# Is "del" as in Marina Del Rey a genuine Spanish word?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-del-as-in-marina-del-rey-a-genuine-spanish-word/211840
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 7, 2003, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-del-as-in-marina-del-rey-a-genuine-spanish-word/211840 "2003-11-07T05:54:25Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2003, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-del-as-in-marina-del-rey-a-genuine-spanish-word/211840/1 "2003-11-07T05:54:25Z")
I’m thinking of some place name in California, like Marina del Rey, or Del Mar (presumably meaning Marina of the King and Of The Sea, respectively). But I don’t think I’ve seen these types of contractions used in “real” Spanish. For instance, the official name of El Salvador is _El Republica De El Salvador_, and not _R. Del Salvador_. So my question is whether the _del_ contraction is ever used in contemporary Spanish, or if it’s obsolete. Or, if there are still dialects where it’s used.
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2003, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-del-as-in-marina-del-rey-a-genuine-spanish-word/211840/2 "2003-11-07T06:01:58Z")
Yes, it’s a contraction of _de_ ‘of’ and _el_ ‘the’. It means ‘of the’. The same contraction is _del_ in Italian, _du_ in French, and _do_ in Portuguese.
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2003, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-del-as-in-marina-del-rey-a-genuine-spanish-word/211840/3 "2003-11-07T06:04:17Z")
The two parts of the country name _El Salvador_ make a unit of meaning by themselves that is more than just an ordinary phrase, a proper name that can’t be broken up. If you were using it lowercased as just a common-noun phrase, then you could say _“del salvador.”_ E.g. _Jesucristo es el nombre del salvador para los cristianos_.
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### Author:  [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2003, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-del-as-in-marina-del-rey-a-genuine-spanish-word/211840/4 "2003-11-07T08:09:49Z")
Interestingly, in French no such respect is given to proper nouns - the article gets contracted just like any other noun.
Le Havre -\> je viens du Havre. (du = de + le)
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### Author:  [@ReaverPryde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ReaverPryde)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2003, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-del-as-in-marina-del-rey-a-genuine-spanish-word/211840/5 "2003-11-07T08:30:06Z")
Yeah, it’s just like saying “don’t” instead of “do not” in English.
Over here on the west coast, we have a chain of Mexican fast food restaurants called “Taco Del Mar”. They make the best burritos I’ve ever tasted.
Mmm… Burritos.
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2003, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-del-as-in-marina-del-rey-a-genuine-spanish-word/211840/6 "2003-11-07T08:31:53Z")
Taco of the Sea… I’d love to hear Jessica Simpson’s take on that place 🙂
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### Author:  [@green\_bladder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/green_bladder)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2003, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-del-as-in-marina-del-rey-a-genuine-spanish-word/211840/7 "2003-11-07T10:43:59Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by ReaverPryde \*
> \*\*
> Over here on the west coast, we have a chain of Mexican fast food restaurants called “Taco Del Mar”. They make the best burritos I’ve ever tasted. \*\*
Or the album _Café del mar_, some of the best music I’ve ever listened to. 😉
Although there’s a contraction of ‘de’ and ‘el’ there isn’t one for ‘de’ and ‘la’ (or there could be but I’ve never heard of it).
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### Author:  [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2003, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-del-as-in-marina-del-rey-a-genuine-spanish-word/211840/8 "2003-11-07T14:06:05Z")
And then there’s the fictitious Florida retirement community where Jerry’s parents lived in _Seinfeld_: **Del Boca Vista**. Literally: _Of the Mouth View_.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2003, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-del-as-in-marina-del-rey-a-genuine-spanish-word/211840/9 "2003-11-07T14:43:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by ReaverPryde \*
> \*\*Yeah, it’s just like saying “don’t” instead of “do not” in English. \*\*
With the difference that, with the exception of proper names as indicated in the case of El Salvador, the contraction is always used, in both formal and informal usage. In formal writing in English, contractions such as don’t are frowned upon.
Also, _a_ + _el_ (to the) contracts to _al_.
**Del Boca Vista** should be **De La Boca Vista** , if it were real Spanish. _Boca_ is feminine, and as mentioned before, \*la \* does not contract.
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### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2003, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-del-as-in-marina-del-rey-a-genuine-spanish-word/211840/10 "2003-11-09T18:30:58Z")
Good point. I never thought of it before, but it reminds me of that last _Odd Couple_ movie, which centers around the wedding of Felix’s daughter and Oscar’s son (or vice versa). The wedding takes place in California, and in the writing of the script, Neil Simon badly jumbles articles and genders of Spanish place names. A bit patronizing and disrespectful, I thought.
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### Author:  [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2003, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-del-as-in-marina-del-rey-a-genuine-spanish-word/211840/11 "2003-11-09T18:47:22Z")
So the town I grew up in, Del City, Oklahoma, means _of the city_, and one of my favorite burger joints there, Del Rancho, means _of the ranch_.
Actually, I think the town was named after the founder’s daughter, Delaphane (?!)
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### Author:  [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2003, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-del-as-in-marina-del-rey-a-genuine-spanish-word/211840/12 "2003-11-09T23:14:19Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by green\_bladder \*
> \*\*Although there’s a contraction of ‘de’ and ‘el’ there isn’t one for ‘de’ and ‘la’ (or there could be but I’ve never heard of it). \*\*
No, there isn’t. De el is contracted to del because the one ends and the other begins with a vowel. De la has a consonant breaking it up. A el is contracted to al, but a la is not contracted.
On the same note, the conjunction y is changed to e and the conjunction o is changed to u if the next word begins with an i or an o respectively.
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2003, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-del-as-in-marina-del-rey-a-genuine-spanish-word/211840/13 "2003-11-09T23:26:10Z")
In Italian, _di_ and _la_ coalesce to form the contraction _della_. Maybe that’s what you were thinking of.
So Della Reese’s name means “Of The Reese.” Makes sense, I guess.
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### Author:  [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2003, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-del-as-in-marina-del-rey-a-genuine-spanish-word/211840/14 "2003-11-09T23:48:47Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by ReaverPryde \*
> \*\*Yeah, it’s just like saying “don’t” instead of “do not” in English.
>
> Over here on the west coast, we have a chain of Mexican fast food restaurants called “Taco Del Mar”. They make the best burritos I’ve ever tasted.
>
> Mmm… Burritos. \*\*
In the movie LA Stories the hotel in Santa Barbera was “El Pollo del Mar”
😛