Dan Smith
"A Bogotá se le calentó el clima." Why laughter? I was talking to a Colombian language partner. I read aloud from a newspaper article in "El Tiempo", http://www.eltiempo.com/bogota/temperatura-de-bogota/15308403 entitled "Bogotá se está calentando y su naturaleza está cambiando." I read the first sentence aloud: "A Bogotá se le calentó el clima." My language partner laughs, corrects me, and says it should be "Se calentó el clima en Bogotá." When I ask what's wrong with the first sentence, she says it is "muy colloquial" and that it sounds as if Bogotá were a person. She did not expect that phrasing to appear in a newspaper story. That's fine, but I'd like to know more about the nuance here. Is "A Bogotá se le calentó el clima" is funny MERELY because it is in an incongruous "register"--surprisingly colloquial--or whether there's a hint of anything rude in it, perhaps, as in English, a double meaning for the word "hot?" What's funny about "A Bogotá se le calentó el clima?"
Mar 1, 2015 5:45 PM
Answers · 3
Hi Dan! Yes, it sounds funny. It sounds as if Bogotá were a person and "el clima" were for instance a certain part of his/her body. It can be more or less funny depending on the body part you think "el clima" is, once you know it's getting hot. I'd say that the journalist made that sentence that way on purpose to get the reader's attention, but who knows ^_^
March 1, 2015
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