Not exactly what I meant...

October 5, 2007 12:26 PM

Translate into Spanish, please....

My daughter-in-law sent me a message in Spanish. I want to reply, "Thanks, sweetie. Have a good weekend! (Free is good...)" The internet translation sites give me "Agradece, sweetie. Tener un buen fin de semana. (es libremente bueno!)" That's just messed up...

posted by wafaa to writing & language (14 answers total)

I think you'd start out with "Gracias querida. Que tengas un buen fin de semana." I'm not sure about "free is good" without more context.

/waits to be flamed by native speakers/
posted by footnote at 12:32 PM on October 5, 2007

The literal translation for 'free is good' would be 'gratis es bueno.' Unfortunately I can't seem to think of a better idiomatic expression.
posted by oddman at 12:43 PM on October 5, 2007

I'd use what footnote said. Do you mean free as in without cost, or as in having time off, etc?

sans cost: gratis es bueno, as above.
time off: que bueno el tiempo libre
posted by andifsohow at 1:10 PM on October 5, 2007

Sweetie is probably better translated as "cariño".
posted by JJ86 at 1:25 PM on October 5, 2007

Why not "Gracias, querida [or cariña, which ever is appropriate in Argentine Spanish] y que te divierta el fin de semana. (Que buena faltas obligaciones.)"

Hopefully, with an Argentine daughter-in-law, you'll have a better bead on Argentine slang, even if your Castellano is not quite where you'd like it to be.
posted by deejay jaydee at 1:45 PM on October 5, 2007

Sweetie == Dulzura

"Gracias, dulzura. ¡Que tengas un buen fin de semana! (Gratis es bueno...)"
posted by signal at 2:45 PM on October 5, 2007

Yep, I meant free without cost.
posted by wafaa at 3:12 PM on October 5, 2007

dulzura isn't used to refer to a person, it is sweetnessof an object. Use either cariño or cielo. Cariño is always -o with either sex.
posted by JJ86 at 4:41 PM on October 5, 2007

(Native speaker of Spanish here, and trained as a linguist ages ago)

"Gratis es bueno" can be understood, but it's not idiomatic. Better to use:

"Gracias, cariño. ¡Que tengas un buen fin de semana! (Qué bueno que sea gratis...)"

deejay jaydee, where did you get that the daughter-in-law was Argentinian? wafaa said nothing about it the question!

The above is perfect in Spain and mosth of South and Central America, but in Argentina "tengas" should probably be "tengás", with an acute accent on the "a":

"Gracias, cariño. ¡Que tengás un buen fin de semana! (Qué bueno que sea gratis...)"

Using voseo like this in the subjunctive is informal (some people even consider it incorrect, or associate it with "lower class" speech), so coming from you it would just make you sound more authentic.

Anywhere North of Chile, Argentina and Uruguay (or across the Atlantic) it's better to use the first version.
posted by kandinski at 7:47 PM on October 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

dulzura isn't used to refer to a person

Yes, it is. [/chilean]

Anywhere North of Chile, Argentina and Uruguay (or across the Atlantic) it's better to use the first version.

The 'tengás' form is actually only used in Argentina, Uruguay and parts of Bolivia, not Chile.

You could use "Si es gratis, es bueno", for the "Free is good" part, though kandinski's is probably better.
posted by signal at 8:11 PM on October 5, 2007

signal: thanks! I am ashamed to confess I can't really tell Argentinian from Chilean. Do you use voseo in Chile in the indicative?
posted by kandinski at 8:39 PM on October 5, 2007

kandinski: We don't use the "sabés", "tenés", etc. conjugation. "Vos" (pronounced "Vo") is used with our own "sabí", "tení" conjugations.
posted by signal at 8:53 PM on October 5, 2007

"Free is good" is kind of a neutral, less than enthusiastic recommendation in English, stated with detachment. So, "por lo menos es gratis" I think is a little closer to the English sense and a little less enthusiastic. "Qué bueno que es gratis" is much more enthusiastic than "free is good," at least to me. The problem is that this construction ("* is good"), which seems to only have become popular in the past five years or so, doesn't really translate well. English tends to be much more laconic than Spanish, and this construction is a good example, which is why the more enthusiastic recommendation may well be avoided.
posted by tesseract420 at 5:23 AM on October 6, 2007

I really like por lo menos es gratis for this, but tiny derail, the second option above should take the subjunctive, "Que bueno que sea gratis"
posted by Wilder at 9:09 AM on October 6, 2007