How to say "book signing" in Spanish?
Thanks for your help--gracias!
22 Answers
It is not borrowing from English.
Book signing is the affixing of a signature to the title page or flyleaf of a book by its author.
And yes, it will be understood in all Spanish speaking countries. Just think, what is the root word for autógrafo'
Autografiar= Por favor, me puede autografiar su libro?
Autografiar= Por favor, me puede autografiar su libro? ok
firma........Por favor, puede firmar su libro? better
autografo y autografia have different meanings.
disclaimer..... I could be wrong
For Spanish, the DRAE is a good check of whether a phrase will be universally understood; similarly for the OED in English.
I'm not sure you will be understood if you order gambas in a restaurant in Mexico, or if you ask an American to put your luggage in the boot of his car.
The reality is that if you want to learn Spanish, English, Portuguese, or French, you will have to choose between the European version or the one spoken in the Americas. And one version alone is hard enough.
Well, but my point is that any good dictionary will include words that are universally understood, and also mark regional usage. Even the American Heritage dictionary sitting on my desk has this definition:
boot [1], n. 5. British. An automobile trunk.
Of course dictionaries, like language, change over time -- but I have only once on this forum heard a reasonable challenge to the OED (Oxford English Dictionary), and that was in regard to the American usage of the word delicatessen.
What I'm saying is that there are a few thousand miles between America and Europe, therefore many of the expressions used in Spain have never been heard by the Spanish speaking people in this continent. I am a native hispano parlante and I could tell you without a doubt that the word autografiar in this side of the world in in reference to book signing. My point is that because a few countries don't use it doesn't make it wrong for a greater majority to use it in the context that has been discussed. All you have to do is type the word in your browser and plenty of examples from many different cultures will be available for you to see.
By the way, you should change your profile, because it says you are a beginner in Spanish.
autografiar= escribir, firmar, signar
autógrafo= firma, signatura
Por favor me puede dar su autógrafo'...es otra forma de decirlo
Me puede autografiar mi libro? es correcto
Este libro está autografiado por su autor.
Dedicatoria no tiene nada que ver con firmar. Firmar y dedicar son dos cosas muy distintas.
Autografiar es una firma dedicatoria, pero ni firmar ni dedicar se pueden utilizar en lugar de autografiar.
Si yo digo: "Firme el libro de los invitados", eso no quiere decir que estoy dedicando el libro a alguien.
Se puede decir: "Dedíqueme este libro". pero una dedicatoria es mas que un autógrafo, es un comentario firmado en un libro a una persona en particular. Por ejemplo: 'Le dedico este libro a Robertico bla bla bla', y entonces la firma. La dedicatoria es el comentario, la firma es el autógrafo.
The reality is that if you want to learn Spanish, English, Portuguese, or French, you will have to choose between the European version or the one spoken in the Americas. And one version alone is hard enough.
I agree that we learners should pick a flavor and try to stick with it, rather than learning a mixed stew that isn't completely understood anywhere, but as Lazarus likes to point out, there is often much greater difference (for a given word or phrase) between, say, Mexican Spanish and Chilean Spanish, than between Mexican Spanish and Iberian Spanish, so it is somewhat of a myth that there is Iberian Spanish on the one hand and American Spanish on the other. The fact is that there are quite a few main dialects, and the grouping can't really done by ocean.
To give just one example of this, it is commonly held that the vosotros form is used in Spain, but not in the Americas, but in Andalucia there are people who use the informal ustedes form (in fact, that is where it came from), and there are people in the Americas who use vosotros.
I just wish the forum owner would get around to making it mandatory for members here to state their place of birth (main language site) and add that to every post. That would be a great help on this forum, as is already done at WR.
What I'm saying is that there are a few thousand miles between America and Europe, therefore many of the expressions used in Spain have never been heard by the Spanish speaking people in this continent. I am a native hispano parlante and I could tell you without a doubt that the word autografiar in this side of the world in in reference to book signing. My point is that because a few countries don't use it doesn't make it wrong for a greater majority to use it in the context that has been discussed. All you have to do is type the word in your browser and plenty of examples from many different cultures will be available for you to see.
For Spanish, the DRAE is a good check of whether a phrase will be universally understood; similarly for the OED in English.
I'm not sure you will be understood if you order gambas in a restaurant in Mexico, or if you ask an American to put your luggage in the boot of his car.
The reality is that if you want to learn Spanish, English, Portuguese, or French, you will have to choose between the European version or the one spoken in the Americas. And one version alone is hard enough.
It would make it very hard for somebody that wants to learn the language to use it at his work place, or in a particular neighborhood from the US to say: "Como estais vosotros", is not practical is what I'm trying to say. I lived in Spain for two years when I was younger and when I came back to the US nobody in my family could easily understand me. Please read my comments, don't say IF I'm trying to say this ot that. I'm learning Chinese now and I have to limit myself to one form of writing, otherwise it can be very confusing at first, later on when I'm fluent, then I'll be able to pick up on all the different dialects and so forth.
