What did I say? for learners.
I got into a bit of a tiff with the "Junta Municipal" here over excessive water charges. As it worked out in the end I did receive a substantial credit from them. However, getting them to comply with their own agreement has been quite an excercise. It is now my 3rd trip to the matriz, to actually get them to apply the credit they promised.
After waiting in line a while to see an agent, well I was fuming, but anger gets you nowhere. I expressed calmly that I was very irritated with them.
I said this:
¡Qué van a hacer para bajarme el enojo!
So what did I say to the agent?
As always please advise for typos or other errors.
7 Answers
To Bosquederoble and to all; I stand corrected-- The "a" is needed between the verbs,
So;
¡Qué van a hacer para bajarme el enojo!
Is correct-- apologies!!!
What are they/you(pl) going to do to quell my anger?
I've no idea what ¡Qué van hacer para bajarme el enojo! means
but it is not a question - it's an imperative! or a long expletive maybe.
What did you mean to say or think you were saying Paco.
How did the agent react?
As an aside; I had a similar problem in Bolivia.
They insisted I had used enough water to fill an Olympic sized pool, and billed me for it.
I didn't even have a swimming pool.
My Spanish was so poor that I had to default to good old Anglo Saxon.
I just heard this expression on Skype so I won't give it away.
It's way cool.
Thanks Paco.
Interesting exercise Paco. I would have said it differently but using your format I would have used ...quitarme el enojo.
This led me to a little research.
In English we would say: quell, lower, get rid of, aliviate, etc. This thus leaves us at least a half dozen alternatives to bajarme. I've done the research and selected an option. Anyone else want to try?
I've got to say something on this one. On the phrase-"What are you going to do,ect"---All the good answers are used up.
Here's un Danielismo: "Hey, guy, what you gonna do not make me so mad , huh?"
As to the '¿Qué van a hacer?" part, as I wrote in a comment which will be missed by most here I spoke of the phenomenon of "Sinalefa" No, that's not the name of a girl from Sinaloa, lol (you may smile at this point.)
Sinalefa happens when you have two similar vowel sounds either in the same word or across words. The name of author Miguel Cervantes Saavedra. You don't say Sa -a- vedra, it's Sa-ve-dra. The family name Loor is not Lo-or, its "Lor" In the word "alcol", I used to see it spelled as in English, "alcohol" But as the "h" is silent, so and the Sinalefa kicks in and you hear 'alcol" so I see it written that way all the time
My native Spanish speakers have a hard time with this one, because they will write it just the way it sounds ¿Qué van hacer? Some times they really screw up with "Qué van a ser?" It is a real problem for Spanish speakers who have not had formal training in school. I get them first. It' really hard to get them to break bad habits. The Anglos are much easier.
Hola a todos;
Here is the literal translation of the phrase:
¡Qué van hacer para bajarme el enojo!
What will you do to "take down" my anger!
Several other words could be used,but to me this one works well enough.
This is Spanish of Mexico.
