The Word "Prestado"

Question

I am currently reading a book. And in the book there is a sentence:

-Pediremos prestado o... algo -dijo Papá, poniendo su brazo alrededor de los hombros de Mamá.

From what i understand the father was referring to money that he will have to borrow to take his son to the hospital. How would you translate what he said directly. To me the literal translation even though it makes no sense would be "We will ask, borrowed or... something". Is this correct ? Wouldn't it make more sense to be "We will ask, borrow, or something" ? I believe prestado is in the past tense.

****On a side note*** According to Spanishdict.com dictionary, this adjective means 'borrowed, lent'. For example, 'he tenido que pedir dinero prestado para poder dártelo a ti' / 'I have had to ask for borrowed money so that I can give it to you.'. Prestado.

In the English translation why wasn't "I can" conjugated ?

Thanks to anyone who can help.

Answer 1

http://www.spanishdict.com/translate/borrow

In Spanish the term "pedir prestado" is a set phrase meaning to borrow- literally to "request loaned" (in English we would say "request as a loan/on loan" more commonly).

There is no comma there between pedir and prestado, prestado is modifying pedir to indicate how you are going to request it- you are going to request that it be loaned to you.

Side note:

para poder dártelo a ti

in order to be able to give it to you (=so that I can give it to you)

It is frequently more natural to translate a phrase as a concept than to do a word for word translation.

Thanks for answering both my questions. You are absolutely right. I should just focus on whole phrases than individual words. I had a feeling those 2 word went together, thanks for clearing that up. - Acelata, Apr 5, 2014

I guess "pedir" is the one that gets conjugated. - Acelata, Apr 5, 2014

Yes, it is the controlling verb in the phrase. :) - bosquederoble, Apr 5, 2014

Answer 2

Pedir algo prestado (tomar prestado) to borrow something.

Usage of this type are long established in the language. Sometimes you have to search both the verb and or the participle(prestado), to find an explanation of the proper usage. In this case look under, " prestado."

We'll borrow the money =Pediremos prestado el dinero.

I hope this was what you were looking for. ¡Buenas días!

Yes. Thanks for the tip. - Acelata, Apr 5, 2014

Answer 3

para poder dártelo a ti in order to be able to give it to you (=so that I can give it to you)

To more completely answer why the Spanish is the way it is, and not "so that I can": So that I can in a literal sense requires "para que + subjunctive"

Whenever a "que + subjunctive" can be replaced by an infinitive, it is most natural for a Spanish speaker to choose the infinitive- it is not that the other case can't be used, it is just not the one most naturally chosen.

So:

I have to do this so that I can do that:

Tengo que hacer esto para hacer eso.

I have to do this in order to do that.

But:

I have to do this so that you can do that.

Tengo que hacer esto para que puedas hacer eso.

In this case if you went with the infinitive it wouldn't work, because there is subject shift that is not implicit (you can use infinitives if the subject shift is obvious, even in the case of a a subject shift).

Now there is nothing inherently ungrammatical about:

Tengo que hacer esto para que yo pueda hacer eso.

But in most cases it would not be the natural choice, and if you left out "yo" the assumption would be that "pueda" is in the third person tense in the absence of other context.

Please keep in mind that although people will tell you that you only use subjunctive with a subject shift, that is not completely true, it just is an indication that you should usually choose the infinitive when there is not one, but if you choose not to anyway, you still have to use subjunctive.

Thanks for such a detailed response to my question. I wasn't too sure if someone was gonna go into much detail on that. I like how you explained yourself. Thanks. - Acelata, Apr 8, 2014

Answer 4

"We'll ask for a loan....or something", as he put his arms around Mom". is the way i look at it. The speaker was most llikely responding to a son or daughter.

I'm currently reading "Cien Años de Soledad" by GGM. Pulitzer Prize de 1982l Wow!

My "project" is to map the whole family from José Aracadio Buendía and Úrsula Iguarán until the end. I am at the part where "Meme" is sent to a convent by Fernanda after her bathroom lover is shot as a chicken thief. It's an incredible novel.

Í´ll have to work my way up to that one eventually. :) Thanks for the suggestion. - Acelata, Apr 8, 2014

Answer 5

"We will borrow"... The combination of "pedir prestado" is to borrow, and pedir is congugated to the future.

Thanks - Acelata, Apr 5, 2014