... And I was like...
In English we use the word "like" a lot (I think kids use it more than older people) and it's quite hard to find a Spanish equivalent. For example,
"He hit me in the face and I was likewhoah what are you doing?"
"Él me golpeó en la cara y estaba como qué estás haciendo?"?
"Él me golpeó en la cara y estaba así qué estás haciendo?"?
Those are my two attempts at translating the sentence (also not too sure wether to use the imperfect or preterite for estar in this phrase. Could someone explain to me how I would use the quick use of "like" in English, but in Spanish?
4 Answers
Hello Quincy,
Welcome to our Spanishdict community forum,
You asked:
In English we use the word "like" a lot (I think kids use it more than older people) and it's quite hard to find a Spanish equivalent. For example, "He hit me in the face and I was likewhoah what are you doing?" "Él me golpeó en la cara y estaba como qué estás haciendo?" "Él me golpeó en la cara y estaba así qué estás haciendo?"Those are my two attempts at translating the sentence (also not too sure wether to use the imperfect or preterite for estar in this phrase. Could someone explain to me how I would use the quick use of "like" in English, but in Spanish?
This is a particularly tricky (difficult) expression to attempt to translate as it is colloquial and idiomatic and I would say probably has no single, direct translation into Spanish that is capable of capturing the full meaning!
I have used this expression on occasions myself as an English-speaking native living in the U.K (England)
I would say:
Me golpeó la cara y yo pensaba, "¡oye! ¿qué estás haciendo!"
o k
Me golpeó la cara y yo no podía creerlo, ¡basta! ¿por qué haces eso!"
To be able to successfully translate idioms betweeen your language and a foreign language you are learning you really have to:
1.Avoid literal, word for word' translations which seldom work as they do not accurately reflect the way native speakers of a different language think! The way they naturally think and express thoughts, ideas and feelings shows in the expressions they use and the way they translate our sayings,
English: 'Better late than never!' (Idea: It is better to arrive late than never to arrive at all!)
Spanish: ¡Más vale tarde que nunca!
English: It's raining cats and dogs! (Idea: it's raining heavily!/ The rain is coming down in buckets!)
Spanish: ¡Está lloviendo a cántaros! (It's pouring with rain!)
These examples above only show one way to express these ideas ...in Spanish there are usually many ways to say the same thing!
2.You have to understand the heart of the idiom /expression in your own language (The idea, that is, not the individual words the natives are trying to express. eg: It's the early bird that catches the worm! = A quien madruga Dios lo ayuda.
3.Having understood the meaning in your native language ...think /work out/ find out /learn how the natives of the other language would express the same idea naturally in their own language!
I hope this helps 
Corrijan mi español si es necesario, por favor
Using "Like" like that is Not English.
A woman in the USA wrote a thesis on the ridiculous uses of the word "like".
Don't even try to translate it into Spanish.
Doing that is like pointless. Hacer eso es inútil.
When attempting to put highly colloquial idiomatic English expressions into Spanish, all you need to do is translate what you are trying to say in formal English.
"He hit me in the face and I was like whoah what are you doing?"
Me golpeó la cara (o me dio una bofetada) y yo me dije a mí mismo/ le dije a él/ pensaba "¿Qué diablos estás haciendo?
I said to myself/ I said to him/ I thought ---These are alternate ways of saying "I was like."
Border Spanish youth may have developed a saying based upon the English, but I haven't heard it yet, and I teach at a college.
This is an interesting one. The use of "like" in this way is, as Ian suggests, fairly ridiculous, but I'd argue not functionally or grammatically pointless in all cases.
In past tense the use of "like" presents an example of what has occurred, rather than an actual relation of the event. Presenting this occurrence in an example form can (paradoxically) emphasise the event, particularly for a younger generation that views so many events, even live events, through a media source. Effectively these events aren't really happening, but it is like they are happening. The hangover from this could be that some of our youth feel a need to relate past events from a more remote standpoint. Instead of "I was eating a hamburger" which would state a firm fact about what I was doing, we get "I was, like, eating a hamburger" which relates the event that happened specifically to me as a similar event that the listener can more easily, or intensely, relate to. The psychological upshot of this distancing of the subject from the actual event is a drawing in of the audience to the event, because they can to some degree share this more remote point of view. So, as ridiculous as it seems, I can see its function.
As far as its grammatical use, generally it serves no purpose. In examples such as "I was, like, eating a hamburger" it is unnecessary to include it for the sake of grammatical sense. However, sometimes it does serve a grammatical purpose. To use the above example: I was like, whoa, what are you doing? Here the "like" is necessary on a grammatical level: I was whoa what are you doing? makes no sense. The "I was like" is saying "I said/did something that was like this:" It's not good English, but "I was like" does introduce what occurred by substituting what actually occurred with this more remote and simultaneously inclusive perspective. What actually occurred, of course, was: I said "Whoa, what are you doing?"
So, while I know the gist of this question was to find a similar idiomatic usage in Spanish, I'd suggest the best Spanish alternative would just be (as Daniela suggested): Me golpeó la cara y yo le dije a él "¡Ay! ¿Qué estás haciendo?"
