# Need help with a brief English-to-Spanish translation **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 20, 2015, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-a-brief-english-to-spanish-translation/740944 "2015-12-20T19:48:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2015, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-a-brief-english-to-spanish-translation/740944/1 "2015-12-20T19:48:25Z")
I’m writing a story, and one of the characters is a Mexican-American mother who speaks very little English. Mostly I just say she speaks Spanish and her son translates for her, but I’ve got a few quick sentences in Spanish that I translated using Google translate. Can someone who knows Spanish (as a Mexican person in California without a lot of education would speak it, if it matters) check Google’s work and fix these for me if necessary? 1. ¿Quien esta ahí? **Who is there?** 2. ¡Hola! ¿Eres del grupo de Stanford? Estábamos esperando a una dama. **Hello! Are you from the Stanford group? We were expecting a lady.** 3. Oh! Todos ustedes son tan generosos. Muchas gracias. **Oh! You’re very generous. Thank you.** Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2015, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-a-brief-english-to-spanish-translation/740944/2 "2015-12-20T20:17:33Z")
(Not fluent, so please take this for what it’s worth until the experts apppear) Can you give a little more context for the sentences? #1 is correct as far as it goes, but in most contexts I’d expect “¿Quién es?” [“who is it”]. In the second example, _eres_ is the second person singular. Whether that is used with someone you just met depends on a lot of factors, but I’d default to _está_. _Estábamos esperando_ seems clunky; why not _esperábamos_? Edit: _dama_ is more of a lord-and-lady type lady; why not _mujer_? #3 says “you are all so generous.” ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2015, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-a-brief-english-to-spanish-translation/740944/3 "2015-12-20T20:27:25Z")
Thanks, **Dr. Drake**. Context: Main character is a Stanford professor who’s been roped into delivering a collection of Christmas toys and gifts that his department has taken up a collection of (it’s one of those “holiday support-a-family” things). Originally someone else was supposed to make the delivery, but she had an emergency and he got tapped. So the mom and her kids are expecting somebody to show up, but a woman, not a man. Hope that helps! ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-a-brief-english-to-spanish-translation/740944/4 "2015-12-21T03:09:10Z")
Rather than “una dama” (which is not how anyone speaks) or “una mujer” which is just “a woman”, I would suggest “una señora” as being closer to “a lady”. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-a-brief-english-to-spanish-translation/740944/5 "2015-12-21T04:22:40Z")
Cool, thanks! Got one more: Stop! Get over here! Google suggests: ¡deja de! ¡ven aquí! ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-a-brief-english-to-spanish-translation/740944/6 "2015-12-21T08:00:52Z")
1. could also be _¿Quién anda?_ or _¿Quién anda ahí?_ (I’ve gotten both in Mexico). And please, since you are indeed using the diacritics, use both of them. 2. I would say _Esperábamos (a) una mujer_ or _esperábamos (a) una señora_. Since they’re being formal, I agree with **gkster** that the second option would be more likely. The a is kind of optional, formally it would be there but it tends to go amiss. 3. _¡Oh! Son ustedes muy generosos. Muchas gracias._ _Tan_ would usually have a consequence: the cake was so good it was reduced to crumbs. _El pastel estaba tan bueno que sólo quedaron miguitas._ _Muy_ is more of an amount in the absolute scale: _grande, muy grande, grandísimo._ Big, very big, enormous. _¡Detente! ¡Ven acá!_ or _¡Quieto! ¡Ven acá!_ “_Para de_” would be stop in the sense of stop doing something and needs an infinitive (_para ya de molestar_, stop being a damned bother), and in Mexico _para_ without _de_ tends to have more of a meaning of “stand” or “stand right there”. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-a-brief-english-to-spanish-translation/740944/7 "2015-12-21T15:43:17Z")
Thanks, **Nava**! When you say “esperábamos (a) una señora” does that mean the “(a)” is optional? I want to go with whatever option would be more formal/respectful, since she’s talking to someone she doesn’t know and is grateful to (but also keeping in mind that Mom isn’t well educated, so she wouldn’t speak Spanish like a professor). Basically, I just want to make sure the Spanish is sufficiently correct that my readers don’t start sending me email correcting me on it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-a-brief-english-to-spanish-translation/740944/8 "2015-12-21T21:02:52Z")
Yes, the Spanish ortographic convention is that putting a word in parenthesis means the sentence works with or without it; a slash would mean that two versions are possible and the reader is supposed to pick whichever one applies (eg. _muy señor/a mío/a_ to abbreviate _muy señor mío o muy señora mía_, “dear sir/madam”). Both options are equally valid, having the _a_ is more prescriptively correct but nobody outside a Spanish Language And Literature class would raise an eyebrow if it’s not there. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-a-brief-english-to-spanish-translation/740944/9 "2015-12-21T21:10:27Z")
Cool, thanks! 🙂