I used to be confused why “mi nombre es” and “me llamo” seemed to both mean “my name is”. I read that “me llamo” really means “I am called” but I guess culturally they use “me llamo” in the same way we use “my name is” even though “mi nombre es” is a more literal translation.

I’m asking because there are a lot of phrases I’m learning that I know how to use but am still confused. If I knew the actual literal translation I would feel more comfortable. Things like “my brother likes basketball” being “A mi hermano le gusta el baloncesto” are confusing. The use of el doesn’t confuse me, that’s just how it is and I can see past it, we just don’t say “I like the basketball” in English. But what is the point of “a” at the start? To? To what? To my brother? I sort of understand le. I’m not sure when to use it, I’m developing an intuitive understanding of when to use me/te/le/nos as opposed to yo/tú/él/ella/nosotros but it’s still tricky.

So I’m wondering where I can find actually literal translations of these phrases. So many sites seem to use the phrase to mean “translation” (or maybe I’m misunderstanding the term literal translation but I’d think it is as one to one as possible).

  • @elephantiumEnglish
    2•1 year ago

    I’m not sure that you CAN find this type of literal/exact translation other than looking up each individual word in the dictionary.

    Also, think about the German word schadenfreude. There’s no single word for this concept in English. I’m sure you’ll run into an occasional Spanish example of this phenomenon.

    Another thought re: using the word “the”:

    American: I’m hurt, take me to the hospital. British: I’m hurt, take me to hospital.

    Oh, one more thought - idioms frequently don’t translate. In English, we say “beggars can’t be choosers”. In Spanish, you’d say A buen hambre, no hay pan duro. (“To good hunger there is no hard bread.”)

    Good luck!