Bob
How to use "getting" in Spanish

It dawned on me that Spanish speakers don't use "getting" in expressions or phrases like we do in English.  "I am getting tired"  or "My car is  getting old" or "I am getting much better". In these cases "getting" means "to become" not "to get".

How does one translate the English use of ""getting"" into its Spanish equivalent?

17 de ago de 2018 14:16
Comentários · 19
5

Hey, Bob. In my opinion, English is like playing with Lego: You can create anything you want by combining pieces.

Spanish is like playing with a collection of action figures: It's a lot less flexible, because they're ready-made and you can't combine their parts.

Some examples of English "Legos" vs Spanish:

To get out = salir

To get in = entrar

To get up = levantarse

To get better = mejorar

To get old = envejecer

So "getting" or "get" has no translation in these cases, just like the individual pieces of a Lego batman have no "translation" to a batman action figure.

17 de agosto de 2018
4

Bueno, aunque junto en lugar de separado, en español también tenemos cosas de estas (usar un verbo con una partícula cambiándole el sentido):

poner, imponer, reponer, suponer, disponer, contraponer, descomponer, sobreponer, interponer, superponer, transponer, deponer, exponer yuxtaponer, oponer,...



17 de agosto de 2018
3

Hola, Bob:

  "I am getting tired" : Las perífrasis de gerundio son útiles en estos casos: "Me estoy cansando", "me estoy sintiendo cansado". Pero en dependencia del estadio en que se encuentra tu sensación de cansancio, así será la construcción en español.  


 "My car is  getting old": "Mi coche se está haciendo viejo". O, "se está poniendo viejo". En relación con personas: Él/Ella está envejeciendo. Aunque en realidad casi todas estas expresiones refieren a personas y su uso en un coche, por ejemplo, sería más bien metafórico. En mi experiencia como hablante para referirse a un coche que ya no es nuevo, solemos decir "mi coche ya tiene años", o "ya está viejo". El adverbio "ya", en ese caso, hace referencia, implícitamente, al presente en relación con un tiempo pasado.La misma comparación implícita en "is getting". 


 "I am getting much better". Si refiere a salud o estado personal: "Me estoy sintiendo mucho mejor". Pero el verbo "estar", por su cualidad de describir un estado no permanente o inherente cuando refiere a personas, ayuda mucho en este caso: "Estoy (ahora) mucho mejor". 


Saludos 

Gisela

PS. Pero ten siempre presente que contextualmente pueden ser posibles otras traducciones.


17 de agosto de 2018
3

No, what I am saying is that, as Miguel said,  in English you have verbs that change its meaning with a particle, like get out = salir, get in = entrar, get up = levantarse, get better = mejorar, get old = envejecer.

Miguel said that this structure is less frequent in Spanish. My comment was that this way of changing the meaning of a verb by adding a particle is also common in Spanish. From the verb "poner", you can find many verbs with a complete different meaning by adding a particle at the beginning. From the verb "coger" (that you cannot use in Argentina and other places in Latin America --even if it comes from a latin word: capere), you can say: escoger, recoger, acoger, encoger, etc. So this way of changing the meaning of a verb by adding a particle is also common in Spanish, and even more frequent, I believe, in German.

I do not know if now is clear what I wanted to say. My comment, I am sorry, was directed more to what Miguel said than to your question.

Answering your question, I think that there is no good "unique" translation for "getting."

17 de agosto de 2018
2
I have struggled with this too, because it seems that there are endless ways that this is done.  The idea of ¨becoming¨ or ¨getting¨ can often be done with verbs like volverse, hacerse, or conviertirse, plus many of those more specific verbs like Miguel pointed out.  I read a good book that explained things like this that are difficult for native English speakers.  I will see if I can remember the name of it, because it was cheap. 
17 de agosto de 2018
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