# resembling Earth



## Milius

Hi Foreros,

Could anybody help me with the following translation?

It's included in a review of The Matrix, and it is _" a vast virtual reality siystem resembling Earth at the end of the twentieth century"._

My attempt: Un inmenso sistema de realidad virtual* pareciéndose a la Tierra *al final del siglo XX.

Resembling is a verb (gerund) but this part of the translation doesn't make sense to me.

Thanks a lot in advance,


----------



## Chris K

Perhaps "parecido."


----------



## SalB

En este caso "resembling" no funciona como un gerundio sino un participio. Así que la frase puede traducirse por "un inmenso sistema de realidad virtual parecido a..."


----------



## Milius

Hi Cris k and SalB!!

Thank you so much for your fast answer. But, is there any role tu use a gerund as a participle? Are there more cases? I've never ever heard something similar before.

Thanks a lot again,


----------



## SalB

Yep, there are more cases. Words ending in -ing can be gerunds _or_ participles. They aren't always gerunds. Gerunds generally have the same function as nouns and can be single words or phrases. For example:

_*Learning*_ is a lifelong process.
Bertha hates            *shopping*.

Participles, on the other hand, can act as adjectives. For example:

The horror             film was extremely *frightening.
*I was awakened by the *screaming*             child.

In your case, *resembling* worked as adjective (and thus is a participle) modifying the virtual reality system; it did not act as a noun. You can find more information on this topic here, which is where I took the examples from.


----------



## Milius

Thanks a lot for your valuable answer. It's quite strange because today the teacher told me in class that this word were a VERB! In a text given, we had to find the adjectives ending in +ING, so that I told him RESEMBLING and he answered me I was wrong because Resembling was a Verb!

I don't Know, maybe he was confused.

Thanks a lot,


----------



## Chris K

"Resembling" can be a verb (participle), an adjective, or a noun, depending on how it's used.


----------



## roanheads

También,
"----de realidad virtual que se parece a la Tierra--------"


----------



## obz

"resembling" is not an adjective.

At least I can't think of any adjective uses for it, nor does it appear in the dictionaries as such.


----------



## roanheads

obz,
De acuerdo.

to resemble > be like--have similarity to.
noun>resemblance 

Collins Eng dict.


----------



## obz

Gracias roanheads.

Es que es verbo... quedan dos opciones _"pareciéndose a"_ o_ "que se parece a"_, 

Creo que los dos equivalen, y es cuestión de los gustos.


----------



## roanheads

Como ya ves , me gusta más la segunda.


----------



## Chris K

It's an adjective. It's misleading because it has the same form as the participle. But so does "interesting" in the following example:

_That man is interesting.

_By no stretch of the imagination do we conceive of _interesting_ as being a participle describing the man's actions_, _even though the sentence seems to have the same structure as_ that man is walking. _And the same is true of "resembling" in the original example_.

_Dictionaries don't attempt to catalog every possible case in which a participle can be used adjectivally.


----------



## obz

Show us an adjective use of "resembling" please. I would love to learn a new use of the word.

_That is a very resembling photo.
What a resembling day.
That rice smells resembling._

I come up empty handed with every attempt, but I can put other_ "ing"_ adjectives in there (_interesting, invigorating, captivating, motivating, infuriating, etc_)... maybe a little funny or curious in context, but they do work.
"Resembling" does not.

(thinking about it has made me laugh ,
_"That rice smells infuriating"_  or _"that is infuriating rice"_ are hilarious, but grammatically correct sentences, "_resembling rice_" is not")

 Please, let's see it as an adjective.


----------



## Milius

Hi Everybody!

Perfect, now I understand it. But in spanish sound much better "_que se parece a". _Neverthelessif I had to translate "_que se parece a_" into english, I had done something like this _"resembles to Earth", _and never the way pointed out by Obz.

Is this case special or always you want to say something in english with this spanish sentence structure, you should use it in that way?

Thanks a lot,


----------



## Chris K

obz said:


> Show us an adjective use of "resembling" please. I would love to learn a new use of the word.
> 
> _That is a very resembling photo.
> What a resembling day.
> That rice smells resembling._
> 
> I come up empty handed with every attempt, but I can put other_ "ing"_ adjectives in there (_interesting, invigorating, captivating, motivating, infuriating, etc_)... maybe a little funny or curious in context, but they do work.
> "Resembling" does not.
> 
> Please, let's see it as an adjective.



