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Reading ’The Godfather’ in Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 7105 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 1 of 9 12 October 2005 at 2:51am | IP Logged | |||||
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I need some help with part of a sentence in Spanish from a book I'm reading at the moment.
The book is El Padrino (the Godfather) by Mario Puzo. The sentence in question is the following: ¡Vaya! pensó Hagen, si Sonny se pasaba todo la fiesta dale que te pego en una habitación con la dama de honor, habría lío grande. The part in question is in bold and at the moment I cannot even parse the structure. The rest is easy enough so any assistance would be much appreciated. Andy. Edited by Andy E on 12 October 2005 at 2:52am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 7105 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 2 of 9 12 October 2005 at 5:53am | IP Logged | |||||
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Update:
Well, I finally managed to track down the following: MODISMO:estar/seguir dale que dale or dale que te pego or (Latinoamérica) dale y dale to go/keep on and on la vecina está dale que dale al piano our neighbour is pounding away at the piano I found this after a long google search on a site where someone had saved an old copy of the "dar" entry from wordreference.com Word Reference used to use the Harper Collins Spanish dictionary and as such was a superb on-line tool. Sadly no longer, it has been replaced with something from "Espasa Calpe". This simply confirms my suspicion that "it ain't what it was"... Andy. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7017 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 9 12 October 2005 at 6:02am | IP Logged | |||||
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In this scenario, "dale que te pego" is slang for having sex.
It cannot be translated literally, but roughly it could be "shagging" or "giving her one". Take your pick. Translated, the sentence would read: "Well," thought Hagen, "if Sonny were to spend the entire party shagging the maid of honour in a bedroom, there would be big trouble." Edited by patuco on 12 October 2005 at 6:04am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 7105 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 4 of 9 12 October 2005 at 6:52am | IP Logged | |||||
Well thank you kindly for that. That fits exactly with the context. Andy. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7017 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 9 12 October 2005 at 10:00am | IP Logged | |||||
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You're welcome.
By the way, I've got the Godfather trilogy on DVD but I've never read the book before. Is it any good? How does it compare with the (rather long) film? EDIT: Minor point: just noticed that the original sentence should say: "...se pasaba toda la fiesta...". Sorry for nit-picking. Edited by patuco on 12 October 2005 at 10:07am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 7105 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 6 of 9 12 October 2005 at 10:20am | IP Logged | |||||
Well, the rather disappointing 3rd film has nothing to do with the book at all as well as much of the second. The early life of Don Corleone is the only part of the second film that is taken from the book - the rest is added material. The book actually ends in the same manner as film I, the early life of Don Corleone told as a flashback when he is hospital. That having been said, like a Dune or a Lord of the Rings the book stands alone within its genre - much copied and emulated without ever quite getting there. The adaptation is, IMHO, one of the finest renditions of book to film ever. To sum up if you loved the film you'll love the book and even if you didn't love the film, you still might love the book :¬) (I think this is my longest ever post completely off-topic)
Yes. Slight typo from the book I'm afraid. EDIT: The typo was by me - it's not in the book.... Andy. Edited by Andy E on 12 October 2005 at 10:21am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7378 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 9 12 October 2005 at 10:27am | IP Logged | |||||
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Andy, is this your first novel in Spanish? Do you plan to read it cover to cover? I also love to read novels in foreign languages, but it takes quite some vocabulary, so your Spanish definitely seems to be coming along!
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| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 7105 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 8 of 9 12 October 2005 at 10:49am | IP Logged | |||||
FX, Yes it will be - assuming I complete it :¬). I've read plenty of novels in French but this will be the first in Spanish. I definitely plan to read it from cover to cover. It's probably above my current level since I'm having to read it quite carefully. Fortunately, I've read the English version numerous times so getting the "gist" from context has not been a problem so far. I've started reading it to provide a change from Platiquemos on the train to and from work. Typically if I've completed a particular part of a unit and I don't want to tackle the next exercise, then I read a few pages until I arrive at my destination. I'm trying very hard to emulate my reading in French. That is, to never "translate" simply to read and understand in Spanish. Surprisingly, this is proving easier that I expected. I bought it a couple of years ago on holiday in Spain and I'd forgotten I had it so once I've completed it, I'll need to purchase a few more over the web. Andy. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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