Tras leer las entradas de Pilar Bayle en Maremagnum sobre errores de idioma en los periódicos, me he animado a poner éstos que he visto hoy en un periódico deportivo (aunque se me vean los colores, ¿qué passsssssa?):

Fuente: El Mundo Deportivo

Así las cosas, el Atlético es cuarto con 55 puntos, dos menos que el equipo cántabro, quinto.

Sabíamos que el Atlético es capaz de todo, pero esto ya no tiene nombre. ¡Es cuarto aunque el quinto, el Racing, lleva 2 puntos más que él!

Hasta el pasado fin de semana, nadrileños, santanderinos e hispalenses eran los tres conjuntos que peleaban por esa cuarta plaza.

Hombre, voy a tener que repasar un poco la geografía española, no conocía esa ciudad de Nadrid... ¿Toman las uvas en la Nuerta del Nol?

¿Cómo es posible que un periodista no se moleste ni siquiera en pasar el corrector ortográfico a sus artículos, ya no digamos leerlos un par de veces después de escribirlos? ¿Cómo es posible que un periódico no utilice revisores para evitar publicar semejantes burradas? No tengo palabras...

Oh, and in case you have been missing me (how kind of you) and just can't get enough from me (no, that's not kindness, that's utter madness), don't hesitate to have a look at my latest Squidoo lens featuring my favorite music at http://www.squidoo.com/magicalmusic. It's not complete yet but it's very rich already. Enjoy!

Yes, it's been a while since my last post. A sort of challenging professional period for me, so to speak, trying to figure out a couple of things. But this blog will soon be active again!

Just wanted to say a big merry Christmas to everybody, or a very happy season if you don't celebrate Christmas.

Cheers (with fruit juice or soda in my case),

Jaime

From Chris Royston, weekly collaborator here at Into Spanish Translation Blog:

Some more idioms involving "pan", which means "bread".

"Contigo pan y cebolla" literally translates to "With you bread and onion". The idiomatic meaning is "We shall live on love alone". At the other end of the spectrum is "Pan con pan, comida de tontos", which literally and figuratively means "Bread with bread, meal of fools". In Spanish, to describe a very long day, one would say "Más largo que un dia sin pan", or "Longer than a day without bread". Finally, to describe something that is very easy one can say "Es pan comido", which means "It's eaten bread". In English we exhibit more of a "sweet tooth" since we would say "It's a piece of cake" or "It's as easy as pie".

Thanks Chris! I would add a couple more, highlighting the sometimes critical difference between “ser” and “estar” (the two possible translations of the verb “to be”, and great headaches for Spanish learners):

- "Ser más bueno que el pan" and “Estar más bueno que el pan" would both be literally translated as “To be better than bread”. With the idiomatic hat on, however, "Ser bueno" means to be good and "Estar bueno" means to be delicious, generally used when speaking about food. No wonder then that the first idiom actually means “To be as good as gold” while the second is a very familiar way to say that somebody has a great sex appeal…

Want more? Don't hesitate to visit Colloquial Spanish blog!

I just saw this on a Spanish ads portal:

Baneo de Cuentas
Si han baneado tu cuenta por anuncios inapropiados o repetidos espera unos días para volver a acceder, los usuarios baneados se resetean cada pocos días

Was it that difficult to write this in Spanish rather than inventing mutant English-Spanish words like "baneo" (banning), "baneado" (banned) and "se resetean" (are reset)?

My Spanglish to Spanish translation:

Penalización de cuentas
Si han penalizado tu cuenta por anuncios inapropiados o repetidos, espera unos días para volver a acceder, las penalizaciones se retiran pasados unos días.

Sounds better?