on or before + time

Question

hola a todos, Could you pls. help me how to translate "You will receive your newspaper on or before 11:30am" in spanish. I'm really having a hard time with this. Gracias por adelantado

Please capitalize your sentence, Dennis, and "Spanish" should be capitalized too. :) - rac1, Dec 13, 2014

Answer 1

There are just some things that we say commonly in one language that are not possible to state in the same way in another. Take the verb "gustar" for example. It is strange that in Spanish there is no transitive verb "to like" we have to say that something "nos gusta. Or something pleases us. How about the English expression "How do you do?" When as a little child "recién llegada" from Spain, I heard this I wondered, "How do I do what?"

The answer the Bosque gave is "right on!"

The one thing that bugs me about the question is the bit about "on or before" This is is usually used when referring to a date, like "on or before the 20th." For time it should be "at or before."

It's amazing to me how many Americans can make such mistakes in their English. A funny one to me is. " I seen him yesterday" ¡Ay, Chihuahua!

:) - Joydeep_Singh, Dec 13, 2014

Answer 2

I agree with bosque's antes de. Even though it does not address the on part of on or before. I find Spanish to be much more vague when it comes to pinning down times.

You have experienced it too I can see. :) - ian-hill, Dec 13, 2014

That's why we say "mañana" a lot. - Daniela2041, Dec 13, 2014

Answer 3

My thought:

Recibirás el periódico a las once y media o antes.

Recibirá usted el periódico a las once y media o antes.

References:

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=2182821

Suggestions include:

"antes de"- which seems to be the one considered most natural, although it does not include the ön"

"en o antes de"

"para"

"el día X de mes, 2011 o antes"

"hasta el día X de mes, 2011"

Here is what linguee provides:

http://www.linguee.com/english-spanish/translation/on+or+before.html