"de modo" native speakers preferably ;-)

Question

This is a phrase used in the following context in a translation I'm doing of an academic paper concerning stem cells:

No existen todavía respuestas muy claras sobre el potencial de las células madre adultas. De modo que una parte de la comunidad científica se inclina por las progenitoras embrionarias.

There are still no clear answers about the potential of adult stem cells. Thus part of the scientific community favours embryonic progenitors.

I'm sort of grasping at the way to render "de modo" here. I could say, "certainly", even some sort of phrase like "unsurprisingly" which of course would be going much too far for a science paper.

What do native speakers think ...is there a subtlety, a nuance I'm missing here? Many thanks.

Oh it's such a pitty that I'm not a native speaker because I know exactly the answer to this question.. - rabbitwho, Nov 30, 2011

Which is...........:-) - lagartijaverde, Nov 30, 2011

Answer 1

Expressions like "de modo que," "de manera que," "de forma que," "de suerte que," etc are simply conjunctions that are used to indicate a consequence or result.

As such, they are fairly interchangeable with similar expressions in English such as

?As such	?For that reason	?As a result
?So (that)	?Consequently	?Thus
?Wherefore	?Which is why	?Therefore
?Accordingly	?Hence

Choice of one over the other, just as is true in Spanish, is largely a matter of style. Personally, I would probably go with either "consequently" or "as a result," or possibly even "as such," but again, this is simply a matter of stylistic preference.

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Now that is very useful stuff, thanks! - lagartijaverde, Nov 30, 2011

However, the lack of an end of font change has caused irreprable harm to the community, and a class action suit is being pursued forthwith. Izanoni, the party of the first part, herein and hereafter referred to as the party of the second part, is . . . - lorenzo9, Nov 30, 2011

Answer 2

¡Hola!, Birdland:

I'm sure you know that Spanish is not my mother tongue. However, it looks like you want to have an acceptable way to interpret 'de modo' into English. Our own SpanishDict dictionary gives the meaning, among other things, "So That".

I suggest it does no injury to the original written work or to the meaning 'so that' to interpret into English as:
"For that reason the scientific community favours ..."
For me this is made O.K. because the preceding sentence sets out a cautionary statement and this second sentence sets out the action resulting from the caution.

Muchos saludos/Best regards,
Moe

Good stuff Moe, I'm thinking now, "which is why" - lagartijaverde, Nov 30, 2011

Answer 3

I think thus works pretty good, but I like Moe's second option better (For that reason... ). That's the one that comes first to my mind when I translate it.

Answer 4

I'm not your native speaker, Birdie, but I do think you pretty much nailed it. You could say "Thus", or maybe "So" to capture the sense of 'de modo' in this case. I don't think you missed anything at all!

De modo

Thanks! I hope you're right :-) - lagartijaverde, Nov 30, 2011