Talking about decorations and underwater

Question

I am trying to say the following: She decorated her classroom to look like an underwater scene. It was amazing!

The SpanishDict translator gives the following translation: Ella adorna su clase parece una escena submarina. ¡Fue increíble!

Why has it selected "adorna"? I would have thought "decorar" would be more appropriate. Also doesn't submarina mean submarine? I suppose "debajo del agua" would be better, but I am not sure if that is too literal.

Answer 1

When you use the translator for a whole sentence and see only one translation, click the "Show more translations" link to see two more. Of the three translations for your first sentence, one uses adornar and two use decorar. Both are perfectly good translations of decorate.

As a noun, submarina refers to the nautical vessel, but as an adjective, submarina/submarino means underwater.

I don't much care for the one translation you found. I might say Ella adornó su aula (or su sala de clase) para que parezca pareciera una escena submarina, but I am not fluent in Spanish, and of course there are many ways to say the same thing.

Change parezca to pareciera, otherwise you have a confusion of tenses. ¿Vale? - Daniela2041, Oct 29, 2016

@Daniela2041 Does the rest of jtaniel's translation sound fluent and natural? e.g. Ella adornó su aula para que pareciera una escena submarina Thanks to both @jtaniel and @Daniela2041 for your help, I greatly appreciate it! - big_smile, Oct 29, 2016

Gracias, Daniela. Que tonto soy. - jtaniel, Oct 29, 2016

@big_smile: jtaniel's translation is good. Adornar is a good translation of "decorate" but "decorar" and "condecorar" are also used. "Adornar" is sometimes used when referring to people "adorning" themselves in some way. - Daniela2041, Oct 29, 2016