Are the Spanish subtitles in movies that are in English grammatically correct?
I want to practice my Spanish, and I know that a good way to do this is to listen to native Spanish speakers and/or read what they're saying. So obviously watching Spanish movies would help. But I can't find a lot of good Spanish movies, so if I watched English movies with Spanish voice-overs and/or subtitles, would that work just as well, or will there be mistakes with the translation?
Public Comments
- As long as the dialog is not intentionally non-grammatical (because the character speaks that way or uses a lot of slang), then you can be fairly certain that the grammar is correct. Subtitles match the dialog as closely as possible, but not all expressions translate properly. In those cases, you are not seeing a literal translation, but one that is true to the "sense" of the dialog. This is not a bad way to practice (especially with Spanish), just be aware that it is not always a 1:1 (literal) translation.
- Maybe not mistakes. But, sometimes movies subtitles are shorter than the actual dialogue. I found that in English movies with Spanish subtitles (my first language is Spanish) and also in Spanish movies with English subtitles. Even those English captions you find in English movies (captions for hearing-impaired people) are not the literal rendition of the actual dialogues.
- no not all the time, because the sense is not the same in spanish so they have to find the sense first and translate on their language, in french is the same the translation often they have to change in order to give senses to the movie otherwise it doesnt make sense in french and people won't be intrigue to look the movie which mean adaptation is needed
- Hi, Bluetown! Let me give you congrats about your decision to learn such i nice language, Spanish. Now to your question: As in everything those programmes are automatised tools created to ease understanding but there exists always a error frame. Still, you may and should trust these subtitles or captions because they are intended to match right sequences of words. Now, since those programs are made by humans, they contain mistakes, but fear not my friend, you are going to be corrected by spanish speakers if necessary. Remember that language is a living being just as the ones using it, it transforms and adjusts itself depending on the speaker´s need for communication. In many cases it may come out some typical spanish language idioms are going to be translated to the ¨closest¨ parallel form in english... for as you know, cultures are also different. I really applause your choice for spanish, my Friend, you will never regret having made it. Go ahead and i wish you a great time by doing so! If you ever need some help or feel confused about some idioms or grammar, just name it. Í´ll be glad to help. I put you some links you may find intreresting: one is an online dictionary for Latin American spanish and the other one for European by La Real Academia del Español in Spain. The last one is for you to learn some cool phrases.. 1- http://www.jergasdehablahispana.org/ 2. http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/ 3.http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/talk/worksheets/ 4.http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/cool/ I hope you enjoy!
Powered by Yahoo! Answers