From today’s post:
Manuel Gago García es el jefe de la Brigada contra Anglicismos Extravagantes. Su último trabajo es el seguimiento del autobús que llevaba a los jugadores de la selección española (la de fútbol, claro) en su marcha triunfal por Madrid. Don Manuel se fijó en esta frase que estaba pintada en el autobús como si fuera una genialidad: Impossible is nothing. El jefe de la Brigada anota que la traducción sería algo tan absurdo como “Imposible es nada”, cuando lo que se quiere decir es “Nada es imposible”.
- As Thomas Tsoi explains, the English is perfectly grammatical, although rather unusual.
- Thomas goes on to explain why phrases like “impossible is nothing” and “nothing is impossible” are not semantically equivalent in English. Amando and his correspondent, who calls himself Manuel Gago García, are wrong to claim that “impossible is nothing” should be translated as nada es imposible.
- I suggest that Amando’s “algo tan absurdo” comment indicates that he and Manuel don’t know that posible and imposible function in Spanish as nouns as well as adjectives. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a direct translation of the phrase along the lines of El imposible no es nada.
More fatuous nonsense follows. Like many Spanish intellectuals, Amando appears to suffer an immediate attack of dyslexia when required to reproduce common foreign words. It’s Volkswagen, not Volskwagen, Herr Doktor Professor Serial Offender. I know this is only Libertad Digital, which I believe is roughly as popular as rubbish like state-financed Avui, but for Pete’s sake.
Similar posts
- The yoísmo and imperialistic English, featuring Amando de Miguel and introducing the Yo Index ™
Amando de Miguel is prof emeritus of sociology at Madrid’s Complutense University and is also employed by Libertad Digital as its - Proyectos
Mi primera peli, mi primer álbum y hay una cosa más. - Amando de Miguel: “Badly translated English is threatening the structure of the Spanish language”
I tend to concentrate on the Catalanist language nuts because they’re closer to hand, but Madrid has its own share of - Refutation of Bilbeny’s “conclusive proof” that Quijote was written in Catalan
The problem with Catalan “philologist” and “historian” Jordi Bilbeny being a 24-carrot burro is that when he occasionally says something half - Pero, ¿qué grita la mamá?
Pido ayuda textual con un trocito de cuplé de Raquel Meller.
I thought this guy said that Spanish was flexible (as opposed to Catalan)… surely he should be welcoming anglosajonences with open legs?
I think he’s lost it. I wonder if his sociology was as bad.
Oh yeah, and Libertad Digital is far, far more popular than Avui. Bigger catchment area, innit.
I just took Google PageRank, where they’re both on 6. Whenever I need humbling I remind myself that I’m one point behind Avui.
In terms of unique visitors per month, Avui has position 139 out of Spanish websites. LD is #31.
http://ojdinteractiva.ojd.es/alfabetico.php?mes_inicio=&anio_inicio=&titulo=&url_principal=&id_categoria=&campo1=DESC&campo2=DESC&campo3=ASC&campo4=DESC&campo5=DESC&campo6=DESC&orden=uunicos
I work for #1 :-)