Robar: steal or rob?
What's the difference between rob and steal? In Spanish the only verb is "robar", isn't it?
7 Answers
This is from a British English site. In my American English, the use of burgle as a verb is uncommon, although not unheard of, and we would usually say they robbed his house. But we use burglar- a burglar robbed his house.
The direct object of steal is the item stolen.
The direct object of rob is what it was stolen from- the person or place from which it was taken.
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/grammar/british-grammar/rob-or-steal
Rob or steal?
from English Grammar Today
Rob and steal both mean ‘take something from someone without permission’.
Rob focuses on the place or person from which the thing is taken:
The gang robbed three banks over a period of six months, but were finally caught. Our local post office was robbed early on Tuesday morning.
A young woman was attacked and robbed as she walked home from work last night.
Warning:
When we are talking about a house, we use burgle: The house was burgled while they were all sleeping. Not: The house was robbed …
(Note in American English we would say the house was robbed)
Steal focuses on the thing that is taken:
The thieves entered the museum through the roof and stole three paintings worth more than two million euros.
Our car was stolen from outside our house last week.
Warning:
We usually don’t say rob + object stolen: He stole my wallet.
Not: He robbed my wallet.
Contrast:
They robbed the museum of three paintings. They stole three paintings from the museum.
The museum is the direct object of rob, the paintings the direct object of steal.
Robar
Hurtar
Birlar
Afanar
Sisar
Levantar
Estafar
Apoderarse
Atracar
Desfalcar
Escamotear
-- Some other words for "rob / steal" in Spanish on the following linK:
http://www.wordreference.com/sinonimos/robar
My dictionary differentiates like this.
He robbed me (of all my money). / Me robó (todo mi dinero).
Someone has stolen my watch/I’ve had my watch stolen. / Me han robado el reloj.
She stole him away from his wife. / Se lo quitó a su mujer.
It indicates that rob is used for large amounts of valuables and steal for smaller amounts and other things.
In England you can say informally 'I was robbed' when for example you pay too much for an inferior product. Some people refer to being robbed when actually something was stolen from them.
We have theft which is the word for to steal. A thief steals. If it is from a shop it is known as shoplifting. If he breaks into your house and steals it is a [dwellinghouse] burglary and the thief is a burglar
Robbery - a person will be guilty of the criminal offence of robbery if they steal, and immediately before or at the time of doing so, and in order to do so, he uses forces on any person or puts or seeks to put any person in fear of being then and there subjected to force.
It can cover taking someones bag from over their shoulder if you threaten them as you are doing it or if you injure them even just a minor bruise. If when they do it they have a firearm it can be called colloquially 'armed robbery' Still rare in the UK but knives are a problem.
If you break into someone's house and threaten or use violence towards them it is called an aggravated burglary.
Blackmail is also covered by the Theft Act
As I have spent many [too many ] years in the Criminal Justice system I could probably give you a too detailed answer.
Basically robbery is a theft which involves violence. However, people will often say they have been robbed when either they have been burgled or just had something stolen
However someone may say they robbed the bank last night. If the thieves broke in overnight when no one was there it is just a burglary of a non dwelling house but people will talk about bank robbers.
In the UK you cannot rob a house.
If I said I was robbed the next questions would be 'were you hurt?' How much did they steal?
Gracias a todos por su amable aclaración acerca de las similitudes y diferencias entere "rob" y " steal". No es algo muy fácil en general. Agradezco.
I'm not sure if you are familiar with these terms. Some people in Britain & Commonwealth countries say: pilfer (synonymous to steal) & plunder (synonymous to rob).
Hola, Polenta:
En español hay dos verbos. Hurtar y robar. Hurtar = to steal. Robar = to rob. Aquí hay una enlace con la información sobre hurtar, y unos ejemplos.
