la oídos
Please tell me this is a typo, and it should be los oídos . . . ''?
Sería mejor que se pongan los dedos en la oídos.
And also: the word I knew for ears was orejas. The dictionary indicates that orejas are external and oídos are the internal part. Is this used consistently'
53 Answers
Yes Natasha. "Oído" is male as a noun (it's also a past form of the verb "oir"). So it is "los oídos".
About the difference between orejas and oídos you are also right. This doesn't mean you may hear someone using these words in the other way, but that would be incorrect.
In regards to "oido" and "oreja", it is of course correct what people have said. "Oreja" is the part that sticks out from the head and "oido" is the actual organ of hearing inside the head. However, my Mexican friend says that they do not use the word "oido" in Mexico. I guess in the common speech of Mexico they would say "se oye con las orejas".
As a reply to Mark Baker, the masculine article is used in front of feminine words that start with "a". "La agua" would sound like "lagua". But since agua is a feminine noun, naturally in the plural one says "las aguas".
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Rob said:
:
No entiendo porque todas discuter eso es mejor que lo discutas a espanol no? es mucho mas interesante y podemos aprender todavia.
Are you sure? Look at this one. I never did get all of what Lazarus said translated.
[url=http://my.spanishdict.com/forum/topic/show'id=1710195%3ATopic%3A223198&x=1&page=1]http://my.spanishdict.com/forum/topic/show'id=1710195%3ATopic%3A223198&x=1&page=1[/url]
Mark Baker said:
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Hey Natasha, What does 'a ponerte' mean? Thanks
See this discussion, where Lazarus was correcting a translation I made.
[url=http://my.spanishdict.com/forum/topic/show'id=1710195%3ATopic%3A453434&page=2&commentId=1710195%3AComment%3A462827&x=1#1710195Comment462827]http://my.spanishdict.com/forum/topic/show'id=1710195%3ATopic%3A453...[/url]
Natasha said:
Wow, this is interesting, folks. What was the original question'? ha haI'm more at Mark's level, probably because I can only speak two languages (English and Spanish). I can't help wondering, at times, "why" things in Spanish are said certain ways. The most recent example came from the sample sentence giving by Lazarus:Vamos a sacar(te) la camiseta y a ponerte el pijama.I wondered "why" it was necessary to repeat the a. No, I'm not trying to re-start the controversy here -- just trying to point out that those of you with a strong linguistical knowledge are carrying on a discussion at a level that many of us can't match. When a lot of us are asking "why," we're just struggling to adapt to the terms of a language that's not familiar to us.
Hey Natasha,
What does 'a ponerte' mean? Thanks
I think that most of the people who ask "Why do you say...'" (or, even more, those that ask "Why don't you say ...'" mean, ultimately, "Why don't you do it the way we do in my language? When phrased that way, the answer is, almost always, "Because we don't!" (which is only another way of saying that different languages are different. Most of the discussions in this forum that attempt to offer explanations (especially of syntactic constructs) do so by trying to point out a relationship to some other language. Obviously, in the case of Spanish, one can often offer some precedent in Latin, but, really that's an "easy" answer. Often, some other Romance language does not handle things in the same way. So you're back to "Why in this language and not in that language'" The usual span for linguistic changes is centuries. It's not as though somebody decided as some point "Let's say ... this way" (which might offer the possibility of asking that person, "Why'").
One of the hurdles that one faces, when studying a foreign language, is to learn to accept "That's the way it is." as an answer. It may be easier to remember if it relates to some already known construct but , ultimately, it's always "That's the way it is!" What seems to one person a reasonable/helpful parallel is unlikely to be helpful to someone whose language is from a different family.
Even when one can say "because that's the way it was done in Latin (for example)", one could ask why other Romance languages didn't do likewise or why is this done the way it was in Latin and not that (some other feature). At some level, it always comes back to "because that's the way it is".
:
I have to say that other people I've met who are learning English (I'm referring to some Chinese and Russian friends, not to anyone on this forum) can't help asking "why." Why do you say "the" in this sentence? (Russians) Why do you say "he", not "it"? (Chinese)
"Why do you say 'the' in this sentence", or "Why do you use subjunctive in that sentence" are two perfectly normal questions, but "Why don't you use 'la' instead of 'the' in that English sentence, like Spanish does'" is a bit pointless, since the only answer is "Because they are different languages. Period.". Why is it surprising that a language is different from others'
lazarus1907 said:
Mark Baker said:
why it is 'linguistically chauvinistic' to ask why the apostrophe is not used in Spanish (By Convention)?
