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Spanish: A wolf in sheep’s clothing | ||
Tags: Difficulty | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6884 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 17 of 73 08 June 2010 at 9:30am | IP Logged | |||||
Juan, Thanks for the info. While I can see para la populación indígena is a nonsense, I would have assumed that La población de América would have been ok as one of its meanings according to the RAE is: población. (Del lat. populatĭo, -ōnis). 1. f. Acción y efecto de poblar. Not that I have many conversations about the "populating" of continents but one to tuck away nonetheless :-) Andy. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| XGargoyle Bilingual Triglot Groupie Spain Joined 5737 days ago 42 posts - 93 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan*, EnglishB2 Studies: GermanA2, Japanese, Russian | Message 18 of 73 08 June 2010 at 1:33pm | IP Logged | |||||
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According to RAE, both "populación" and "población" are synonyms, being the former only applicable to the act of "populating" whereas the latter has a broader definition, including "town", "population" and "dwellers".
So, in the example above, "La populación de América" and "La población de América" are both correct, however, the true meaning of "población" must be inferred from the context 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5126 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 20 of 73 08 June 2010 at 5:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
When you replace one with the other the meaning changes, hence you cannot carelessly substitute one for the other in a given sentence without changing the meaning; in a separate sentence, with different meaning, one can indeed talk of populación indígena and población de América. Populación indígena would mean the act of populating performed by indigenous people, and población de América the people who live in that continent, whereas in my example sentence we were talking about the indigenous population and the act of populating done by Europeans. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6884 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 21 of 73 08 June 2010 at 6:54pm | IP Logged | |||||
Yes. I was quite aware of the suggested difference in meaning and so I wasn't talking about a "separate sentence with a different meaning" but the exact one you quoted. The issue I'm trying to understand is that the RAE provides both populación and población with a definition for the "act of populating". What you see as "careless substitution", I'm currently seeing as "synonym" (as apparently is XGargoyle) - hence my very first post on this thread. Is this a regional difference? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5126 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 22 of 73 08 June 2010 at 7:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I would never use them interchangeably, as to me it would be imprecise and sloppy. But language is supple.
Also, the RAE online dictionary doesn't give población as a synonym for populación. The María Moliner dictionary however, which is more colloquial, does. Edited by Juаn on 08 June 2010 at 7:17pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6884 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 23 of 73 08 June 2010 at 9:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
Indeed, one reason why I'm harping on about this. I'd prefer to be correct so as not to sound "off"
Yes, that was why I was careful to say definition in my last post. populación. (Del lat. populatĭo, -ōnis). 1. f. p. us. Acción y efecto de poblar. población. (Del lat. populatĭo, -ōnis). 1. f. Acción y efecto de poblar. The sole difference is that populación is marked as poco usado which I why I wanted to know whether población is a more common synonym. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5126 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 24 of 73 08 June 2010 at 10:18pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Everyday speakers no hilan tan fino anyway, so unless you're writing literature, fret not; just use población, as the other one is more recondite. Edited by Juаn on 08 June 2010 at 10:31pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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