# qué silencio largo el de Gaston!



## donivan

Quiero traducirlo al inglés. Sería algo como:

"What a long silence Gaston's" o "what Gaston's long silence"

la verdad que ambas me parecen feas, pero igual metan sus comentarios que van a ser bien recibidos!

También se que "silence" no es contable, por ño que el "a" tampoco debería ir. Pero no sé como ponerlo.


----------



## Plangam

_"What a great guy he was"

__"What a long silence Gaston's was"_

¿Quizá?

[_What a_ + [...] + subject + verb]


----------



## duvija

O tal vez:
What a long silence was Gastón's!
Gastón's silence is/was so long!


----------



## k-in-sc

All of those are correct, more or less (although "What a long silence was Gastón's!" sounds like a nursery rhyme), but they're not quite idiomatic. "Gastón's silence" just sounds odd. It would be more natural to say "Gastón was silent for -so long/such a long time-."


----------



## elianecanspeak

"How long Gaston was silent!"  comparable to "How bright the moon is tonight!"

or

"Gaston was silent (for) so long!"  *This one sounds natural)*


----------



## elianecanspeak

Plangam said:


> [/I]_"What a long silence Gaston's was"_



This does not really work, because unlike "What a great guy he was" this is actually an ellipsis of "What a long silence Gaston's (silence) was". It sounds more awkward than grammatically incorrect.

You can rearrange "What a great guy he was" into "He was a great guy" when you omit the "what", but the Gaston sentence would come out "Gaston's was a long silence" which also sounds somewhat awkward to my ear.


----------



## k-in-sc

Yes, they all seem like they would work grammatically, but nobody would actually say them that way.


----------



## donivan

I found 





> "How long Gaston was silent!"


 from elianecanspeak's comment, as the most accurate among the rest. The part I didn't really know how to express was the "el de (Gaston)". Now I realised there's no such equivalence in English.


----------



## k-in-sc

What do you mean by "accurate"? It's certainly not the most natural-sounding.


----------



## duvija

"How long Gaston was silent!" 

¿Por qué 'was'? En español no está en pasado. Gastón sigue callado hasta el día de hoy.
Y así como está, no podemos decir 'is' tan tranquilos. 

¿Habremos llegado al fin a una cláusula que no tiene traducción? (digamos, traducción en una oración sola, sin firuletes extraños)


----------



## k-in-sc

It definitely sounds better with a verb. You're right that we can't tell from the Spanish whether it should be "was" or "has been."


----------



## duvija

k-in-sc said:


> It definitely sounds better with a verb. You're right that we can't tell from the Spanish whether it should be "was" or "has been."


 
*"What a Long Strange Trip It's Been"...*

_(The Best Of The Grateful Dead)_

Ni con eso puedo. Y me imagino a Gastón y alguien en Mar del Plata que lo extraña y no sabe por qué no habla/escribe... Es que Gastón no es muy comunicativo.


----------



## k-in-sc

_Debe de haber algo hoy
bo cartero dámelo
espero carta de mi linda novia
que se fue hace un año a Colonia ..._

The thing is that "silence" sounds so formal.


----------



## donivan

Chicos, esto se fue lejos! lo que realmente me interesa es saber como traducir oraciones que contengan "el de..." o "la de...". Es más como una reflexión, a lo que le sigue un instante de silencio también reflexivo...

Ej.

"que carta mas larga la de María..."
"que canción mas bella la de la pelicula de ayer..."
"que sonido raro el de ese pajaro..."
"que silencio largo el de Gaston..."

se entiende??


----------



## k-in-sc

In English you generally need a verb, as we have said:

María's letter was so long!/What a long letter María wrote!
The song from the movie yesterday was really beautiful.
That bird is making a really weird sound.


----------



## Lurrezko

k-in-sc said:


> In English you generally need a verb, as we have said:
> 
> María's letter was so long!/What a long letter María wrote!
> The song from the movie yesterday was really beautiful.
> That bird is making a really weird sound.



Pero es una lástima que no comuniquen el mismo énfasis que el de las frases en español. En español también podemos decir,

_La canción de la película de ayer era muy bella
Ese pájaro hace un sonido muy raro._

pero la intención, el énfasis (¡qué bella era! ¡qué raro es!) es otro.


----------



## k-in-sc

"That bird is making such a weird noise" conveys the same thing as "que sonido raro el de ese pajaro." The "so," "such" or "really" of these constructions makes them sound exclamatory. Of course, you can also say "What a weird noise that bird is making," but it's not the only way. And it doesn't sound natural in all situations, such as "el silencio de Gaston."


----------



## Lurrezko

k-in-sc said:


> "That bird is making such a weird noise" conveys the same thing as "que sonido raro el de ese pajaro." The "so," "such" or "really" of these constructions makes them sound exclamatory. Of course, you can also say "What a weird noise that bird is making," but it's not the only way.



I see. Thanks


----------



## elianecanspeak

k-in-sc said:


> The thing is that "silence" sounds so formal.



It depends on the context. "Silence" can mean "failure to speak out" and does not sound formal to me: "Gaston's silence about the way they were treating him lasted much too long".


----------



## k-in-sc

elianecanspeak said:


> It depends on the context. "Silence" can mean "failure to speak out" and does not sound formal to me: "Gaston's silence about the way they were treating him lasted much too long".


You could say it like that, but it sounds a lot less "rebuscado" to say  "Gaston -was/had been/had kept- silent about the way they were treating him for far too long."


----------



## capitas

What about;
What a long silence that of Gastón!?


----------



## roanheads

Gaston's silence  was indeed one of great length.


----------



## k-in-sc

capitas said:


> What about;
> What a long silence that of Gastón!?


No, sorry, that sounds like what it is  -- a direct translation from Spanish


----------



## elianecanspeak

k-in-sc said:


> You could say it like that, but it sounds a lot less "rebuscado" to say  "Gaston -was/had been/had kept- silent about the way they were treating him for far too long."



Saludos k-in-sc who always has such interesting things to say--


--But that is what makes a language rich and interesting --all the alternative ways of expressing a thought and the corresponding nuances.


----------



## duvija

So in Eng. you really need a verb! I wonder why. The fact that it is a fixed word order language, instead of using tons of prepositions like Sp. does, should be relevant to the issue. 
Still, there should be a way... 
This was an interesting link!


----------



## k-in-sc

No, you don't always have to have a verb. A lot of times the "What a ..." construction works just fine. It's when you add a possessive that things seem to get more complicated.
"What a pretty dress!"
"What a pretty dress (you have on), Duvija!"
But
"Duvija, your dress is so pretty!"
"Isn't Duvija's dress pretty!"


----------



## elianecanspeak

_*What a long silence*. _
What a short silence.
What a short speech.
What a long speech.
What a long beard.
_*What a long interval*._
_*What a significant silence*._
What a painful silence.
_*What a pregnant pause*._
What a complicated analogy.

The italicized bold examples sound awkward to me, but the others sound fine.  I don't know that everyone would agree with sounds natural and what does not, but I think most native speakers would accept some but not others.  What is the difference?


----------



## k-in-sc

It might have something to do with whether the observation is one anybody could be expected to agree with or whether it is more subjective.


----------



## donivan

I think it is more a subjective observation than a wait-for-response one.... as I said before, it is like a reflection. In this particular example, I say this in a moment of astonishment because of Gastón's silence length.


----------



## k-in-sc

Well, as we have said, the translation would depend on the situation and, because it contains a possessive, probably would not start with "What a ..."


----------

