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"The very existence of poetry should make us laugh. What is it all about? What is it for?"
--Kenneth Koch
“El subtítulo ‘Modelo para armar’ podría llevar a creer que las
diferentes partes del relato, separadas por blancos, se proponen como piezas permutables.”
31 ago 2011
Got Lead?
A student wrote "tenía plomo" for "has led to...." I finally figured out that s/he was confusing the verb "to lead" with the name of the metal "lead." Aargh... Of couse, you don't use the verb tener with perfect tenses.
I don't think it can be MT - a program might confuse lead (vb) with lead (the metal), but surely not with "led".
I think it's an older problem, dictionary translation. How do you say "lead" in Spanish? Look it up: lead - plomo (followed by lots of little letters and other meanings and things, but never mind them, take the first translation, it's probably the best, plus it saves time.)
This is the same problem that results in Spanish students of English writing things like "I am a tapeworm person." (solitaria) or to start sentences with "Overcoat, I think this is because..." (sobre todo versus sobretodo).
3 comentarios:
This sounds like a classic case of machine translation.
I don't think it can be MT - a program might confuse lead (vb) with lead (the metal), but surely not with "led".
I think it's an older problem, dictionary translation. How do you say "lead" in Spanish? Look it up: lead - plomo (followed by lots of little letters and other meanings and things, but never mind them, take the first translation, it's probably the best, plus it saves time.)
This is the same problem that results in Spanish students of English writing things like "I am a tapeworm person." (solitaria) or to start sentences with "Overcoat, I think this is because..." (sobre todo versus sobretodo).
That's assuming the that the student wrote "had led" when she could have easily written "has lead."
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