corte VS tribunal

Question

So our dictionary seems to say tribunal for court and corte for like "royal court" or something but the guys in class say "la corte" is court and "la corte suprema" is the supreme court.

Is tribunal court?

I have to go to court. I have to go to court to pay a ticket / get a fine / maybe I will go to jail.

¿Tengo que ir al tribunal o tengo que ir a la corte? ¿Ambos?

¿Que distinción hay?

Gracias....

Answer 1

In English, there's a big difference between a court and a tribunal.

Court: the place where legal trials take place.

Also court: where the king and the queen live. The royal court.

Tribunal: a type of court with the authority to deal with a particular case (e.g. an international war crimes tribunal). Once the verdict is reached, the tribunal is dismantled.

Obviously, tribunal in Spanish bears the first meaning of court above.

while corte bears the second meaning, the royal court.

I could be very wrong.

Answer 2

The two words work in Spanish exactly the same way the do in English. To an extent, they're synonyms:

DRAE:

corte2. (Del lat. cors, cortis, o cohors, cohortis, cohorte). 1. f. Población donde habitualmente reside el soberano en las monarquías. 2. f. Conjunto de todas las personas que componen la familia y el acompañamiento habitual del rey. 3. f. Entorno de personas que rodean a alguien famoso o importante. 4. f. cielo (? morada en que se goza de la presencia de Dios). Corte celestial 5. f. Chancillería o sus estrados. 6. f. Corral o establo donde se recoge de noche el ganado. 7. f. Aprisco donde se encierran las ovejas. 8. f. Am. Tribunal de justicia.

tribunal. (Del lat. trib?nal). 1. m. Lugar destinado a los jueces para administrar justicia y dictar sentencias. 2. m. Ministro o ministros que ejercen la justicia y pronuncian la sentencia. 3. m. Conjunto de jueces ante el cual se efectúan exámenes, oposiciones y otros certámenes o actos análogos. 4. m. pl. por antonom. Los de justicia. ~ colegiado. 1. m. tribunal que se forma con tres o más individuos, por contraposición al tribunal unipersonal. ~ de casación. 1. m. Der. El que solo conoce de los quebrantamientos o infracciones de ley alegados contra los fallos de instancias y, por modo excepcional, de errores sobre hecho y prueba. Tribunal de Cuentas. 1. m. Oficina central de contabilidad que tiene a su cargo examinar y censurar las cuentas de todas las dependencias del Estado. ~ de Dios. 1. m. Juicio que Dios hace de los hombres después de la muerte. ~ de honor. 1. m. Der. El autorizado dentro de ciertos cuerpos o colectividades para juzgar la conducta deshonrosa, aunque no delictiva, de alguno de sus miembros. ~ de la conciencia. 1. m. Recto juicio íntimo de los deberes y de los actos propios. ~ de la penitencia. 1. m. Sacramento de la penitencia. 2. m. Lugar en que se administra. Tribunal Penal Internacional. 1. m. Corte Penal Internacional. Tribunal Supremo. 1. m. Der. El más alto de la justicia ordinaria. Tribunal Tutelar de Menores. 1. m. Der. El que resuelve acerca de la delincuencia de los menores de edad y protege a la infancia desamparada.

Interesting, Gekko. What about 'el juicio'? - Elmar, Oct 17, 2011

What about it? El Juicio es The Trial. Takes place en el Tribunal. :-) - Gekkosan, Oct 17, 2011

hehehe, no I mean in spoken Spanish, is it common hear someone say 'tengo que ir al juicio? - Elmar, Oct 17, 2011

Yes... as much as it is common to say, in English, I must go to the trial. :) - Gekkosan, Oct 17, 2011

Answer 3

@Gekko. There is a major distinction aside from the difference in meaning between these two words in English though, the word "tribunal" is a left field word, meaning it is not in the common daily usage like court is.

In fact, I would never say tribunal outside of something like this: We are all living on an island and someone steals pigs over and over again. We call a tribunal to figure out how to deal with it.

Outside of that, I would never say tribunal and I am certain most of the guys I work with have never heard of the word. Now you might say "well they are uneducated guys" and that is true, but it also means that tribunal is not a common word or they would know it.

This is common in Spanish, a lot of uncommon English words are common spanish words, like castigar..... very common in Spanish, we also say "to castigate" but it's a legal term and very unusual. Our dictionary makes "tribunal" seem like a common word, but if it's really like English in the two terms similarity, then tribunal must be a very uncommon word and corte must be the default unless a situation like the one described above happens, or perhaps unless you are British or something. I have probably heard the word tribunal, a handful of times in my life, while today alone I heard the word court 30 times or so (Many of my workmates are criminals or criminally minded)

Gracias.

I don't doubt you, in terms of usage and custom. Nevertheless, strickly from the point of view of defition, the words are essentially the same in both languages: "tribunal |trīˈbyo͞onl, trə-| noun a court of justice: an international war crimes tribunal. - Gekkosan, Oct 17, 2011

No I'm asking a question when I say that........ is trubunal an unusual word like in English? is it more unusual than corte? Is corte more usual? At this point I am assuming that corte is more usual and tribunal is unusual like in English. Is that right - jeezzle, Oct 17, 2011