Todo el tiempo en el mundo

A discussion of the peculiarities of languages and the differences between them.
William
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Todo el tiempo en el mundo

Postby William » Mon Dec 17, 2007 2:20 am

My wife and I both have Spanish as a second language, though she speaks it better than I.

The other day I was waiting for her to do something so that I could go to work.

I said:

íVieja! ¿Crees que tengo todo el tiempo en el mundo?

This literal translation of "Do you think I have all the time in the world?" almost certainly fails to work well in Spanish.
And I'm not really sure if the preposition should be "en" or "del".

Does anyone know an idiom in Spanish for "all the time in the world", or that would communicate the same idea?

Bailey
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Postby Bailey » Mon Dec 17, 2007 1:14 pm

Perhaps you should ask your wife?

mark just-being-silly Bailey

Today is the first day of the rest of your life, Make the most of it...
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Perry
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Postby Perry » Mon Dec 17, 2007 2:49 pm

Learn to say it in Hebrew. The expression translates well.
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
Anonymous

William
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Postby William » Mon Dec 17, 2007 10:10 pm

Perhaps you should ask your wife?
I did, she didn't know either.

Learn to say it in Hebrew. The expression translates well.
OK. How much do you charge for a lesson?

Perry
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Postby Perry » Tue Dec 18, 2007 11:50 am

I am never free, but I am always reasonable.
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
Anonymous

shacolourdes
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Postby shacolourdes » Sun Dec 23, 2007 12:38 pm

I think you could say "¿Piensas que el tiempo pasa lentamente para tí?"
That sounds like it justifies what you're saying. Though it's not the exact phrase you're looking for.
shaCOLOURdes ~ colour in shades...
there's a recessive "ll" gene somewhere in our DNA.

Stargzer
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Re: Todo el tiempo en el mundo

Postby Stargzer » Thu Jan 03, 2008 9:07 pm

... I said:

íVieja! ¿Crees que tengo todo el tiempo en el mundo?

This literal translation of "Do you think I have all the time in the world?" almost certainly fails to work well in Spanish.
And I'm not really sure if the preposition should be "en" or "del".

Does anyone know an idiom in Spanish for "all the time in the world", or that would communicate the same idea?
Systranet translates your English sentence into:

"usted me piensa tiene toda la hora en el mundo?"

It translated your Spanish thusly:

Old! Think that I have all along in the world?

Now, what did you call your wife? I've been married almost a third of a century, and I value my skin quite a lot, thank you ...
Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee

Stargzer
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Postby Stargzer » Thu Jan 03, 2008 9:17 pm

I think you could say "¿Piensas que el tiempo pasa lentamente para tí?"
That sounds like it justifies what you're saying. Though it's not the exact phrase you're looking for.
Running that through Systranet for those of us who are Spanish-challenged:

"You think that the time happens slowly for tí"

It didn't like the accent on the tí. Changing it to ti rendered it correctly:

"You think that the time happens slowly for you"

Clearly, we need a native Spanish speaker to chime in hear for the correct idiom. ¿Dónde está Uncronopio cuando lo necesitamos?

I don't know from Spanish, so I can't comment on the proper accents; I just know that Spanish has them. It seems to have more accented characters than French.
Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee

shacolourdes
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Postby shacolourdes » Thu Jan 03, 2008 9:45 pm

"You think that the time happens slowly for you"
You caught the "ti" mistake. I didn't mean it, I swear! :)

What I wrote does literally translate into that, but it actually means "Do you think time passes slowly for you?"
It's the basic jist of what needs to be said, so I figured it's alright.
If you were to literally try and translate "Do you think I've all the time in the world?", it simply doesn't work...


Just as a side-note...
I'm a semi-native Spanish speaker, being my grandmother is from Mexico and has spoken the language all of her life (and frequently around/to me)... "semi" in the fact that I am also a student of Spanish, so I do use proper grammar, though I sometimes forget it (like the "ti" instance) because I wasn't raised with Castillian Spanish and things get "damaged" by time and distance from the true language...
shaCOLOURdes ~ colour in shades...
there's a recessive "ll" gene somewhere in our DNA.

Stargzer
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Postby Stargzer » Thu Jan 03, 2008 11:39 pm

All I know how to say in Spanish is "Una cerveza, por favor! Muchas Gacias!" I figure that's the most important thing for me to know. :)

Back in high school, waaaaaayyyyyy back in the Dark Ages, I was taking French II in junior year. A few doors down the street was a girl from Marseilles, a senior at a different high school, who helped me with my French homework one night. In French, the preposition of is de. As in Spanish, there are different articles for the diffent genders. One can (oops, MUST!) contract de le (of the (masculine)) to du. One cannot contract de la (of the (feminine)) to du. The plural article is the same for both genders, so de les contracts to des. At least, that's what I thought I remembered. That night, however, she told me you could contract de la to du, so that's what I did on my homework. The next day Père Eric (Fr. Eric, who was a dead ringer for Vincent Price), said "Non!" "But I checked with the French girl living down the street, and she said that's what they do. She's from Marseilles," I said. "We are learning le Français Parisien, not le Français Marseillaise" was his reply. That's why I remember at least that much French. :wink:

I managed to slide through college without a foreign language course. Science major, you know; but I pick up three computer languages. :D
Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee

Bailey
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Postby Bailey » Fri Jan 04, 2008 12:33 am

es todo saltamontes, from back in the "Kung Fu" days, the one with the weird-talking David Carradine. And I can ask for the rest room after I get my Dos Exxus, por favor.

mB

Today is the first day of the rest of your life, Make the most of it...
kb










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