I would argue that Milius's original example is one, but here's another:

_A man resembling a fish walked into a bar._

You're free to interpret "resembling" as being a participle if you like, but the function of the phrase "resembling a fish" is adjectival, which is why _parecido_ (in the original example) makes more sense than "pareciendo."


----------



## Lurrezko

En español, no consigo ver ninguna diferencia de sentido entre *parecido a la* *Tierra* y *que se parece a la Tierra*. Yo optaría por la primera por una cuestión de economía, pero supongo que va en gustos.


----------



## roanheads

Lurrezko oinak said:


> En español, no consigo ver ninguna diferencia de sentido entre *parecido a la* *Tierra* y *que se parece a la Tierra*. Yo optaría por la primera por una cuestión de economía, pero supongo que va en gustos.


 
Como dice el refrán > ¡ de gustos no hay nada escrito !     

Saludos.


----------



## obz

Chris K said:


> _A man resembling a fish walked into a bar._



I see it as a use of a verb in English, a shortened form of_ "A man who resembled"/"se parecía a"_
If it were an adjective, it would work, for as hilarious or awkward as they may be in context (like _the rice smells annoying_), in other uses where adjectives work.

Not all participles/gerunds serve in adjectival form.

If we take your same structure, and say "A man *juggling*_ (smelling/kissing/holding/eating)_ a fish walked into a bar"... it leaves, just as "resembling", only the verbal form to be interpreted.


----------



## roanheads

Chris,
I have hunted the internet looking for "resembling" as an adjective without success, so far. Other participles , yes, but not resemble.


----------



## XtopherB

"...semejándose a la Tierra a finales del siglo XX. "


----------



## Chris K

roanheads said:


> Chris,
> I have hunted the internet looking for "resembling" as an adjective without success, so far. Other participles , yes, but not resemble.



The real question isn't what term you apply to "resembling" but how you want to translate it, bearing in mind that English and Spanish have different grammatical structures and habits of speaking. You shouldn't feel that because the English original uses the form of the present participle that you're locked into using the analogous form in Spanish. How would you construct a sentence to convey the idea that a system of virtual reality is similar to Earth? Would you naturally structure it so that you would use _parecido a la Tierra_, or _pareciendo(se)_ a la Tierra? It's all a question of what sounds right to you.


----------



## Lurrezko

XtopherB said:


> "...semejándose a la Tierra a finales del siglo XX. "



Discrepo. El gerundio no es idiomático es español en este contexto.


----------



## Chris K

obz said:


> [...]
> 
> If we take your same structure, and say "A man *juggling*_ (smelling/kissing/holding/eating)_ a fish walked into a bar"... it leaves, just as "resembling", only the verbal form to be interpreted.



But note the difference between:

_A man walked in, resembling a frog.
A man walked in, eating a frog.
_
In the second case you could translate it the last part as "comiendo una rana," but in the first wouldn't you be more likely to say, "pare*cido* a una rana"? "Resembling a frog" is functioning as an adjective, describing the man's appearance; "eating a frog" is describing what he is doing. My sense is -- and I could be wrong -- that Spanish sees this as a situation calling for an adjective.


----------



## obz

I agree, my question is not about the Spanish, more a nitpick of "adjectival" vs "verbal" uses in English with "_resembling_". 
I think this example proves well that it is indeed a verb in all contexts, but as you say , the preferred translation to Spanish is fully dependent on context and preference of Spanish itself  .

Cheers!


----------



## Milius

Hi everybody!

All your points of vew are very interesting, although I don't agree with *Chris K* completly. In Spanish you can say both "*parecido a* o *pareciéndose/ semejándose*", having the same meaning  but different grammar. For example, if you use in spanish_ "semejándose"_ instead of _"parecido a" _it could be because of you wanting to write with a different style, maybe quite more formal. In same books, writers could choose "semejándose" in order to get a more polish style.

Consequently, I think the translation given by XtopherB is the most accurate _"semejándose a la Tierra a finales del siglo XX"_. This sounds perfectly in spanish and, in my opinion, respects both grammar. *Chris K,* I am not sure but I guess you could say in english in a different way the two following sentences (If you can't, maybe you are right) :

1.- parecido a la tierra: similar to Earth.
3.- semejándose a la tierra: resembling Earth.

As I said, is the same with other words.