Book signing is Sesión de autógrafos.
woajiaorobert, I did read what you wrote. "most of the English people here are from the US" was a little confusing.
It appears I should not have said, "This is not correct." However, I'm not convinced that we have enough information to assert that "this would be correct" (or understood) in all countries. For Spanish, the DRAE is a good check of whether a phrase will be universally understood; similarly for the OED in English.
For my personal language learning, I want to learn Spanish that will be universally understood. When there is a choice to be made, I attempt to remember the Mexican usage (because where I live, most of the Spanish heard is Mexican). But I would never say that I have no use for the Spanish from Spain or other countries. For example, I have listened to Radio Martí before, and it was very interesting to hear the language as spoken in Cuba.
It would make it very hard for somebody that wants to learn the language to use it at his work place, or in a particular neighborhood from the US to say: "Como estais vosotros", is not practical is what I'm trying to say. I lived in Spain for two years when I was younger and when I came back to the US nobody in my family could easily understand me. Please read my comments, don't say IF I'm trying to say this ot that. I'm learning Chinese now and I have to limit myself to one form of writing, otherwise it can be very confusing at first, later on when I'm fluent, then I'll be able to pick up on all the different dialects and so forth.
Book signing is Sesión de autógrafos.
Hoy en la librería va a haber una sesión de autógrafos.
And there is another thing'most of the English speaking people here are from the US and they don't have much use for the Spaniard way of speaking the Spanish language. 95% of the Spanish population in the US is from South, Central America and the Caribbean.Nothing wrong with the Spaniards, I think their Spanish is the most correct, but undoubtedly there will be lots of differences between us and them.For example: if you tell someone from the US that boy= chaval instead of muchacho, you are not really helping him. Just an example.
woajiaorobert, the variation in language is why it is helpful for us (Spanish learners) to know that you've heard this usage*** in Cuba***. It is also helpful to know that usage may be different in other parts of the world.
If by "here" you mean the U.S., then obviously the Spanish you hear in the U.S. tends to be from Mexico, Cuba, and other parts of Latin America. If by "here" you mean this forum, Heidita (our administrator) is from Spain, as are many other foreros who make important contributions to the discussions. In my opinion, it is very interesting to hear the input from different parts of the world.
Hoy en la librería va a haber una sesión de autógrafos.
And there is another thing'most of the English speaking people here are from the US and they don't have much use for the Spaniard way of speaking the Spanish language. 95% of the Spanish population in the US is from South, Central America and the Caribbean.Nothing wrong with the Spaniards, I think their Spanish is the most correct, but undoubtedly there will be lots of differences between us and them.For example: if you tell someone from the US that boy= chaval instead of muchacho, you are not really helping him. Just an example.
Well, you know, I know this word and its usage since I was a little boy back in the the 1950's in Havana . I just got off the phone, I asked a few of my friends from different countries about the meaning and usage of this word (autografiar) and they all agreed with me about its meaning. Actually, you can check in the internet and see the word being used by many people in the same way. I really didn't have to go too far to find it, I just wanted to double check, but it appears in my Microsoft Word Thesaurus as:autografiar= escribir, firmar, signar. Because a word has a technical use in doesn't mean that it can't have a different meaning.
And there is another thing...most of the English people here are from the US and they don't have much use for the Spaniard way of expressing the Spanish language. 95% of the population here is from South America and the Caribbean.
I can't say for sure about Spanish, but in English "autograph" is not usually the right word to use in the context of a book signing. An autograph is given by a celebrity to someone, and it is usually given on whatever happens to be handy. On the other hand, when an author spends several hours at a book store signing her latest book, we don't usually say "autograph."
It would be nice to hear from some other native speakers on this one. woajiaorobert, if you were telling your friend that a famous author was coming to a local book store to sign his books, what would you say?
Hoy en la librería va a haber un(a) ___|\___|\___|_.
It does occur in the wordreference dictionary, listed as "autograph." The RAE dictionary, however, does not support this meaning.
Desde el DRAE:
autografiar.
Reproducir un escrito por medio de la autografía.
autografía.
1. f. Procedimiento por el cual se traslada un escrito hecho con tinta y en papel de condiciones especiales a una piedra preparada al efecto, para tirar con ella muchos ejemplares del mismo escrito.
2. f. Oficina o dependencia donde se autografía.
woajiaorobert, if the RAE doesn't recognize this word, then it is very likely not yet used in all Spanish-speaking areas. It is undoubtedly used in some (or many) places, and is probably gaining popularity, but I agree that it seems to be a loan from English in this meaning.
So, the answer to the question is, it depends on your audience. The same question was asked at WR here, and the answer was "una firma de libros" (a book signing).
