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English words in Spanish

  Tags: Loanwords | English | Spanish
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages Post Reply
global_gizzy
Senior Member
United States
maxcollege.blogspot.
Joined 5703 days ago

275 posts - 310 votes 
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 1 of 3
26 April 2010 at 3:18am | IP Logged 
I have the hardest time saying an English word thats used in Spanish.

I think thats confusing, I mean English Loan words in Spanish. IE Los Jeans = Jeans.

Its an English word, I should be able to say it, but I cant. I dont know how to say words I know in English that are practically the same in an "Spanish-fied" way, if that makes any sense.

In my Spanish Reader, one of the characters last names is Jackson. Do I pronounce this the English way or does it sound like Hack-son? Where do you lay the stress?

I obviously speak with an accent, even though Spanish speakers tell me that my pronunciation and accent are very good. I think its because I can pronounce Arabic that I'm able to imitate their sounds. Still, accent marks and English loanwords seem unconquerable to me.

Any one know of a way to approach these words? I just sound ridiculous when I try and speak English loan words in Spanish-mode and I cant make them come out right.
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TheBiscuit
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Mexico
Joined 5923 days ago

532 posts - 619 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Italian
Studies: German, Croatian

 
 Message 2 of 3
26 April 2010 at 4:55am | IP Logged 
I think you have to get into the habit of treating them as Spanish words. It feels a little silly at first but it's the only way to be understood, which is ironic considering they're English words!

You can also avoid them. Mexican Spanish is full of them but you can usually find a Spanish word. For example, you don't have to say ¿Me das un ride? You can say ¿Me das un aventón? A few more off the top of my head:

feedback (retroalimentación)
jeans (pantalones de mezclilla)
email (correo) (move the stress to the other syllable)
training (capacitación) (with a rolled r)
shorts (bermudas) (sh is almost always pronounced like ch)
bien fashion (de moda)
workshop (taller)
closet (guardaropa)
tenis (zapatos deportivos)

There are some strange ones here. 'Nice' is used to mean posh or fancy.

I have this problem with my own name! If I don't pronounce it the way they do, they won't know it's me.

Edited by TheBiscuit on 26 April 2010 at 4:57am

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Mafouz
Diglot
Groupie
Spain
Joined 5325 days ago

56 posts - 64 votes 
Speaks: Spanish*, English
Studies: German, Japanese, French

 
 Message 3 of 3
27 April 2010 at 10:52am | IP Logged 
This is not easy question. In the one side, the Spanish used in some countries has much more English borrowings than in other countries, and they are older. Each country and each generation adopting words did it in a different fashion, so you have somehow a mess...

- Very old words are totally hispanized,if they are borrowings at all (I am thonking in "estribor": starboard. But probably they are both borrowings from a third language)

- Older words were translated (pelota-base: baseball, but I do not think anybody uses this anymore) or hispanized (guachimán: Watchman -seriously- in Central America). Thing in the names of football in Spanish: fútbol (hispanized) and balonpié (translated, with the orthographical rarity n before p)

- Many words borrowed in Spain in the last hundred years are written in the original English BUT pronounced in a Spanish transliteration from the real English word (Hall: written the same, pronounced JOL). But no English speaker would understand it unless explained ;)

- I think the modern trend is to use the original English word and use it in the English way but adapted for Spanish phonetics (wich is difficult for an English speaker to do) mouse: the same (In Spain translated: ratón). Software: pronounced with the spansih A, but ithout the final e

Looks easy? It is if you use it a little.

On the versions of TheBiscuits: some of them are mexicanism (I mean, in Mexico they tend to use more the English version of some words, not of others. The mix is a little bit different in different countries) I think "workshop" and "training" are used all around America, but when I lived in Nicaragua they used the Spanish forms that TheBiscuits notes.

"Feedback", as is used in science and engineering, is difficult to avoid... Maybe when used in an interpersonal context (as opposed to technical) you can say, for example, ¿respuesta?. "No noto respuesta del público"

Do not hispanize names. Nobody does it since Mambrú (Marlborough, the English gentleman fighting Napoleon). Jackson is Jackson.

Last idea: try to say English words simplifying the vowels. This is how we sepak (bad) English ;)

Buena suerte!!!

PD: Jeans in Spain: vaqueros. Mezclilla is understood, I think. They are called vaqueros because they are suposed to be used by the original vaqueros (Cow-boys)



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