I never said it was chauvinistic, but imagine a Spanish speaker who came to the forum and asked: "Why do English nouns not have gender like in Spanish'" or "Why does English not have declensions, like German'". How would you take a question like that? Probably better than me, because I am very impulsive, but I am sure that you would be tempted to answer something like: "And why should it anyway'"
I have to say that other people I've met who are learning English (I'm referring to some Chinese and Russian friends, not to anyone on this forum) can't help asking "why." Why do you say "the" in this sentence? (Russians) Why do you say "he", not "it"? (Chinese) The question may not have a good answer, or any answer beyond samdie's "historical accident," but I really have a hard time believing anyone is giving offense by asking the question.
lazarus1907 said:
Mark Baker said:
why it is 'linguistically chauvinistic' to ask why the apostrophe is not used in Spanish (By Convention)?
I never said it was chauvinistic, but imagine a Spanish speaker who came to the forum and asked: "Why do English nouns not have gender like in Spanish'" or "Why does English not have declensions, like German'". How would you take a question like that? Probably better than me, because I am very impulsive, but I am sure that you would be tempted to answer something like: "And why should it anyway'"
Speak for yourself!! It's really unacceptable and a bad work ethic to surmise and second guess what other people would say or do, whether you are impulsive/tempestuous or not.
In that situation I would answer the question proactively by simply saying 'There is no reason.It's just the agreed convention' or as other people have said 'Historical Accident'.
I certainly would not stifle any question with self righteous comments like 'Wondering why one language doesn't resemble another, or your own, is either naive, or arrogant.'
How is anyone supposed to know unless the question is raised. Have you ever thought there might be a valid reason and it might help to further the understanding of Spanish sentence construction.
Once again,unless valid questions are freely raised in the Forum - progress will never be made.
Mark Baker said:
To take your example 'It's like saying the Americans don't use Chinese Characters'......so why do they use Arabic Characters instead - called 'numbers'? (I already know why) How will anyone learn if the question is never asked'...if the answer is simply 'By Convention' like in this case, so what's the problem?
Actually, asking why don't people do something is rather like trying to prove a negative. In the cases where there is a similarity, it's easier to (on the basis of the similarity) to look for probable sources of influence (as with Arabic numerals). However, in this case, you're, in effect, asking why wasn't there an influence?
On top of that, we don't really know why French/Italian use apostrophes in this way (and we're only assuming [based on the similarity] that the reason [whatever it was] was the same in both cases). If we did, indeed, know what influence led to it's use, then we might be in a position to ask why that influence did not similarly affect Spanish.
P.S. If you'll look back, about 5 replies after your question about the apostrophe, James suggested that there probably was no answer and I replied (to him) "historical accident". Subsequent discussion hasn't really gotten us beyond that point (except for the detours).
Mark Baker said:
why it is 'linguistically chauvinistic' to ask why the apostrophe is not used in Spanish (By Convention)?
I never said it was chauvinistic, but imagine a Spanish speaker who came to the forum and asked: "Why do English nouns not have gender like in Spanish'" or "Why does English not have declensions, like German'". How would you take a question like that? Probably better than me, because I am very impulsive, but I am sure that you would be tempted to answer something like: "And why should it anyway'"
Wow, this is interesting, folks. What was the original question'? ha ha
I'm more at Mark's level, probably because I can only speak two languages (English and Spanish). I can't help wondering, at times, "why" things in Spanish are said certain ways. The most recent example came from the sample sentence giving by Lazarus:
Vamos a sacar(te) la camiseta y a ponerte el pijama.
I wondered "why" it was necessary to repeat the a. No, I'm not trying to re-start the controversy here -- just trying to point out that those of you with a strong linguistical knowledge are carrying on a discussion at a level that many of us can't match. When a lot of us are asking "why," we're just struggling to adapt to the terms of a language that's not familiar to us.
samdie said:
lazarus1907 said:
Thanks for coming to the rescue, samdie. I was a bit harsh, but on the other hand, I think I was answering (directly or indirectly) other people's questions. There are no answers to everything, particularly when they are related to languages. I used to wonder, from a short sighted Spanish perspective, why on Earth do people use apostrophes, since they don't exists in my language. Now I've tasted a few languages from all over the world, and I'm slowly beginning to appreciate the advantages, disadvantages and differences among them. They are all right in their own way, but at the same time, they all have peculiarities, weaknesses, inconsistencies, and rubbish. Wondering why one language doesn't resemble another, or your own, is either naive, or arrogant.
I agree completely except that I might be inclined to say "arrogant (an arrogance born of naiveté)", since I am inclined to attribute all forms of linguistic chauvinism to naiveté).
I never said the French method is better than any other, or for that matter the English is better than the Spanish. The Engish Language does not have masculine and feminine forms of the word 'the' so the French Example was the closest example I could find in order to ask my question relating to the apostrophe and the direct article.....so can you now explain your statement - why it is 'linguistically chauvinistic' to ask why the apostrophe is not used in Spanish (By Convention)'
