libre mercado o mercado libre

Question

can someone please explain to me why it is "libre mercado" and not "mercado libre"
e.g.
Bush: "La crisis no es un fallo del libre mercado"

Gracias

Answer 1

libre mercado o libre comercio se refiere a tratados internacionales , en este caso, que se hacen entre dos países

mercado libre = puede ser un mercado al aire libre, en la calle

Answer 2

There in fact no difference at all in this particular expresion, free market express a concept and 'libre mercado"
and "mercado libre" are exchangeable in Spanish.on expressing the same concept

Answer 3

Sorry I should have anticipated that... the headline is from El Pais however I have been watching CNN+ (Spains Cnn) and they have been discussing this all day and they always say "libre mercado", never mercado libre; So I think lazarus1907's answer classifies the difference.

Answer 4

The dictionary seems to indicate that "un fallo" is Iberian Spanish and "una falla" is Latin-American. I didn't realize that both forms existed.

James Santiago said:

True, but "una falla" would make more sense to me in this context.

Answer 5

In that case, since we may assume that Bush was speaking in English, do you suppose the translator wrote "libre mercado" just because that's the order in English (free market)'

That's my hunch. Because both versions sound fine in Spanish, the translator may have been swayed by the English. Happens a lot in the tranz biz.

By the way, it should be un fallo; fallo is masculine.

True, but "una falla" would make more sense to me in this context.

Answer 6

In that case, since we may assume that Bush was speaking in English, do you suppose the translator wrote "libre mercado" just because that's the order in English (free market)?

By the way, it should be un fallo; fallo is masculine.

lazarus1907 said:

Generally, the position of the adjective is about restrictions:

mecado libre = Not just any market, but only the free one; the others are not included

libre mercado = The market, which happens to be free, by the way.

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Answer 7

Generally, the position of the adjective is about restrictions:

mecado libre = Not just any market, but only the free one; the others are not included
libre mercado = The market, which happens to be free, by the way.

Answer 8

a la James:

"libre mercado" gets 1,090,000 google hits
"mercado libre" gets 4,200,000 " "

I don't see any reason why you couldn't say it either way, but I'm not a native Spanish speaker.