needy
how would you best translate into Spanish "needy", as in the emotional sense?
for example;
she's been single for 6 months now, and she's feeling really needy.
18 Answers
thank you both for the clarification. so i guess "falta de carino" would be the closest thing to expressing the kind of "hunger for affection" that neediness means?
Heidita said:
lazarus1907 said:
Chris, "sentirse pegajosa" makes you think of a woman covered in syrup or any other sticky stuff, or a woman you can't get rid of, because she needs to be close to you or touching you 24 hours/day and gives you with no break. It is definitely NOT the best translation.
Definitely not!
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lazarus1907 said:
Chris, "sentirse pegajosa" makes you think of a woman covered in syrup or any other sticky stuff, or a woman you can't get rid of, because she needs to be close to you or touching you 24 hours/day and gives you with no break. It is definitely NOT the best translation.
Definitely not!
Chris, "sentirse pegajosa" makes you think of a woman covered in syrup or any other sticky stuff, or a woman you can't get rid of, because she needs to be close to you or touching you 24 hours/day and gives you with no break. It is definitely NOT the best translation.
"Falto de cariño" is definitely an emotional state, and not a behaviour: it means that the person is in need of affection.
thanks for all the suggestions everyone, it's an interesting dialogue. it sounds like maybe "sentirse pegajosa" might be the closest translation, both words used together. i think the difficulty might be the fact that "needy" really describes an emotional state, where as "clingy" really describes a behavior. after all (in English) we can feel/be needy and not show it, and we can feel needy even (sometimes especially!) in the presence of another. so in this way, "echar de menos" and "hacerle falta" wouldn't always work. thanks again!
Falta de carño es lo más adecuado que se me ocurre en ese contexto.
También:
"falto/falta de afecto"
Algo contribuía, pensaba Bonis, a la falta de cariño humano a su nene de sus entrañas... Clarín
...en uno de esos raros encuentros en que pudimos hablar sin herirnos, me aseguró que no lo hizo por falta de cariño; - Isabel Allende
...que ellos las palpen y se convenzan de que no me he quedado ni por cobardía ni por falta de cariño. - E. Gutiérrez (Argentinian)
What do you think about, "Lleva seis meses sin pareja y ahora siente aún más el vacío'" Is it going a bit overboard or not so natural sounding? I'm just putting another option out there.
What about...?
... y ahora anda falta de cariño
I think this one is pretty close.
falto
1. adj. Defectuoso o necesitado de algo.
Real Academia Española © Todos los derechos reservados
Having sat back and thought about the original English phrase, I now think that the following is the closest in this particular context.
Lleva seis meses sin pareja, y ahora echa de menos a alguien que la mime.
Could we use hacer falta here? As in the following.
Lleva seis meses sin pareja, y ahora le hace falta alguien que la mime.
Somehow this sounds better to me than echar de menos.
I'd say that "clingy" (and "pegajosa") describes a personality trait, while "needy" ("necesitada") refers to a personality disorder. Someone who is "overly demonstrative" (especially in public, where the issue may well be one of "appropriateness") is clingy (one might prefer that the person be less [publicly] demonstrative but one doesn't wonder if the person is mentally unstable). . While someone who is trying to fill/compensate-for a perceived lack/emptiness is needy. In the latter sense, It seems to me to be quite similar to the RAE entry (excepting that the missing element is affection rather that wealth).
What about the suggestions I wrote above'
They are all good, but would be better if we could compress them into a single phrase, since the word needy encompasses all the meanings you included.
Difficult translation problem!
The meaning in the DRAE is the one I know, although you can use it in other contexts using an obvious metaphor, of course. E.g. Anda muy necesitado de caricias. However, in isolation, and without context, the DRAE meaning is the one I understand by default, so "se encuentra muy necesitada" would mean -to me- that she's lost her job and she's going to lose her house, or something like that.
What about the suggestions I wrote above? They are not entirely satisfactory to me, but it is as close as I can get so far.
I see that necesitado is glossed in various places as needy, but the DRAE gives this:
necesitado, da.
(Del part. de necesitar).
1. adj. Que carece de lo necesario para vivir. U. t. c. s.
That meaning of needy is quite distinct from the meaning of needy in this context. Does necesitado have both meanings (in which case the DRAE listing is lacking)'
LadyDi wrote:
"...se siente pegajosa" conjures up a different picture (at least in my mind.)
I wondered about that. We wouldn't want to make her feel sticky.
Lazarus wrote:
"Pegajoso" es más como "clingy", "sticky", someone who stays next to you all the time, someone who doesn't leave you alone, for whatever the reason.
I think that's pretty close to needy, although not exactly the same. Needy means that the person needs to be with or talk to someone because of emotional fragility. Doesn't want to be alone.
What are some other suggestions'
"Pegajoso" es más como "clingy", "sticky", someone who stays next to you all the time, someone who doesn't leave you alone, for whatever the reason (e.g. this person has no other friends, or gets bored alone). "Necesitada" could do, but it is not quite the same, I think. What about...?
Lleva seis meses sin pareja, ahora necesita a alguien que la quiera/esté con ella/le haga caso.
Lleva seis meses sin pareja, ahora echa de menos/extraña a alguien que la mime.
Or something like that.