Thanks a lot,


----------



## Lurrezko

Milius said:


> Hi everybody!
> 
> All your points of vew are very interesting, although I don't agree with *Chris K* completly. In Spanish you can say both "*parecido a* o *pareciéndose/ semejándose*", having the same meaning  but different grammar. For example, if you use in spanish_ "semejándose"_ instead of _"parecido a" _it could be because of you wanting to write with a different style, maybe quite more formal. In same books, writers could choose "semejándose" in order to get a more polish style.
> 
> Consequently, I think the translation given by XtopherB is the most accurate _"semejándose a la Tierra a finales del siglo XX"_. This sounds perfectly in spanish and, in my opinion, respects both grammar. *Chris K,* I am not sure but I guess you could say in english in a different way the two following sentences (If you can't, maybe you are right) :
> 
> 1.- parecido a la tierra: similar to Earth.
> 3.- semejándose a la tierra: resembling Earth.
> 
> As I said, is the same with other words.
> 
> Thanks a lot,



_Un vasto sistema de realidad virtual semejándose a la Tierra_ me parece una traducción desmañada, pésimo español. El gerundio español es contrario a este uso atributivo.


----------



## Milius

Hola Lurrezko,

Lo siento, pero discrepo absolutamente contigo. Quizás se deba utilizar el verbo *asemejar*, pero para el supuesto planteado la idea quedaba suficientemente clara. Empleando tus palabras, ¿te parece pésima la traducción siguiente?:

-Un inmenso sistema de realidad virtual*, asemejándose a la Tierra *de finales del siglo XX.

¿Y estos otros ejemplos también?:

- Un planeta cerca del borde de nuestra galaxia, _asemejándose a la tierra_ prehistórica.
- El riego por aspersión rocía el agua en gotas por la superficie de la _tierra_,  _asemejándose_ al efecto de la lluvia.
- Así como Nevsky exige lo mismo en su discurso final  *asemejándose* a los dogmas que pregonan que fuera de ellos no hay salvación.

....

Y repito, en la literatura es frecuente su uso (si estas interesado, te busco refencias literarias).

Saludos,


----------



## roanheads

De acuerdo con Lurrezco.

Cito el DPD.>que 1.2. 1.

Por influjo del inglés, se usa a veces incorrectamente un gerundio en lugar del relativo seguido del verbo en forma personal: [:_«Un taxista bonaerense sorprendió a todos al devolver una billetera conteniendo 20 000 pesos»_ (_DAméricas_ [EE. UU.] 7.2.97); debió decirse _que contenía_.


----------



## Lurrezko

Milius said:


> Hola Lurrezko,
> 
> Lo siento, pero discrepo absolutamente contigo. Quizás se deba utilizar el verbo *asemejar*, pero para el supuesto planteado la idea quedaba suficientemente clara. Empleando tus palabras, ¿te parece pésima la traducción siguiente?:
> 
> -Un inmenso sistema de realidad virtual*, asemejándose a la Tierra *de finales del siglo XX.
> 
> ¿Y estos otros ejemplos también?:
> 
> - Un planeta cerca del borde de nuestra galaxia, _asemejándose a la tierra_ prehistórica.
> - El riego por aspersión rocía el agua en gotas por la superficie de la _tierra_,  _asemejándose_ al efecto de la lluvia.
> - Así como Nevsky exige lo mismo en su discurso final  *asemejándose* a los dogmas que pregonan que fuera de ellos no hay salvación.
> 
> ....
> 
> Y repito, en la literatura es frecuente su uso (si estas interesado, te busco refencias literarias).
> 
> Saludos,



Me propones un falso dilema. En todas tus oraciones anteriores has puesto una coma, de tal manera que el gerundio introduce una cláusula explicativa, no especificativa. Esto es, el gerundio no funciona como adjetivo, sino que tiene cualidad verbal. De ahí que sean correctísimas (menos la última, que debería llevar una coma). Observa:

_El sistema de realidad virtual, asemejándose a la Tierra, consigue mantener el interés del lector._  (El sistema consigue mantener el interés asemejándose a la Tierra)
_El sistema de realidad virtual asemejándose a la Tierra consigue mantener el interés del lector_  (El sistema que se asemeja a la Tierra consigue mantener...)

Saludos


----------



## Milius

Perfecto, tema aclarado.


Saludos,


----------

