this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2024
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Do you have a cat? (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

English Translation:

Cat: Do you have a cat?

Girl: No.

Cat: Now you have one!

Girl: And that's how I got a cat.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Alright, now I'm curious. I was responding from the perspective of an English speaker who reads and understands Spanish.

What do you find strange in the Spanish version? How would you express these lines more naturally?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

"un gato", it's missing the word "a" in "a cat", which makes it sound wrong and funnier in spanish than if it'd be written well

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Like I said, I'm not a native speaker. However, I was taught that the indefinite article is often omitted in this type of sentence to avoid confusion between an and one.

In other words "¿Tienes carro?" and "Tiene novio." still mean "do you have a car?" and "she has a boyfriend" even without the articles.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

you're right of course, and for me the first panel the sentence sounds correct, but not the last one, where she's already refering to her cat which is a cat like "gato" only. Maybe not the same asking if you have any car, any boyfriend or any cat as opposed to saying that now you have a cat, which should go with the "a" before. Unless the cat is called "Cat" 😅

I'm not a linguistic and cannot argue the why properly, but the sentence in last panel is definitely off