"With eachother"
Hi, I was wondering how to translate this sentence,
"I think it's a good idea to allow countries to compete with each other to be able to host the olympic games"
really the only part im having trouble with is "each other", google translate translated it as "entre sí"
if this is correct, could someone please explain why it's said this way
thanks alot
8 Answers
Creo que es una buena idea permitir que los países competan entre sí para ser huéspedes de los Juegos Olímpicos.
Is that right? Please correct, because I´m still not understanding how "entre sí" is different than "entre ellos."
lazarus1907 said:
My mistake. I should have said when they are not direct or indirect object pronouns. "Sí" cannot be a grammatical object, according to Spanish grammars; "entre sí" is a "complemento circunstancial".
Being things or people is irrelevant here, but things normally don't perform reflexive or reciprocal actions.
Se lava a sí mismo (direct object)
Se lava la cara a sí mismo (indirect object)
Se acuerda de sí mismo ("complemento regido")
Se pelean entre ellos ("complemento circunstancial)
I'm venturing into (for me) "unknown waters" here but, in English grammar we speak of "object of the/a preposition" (in which case "direct"/"indirect" doesn't apply). We also speak of verbs/prepositions "governing" their "objects" but, as far as I know, that doesn't mean much (in English) unless there is some possibility of inflection (for pronouns). By the time you get to "complemento circunstancial", I can only take that to be an untranslatable "technical term" which may have an analogue in discussions of English grammar (but which, if there is such a term, is not readily recognizable [by me]).
P.S. Obviously, different languages reflect (or determine if one is persuaded by Worf) different worldviews and, thus, make different distinctions in discussions of grammar.
Why "entre ellos" here, and "entre sí" above? (If you already explained it, I apologize, I don't understand all the grammatical terms.)
lazarus1907 said:
My mistake. I should have said when they are not direct or indirect object pronouns. "Sí" cannot be a grammatical object, according to Spanish grammars; "entre sí" is a "complemento circunstancial".
Being things or people is irrelevant here, but things normally don't perform reflexive or reciprocal actions.
Se lava a sí mismo (direct object)
Se lava la cara a sí mismo (indirect object)
Se acuerda de sí mismo ("complemento regido")
Se pelean entre ellos ("complemento circunstancial)
>
My mistake. I should have said when they are not direct or indirect object pronouns. "Sí" cannot be a grammatical object, according to Spanish grammars; "entre sí" is a "complemento circunstancial".
Being things or people is irrelevant here, but things normally don't perform reflexive or reciprocal actions.
Se lava a sí mismo (direct object)
Se lava la cara a sí mismo (indirect object)
Se acuerda de sí mismo ("complemento regido")
Se pelean entre ellos ("complemento circunstancial)
lazarus1907 said:
In English it is "(against) each other", and in Spanish it is "among themselves"; the pronoun "sí" is used for reflexive and reciprocal references when they are not objects.
Is it safe to assume that you mean "when they are not things (inanimate objects)", as opposed, to grammatical objects (since, in this case, "si" would be the object of the preposition "entre")'
In English it is "(against) each other", and in Spanish it is "among themselves"; the pronoun "sí" is used for reflexive and reciprocal references when they are not objects.
No explaining, I guess then...
lazarus1907 said:
It is correct.
>
It is correct.
