about which
I am trying to say: I can only think of one thing to write about/about which to write. I have tried several things. The latest disaster is:
No he escrito nada recientemente porque solamente puedo pensar de una cosa para escribir
19 Answers
Gracias, James, I agree many heads are better than one and I'd love to post mi pequeña pedazo de escritura española on an SD forum, but some topics are outside the rules for discussion on any SD forum; this is one.
Sin embargo, you (and anyone else) who might be kind enough to give me suggestions, can get to my piece via a link on Steve's page; it is near the top of a blog he titled, Conformidad. (Thanks to LadyDi for the doc link on my page.)
James Santiago said:
Steve, to answer your specific question about how to express "about which," I'll say that you can use constructions such as "sobre lo cual" or "sobre el que." No he escrito nada recientemente porque se me occurre solo una cosa sobre la que escribir. MJ wrote:And it was suggested ... to pm James S, if maybe he would pm a proofread back .... MJ, if you have something to proofread ... just post it here ... Many heads are far better than mine alone.
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I appreciate all the help I get here
James Santiago said:
Steve, it's true that this construction would often be expressed differently in Spanish, and I wasn't trying to insist that my translation would be the most natural way to express the idea in Spanish, but you wanted to know how that English construction would be translated into Spanish.
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Steve, it's true that this construction would often be expressed differently in Spanish, and I wasn't trying to insist that my translation would be the most natural way to express the idea in Spanish, but you wanted to know how that English construction would be translated into Spanish.
I like qué instead of la que , but I'm leaning in this direction
No he escrito nada recientemente porque solo tengo una cosa en mente cuando intento pensar en un sujeto para mi escritura.
James Santiago said:
LadyDi said:
No he escrito nada recientemente porque se me occurre solo una cosa sobre la qué escribir. I could be wrong but I would do away with the "la" at the end of this sentence.
Que sepa yo, la versión tuya es correcta, pero no es una traducción del inglés.
sobre qué escribir = about what to write
sobre la que escribir = about which to write
A ver qué dicen los demás.
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LadyDi said:
Somehow, to me, "la cual" sounds better than "la que".
No he escrito nada recientemente porque se me occurre solo una cosa sobre la cual escribir.
OK, now we're getting closer together. You may know better than I which sounds better, but I think either could be used. "Sobre la que escribir" gets 3880 googits, and "sobre la cual escribir" gets 331. Maybe someone can tell us if there is a difference and if one is better than the other.
To add to my post above:
No tengo una idea clara sobre qué escribir.
I don't have a clear idea about what to write.
No tengo una idea clara sobre la que escribir.
I don't have a clear idea about which to write.
I don't have a clear idea to write about.
In the first example, the speaker isn't sure what to write about, but in the second, he is searching for an idea to write about. I'm probably not expressing this distinction clearly, but I hope you can see it.
Somehow, to me, "la cual" sounds better than "la que".
No he escrito nada recientemente porque se me occurre solo una cosa sobre la cual escribir.
LadyDi said:
No he escrito nada recientemente porque se me occurre solo una cosa sobre la qué escribir.
I could be wrong but I would do away with the "la" at the end of this sentence.
Que sepa yo, la versión tuya es correcta, pero no es una traducción del inglés.
sobre qué escribir = about what to write
sobre la que escribir = about which to write
A ver qué dicen los demás.
No he escrito nada recientemente porque se me occurre solo una cosa sobre la qué escribir.
I could be wrong but I would do away with the "la" at the end of this sentence.
Thanks James. I actually had something along those lines at one point, but the mt's weren't handling it well when I fed it back to them(no big surprise,) and I decided to start asking questions here.
James Santiago said:
Steve, to answer your specific question about how to express "about which," I'll say that you can use constructions such as "sobre lo cual" or "sobre el que."
No he escrito nada recientemente porque se me occurre solo una cosa sobre la que escribir.
MJ wrote:*
And it was suggested to me by a mutual friend to pm James S, if maybe he would pm a proofread back to me, so for the past few days I have been bolstering my courage to ask you, James S, if you are reading this...ummm James..... if I may pm you a friend request to proof this little piece for me....you'd be doing me the favor....*
MJ, if you have something to proofread, either for yourself or a friend (persona non grata or otherwise), just post it here (well, not this grammar forum, but the proofreading forum). Many heads are far better than mine alone.
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Steve, to answer your specific question about how to express "about which," I'll say that you can use constructions such as "sobre lo cual" or "sobre el que."
No he escrito nada recientemente porque se me occurre solo una cosa sobre la que escribir.
MJ wrote:*
And it was suggested to me by a mutual friend to pm James S, if maybe he would pm a proofread back to me, so for the past few days I have been bolstering my courage to ask you, James S, if you are reading this...ummm James..... if I may pm you a friend request to proof this little piece for me....you'd be doing me the favor....*
MJ, if you have something to proofread, either for yourself or a friend (persona non grata or otherwise), just post it here (well, not this grammar forum, but the proofreading forum). Many heads are far better than mine alone.
How abou this:
*No he escrito nada recientemente porque solo tengo una cosa en mente cuando intento pensar en un sujeto.
*
I think about plenty else, but when trying to select a subject for my next bit of escritura, I come to the same thing and nothing else seems interesting enough to work that hard at.
Thanks as always L
lazarus1907 said:
"Pensar de" means "to have an opinion about":
¿Qué piensas del nuevo presidente?
"To think of/about" is "pensar en (/sobre/a cerca de)"
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Gus
I like yours, but I still want to add "about which I could write" to the end of it, which leaves me in the same place. Sometimes I want to include more info than I should. If I ask my son, he'll likely say"you wouldn't say it that way in Spanish."
Gus said:
No he escrito nada recientemente porque solamente puedo pensar de una cosa para escribir
Recientemente no he escrito nada; solo tengo una cosa en mente.
I have not t written anything recently; I have only one thing in mind.
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It's not that hard. if you need to write something, but you can't think of a subject to write about except your writer's block and its causes, there you are. my question was whether I would convey the same meaning in spanish with what I was writing. I was referring primarily to the preposition usage, but I guess it would also depend on who is reading the snippet in question.
Q said:
No he escrito nada recientemente porque solamente puedo pensar de una cosa para escribir
Save that I'd say pensar en rather than pensar de your sentence makes perfect sense to me.
Actually, I don';t understand the meaning of the sentence, because to me if you can only think about one thing to write about, then that is the thing that you should be writing about. It's what's on your mind. Now if you had said "I can't think of one thing to write about", then I could follow your logic.
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