# computer



## jacinta

Siempre he dicho computadora para computer. Tengo un estudiante que es de España y el me dijo que le regalaron un ordenador en estas navidades.  ¿Donde en el mundo se dice computadora?  Es cierto que me equivoco!


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## alc112

ordenador y computadora tienen el mismo significado. tambien en algunos paises le dicen computador. aca en argentina le decimos computadora o compu, para que no sea tan largo


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## lauranazario

Puerto Rico & USA = computadora

Happy Three Kings Day!
LN


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## funnydeal

alc112 said:
			
		

> ordenador y computadora tienen el mismo significado. tambien en algunos paises le dicen computador.* aca en argentina le decimos computadora o compu, para que no sea tan largo*



Igual en México


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## JUANSE

la "pc"  (mas corto...mmm...lo dudo) (lol)

saludos

juanse


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## lidia

¡Hola! 
En España es "ordenador".

Lidia


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## gotitadeleche

En Colombia se dice computador.


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## reedhq

jacinta, your student just said that to throw you a curve. LOL Just kidding. Interesting how usage varies from country to country.


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## el_novato

jacinta said:
			
		

> Siempre he dicho computadora para computer. Tengo un estudiante que es de España y el me dijo que le regalaron un ordenador en estas navidades.  ¿Donde en el mundo se dice computadora?  Es cierto que me equivoco!



Maestra;

In América, it is more used the word "computadora", maybe "ordenador" it is more used in Europa.

Comentario:

PC 
In the past, it was used by  the youngest people. Nowadays, it has a tendency to be used in more proportion by the people.


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## Antartic

Si quieres llamarlo coloquialmente puedes decirle "el tarro"


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## kopol342

I think the "rule" for that is that countries take words from countries surrounding them. In the U.S we say computer so it makes sense that in Mexico and South American countries they say computadora. While in España they say ordenador because computer in French is something similar (I don't speak french, but it's something like ordenue....I'm probably off on the spelling)

ok, I submitted this and then read it again.  I make it sound like all spanish-speaking countries borrow words, but it could be the other way around too.


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## Artrella

Computadora en Argentina o PC!!!


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## Leopold

kopol342 said:
			
		

> I think the "rule" for that is that countries take words from countries surrounding them. In the U.S we say computer so it makes sense that in Mexico and South American countries they say computadora. While in España they say ordenador because computer in French is something similar (I don't speak french, but it's something like ordenue....I'm probably off on the spelling)
> 
> ok, I submitted this and then read it again. I make it sound like all spanish-speaking countries borrow words, but it could be the other way around too.


 You're right kopol. Ordenador, which is the word used in Spain (also PC, but usually in written pseudo-formal Spanish, we don't like much talking with initials), comes from the French "ordenateur". While "computador/a" comes from English.

 Fortunately most of the "main" languages borrow words. It's one of the steps in language evolution. I think.

 L.


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## EVAVIGIL

In Spain, it is "ordenador".
I once read that "computadora" didn't sound nice.
Any comments on that? 
Cheers.
EVA.


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## dave

I had never seen the word *computadora * until I found this forum - I have always used *ordenador*. 



			
				EVAVIGIL said:
			
		

> In Spain, it is "ordenador".
> I once read that "computadora" didn't sound nice.
> Any comments on that?
> Cheers.
> EVA.


There is something about the middle four letters of *computadora * that make it sound rather vulgar!


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## belén

EVAVIGIL said:
			
		

> In Spain, it is "ordenador".
> I once read that "computadora" didn't sound nice.
> Any comments on that?
> Cheers.
> EVA.




Although I live in Spain, I have contact with people from other Spanish - speaking countries and I am very used to hearing computadora.
To me it sounds nice, as nice as "tomate" or "aspirador" 
I don't know what Eva refers to when she says she read that it didn't sound nice. 
If you are used to a word and it is correct, it sounds nice, right?


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## Jessuki

Hi, 

In Spain -as far as I know- you can find:   

- '(el) ordenador'
- '(el) pc'
- ''(el) ordenata' <===== this is colloquial and not used by everybody

Saludos desde el ordenador de mi trabajo!!!!!!!!! XD

Jéssika


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## el_novato

dave said:
			
		

> I had never seen the word *computadora * until I found this forum - I have always used *ordenador*.
> 
> 
> There is something about the middle four letters of *computadora * that make it sound rather vulgar!




*computer  * ordenador m, computador(a) m(f) AmL; to do sth by ~ hacer algo con el ordenador 
(from Diccionario Cambridge Klett Compact)


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## EVAVIGIL

That's exactly what I thought, Belén!
Apparently, something to do with the four middle letters, as Dave would put it!
I have lived in Argentina for years, and it is "la computadora" o "la compu". Nothing wrong with it. It was just a view from someone who wrote a book on basic IT in Spain.
Cheers!
EVA.


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## Tormenta

En Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Pananá y Argentina de dice computadora


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## belén

EVAVIGIL said:
			
		

> That's exactly what I thought, Belén!
> Apparently, something to do with the four middle letters, as Dave would put it!
> I have lived in Argentina for years, and it is "la computadora" o "la compu". Nothing wrong with it. It was just a view from someone who wrote a book on basic IT in Spain.
> Cheers!
> EVA.




Thanks for the info, Eva!!  I just found it such a strange comment from someone writing a book, right?....
Abrazotes,
Be


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## Tormenta

dave said:
			
		

> I had never seen the word *computadora * until I found this forum - I have always used *ordenador*.
> 
> 
> There is something about the middle four letters of *computadora * that make it sound rather vulgar!




OMG! I have said "computadora"  all my life and  never thought about the 4 middle letters.   
I don't think that Spanish speaking people thinks the word sounds vulgar. 

Anyhow, both words, "Computadora"and "Ordenador" can be found in the DRAE.





Tormenta


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## belén

Reputación/Reputado
Diputación/Diputado
Amputación/Amputado
...............


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## Tormenta

kopol342 said:
			
		

> I think the "rule" for that is that countries take words from countries surrounding them. In the U.S we say computer so it makes sense that in Mexico and South American countries they say computadora. While in España they say ordenador because computer in French is something similar (I don't speak french, but it's something like ordenue....I'm probably off on the spelling)
> 
> *ok, I submitted this and then read it again.  I make it sound like all spanish-speaking countries borrow words, but it could be the other way around *too.





Too right! 
 Some English speaking people tend to believe that whenever there is a similitude between English and Spanish words it is due to the fact that  Spanish speaking countries did not know a Spanish word; therefore they borrowed an English one.  And perhaps,  since Spain is too far away to borrow anything from the USA, they borrow from France.

That is true in some cases, but it is not true in many other cases. After all English has borrowed words from French, German, Latin, and many other languages. 

And, no, Mexicans did not borrow tacos from Taco Bell


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## dave

Tormenta said:
			
		

> After all English has borrowed words from French, German, Latin, and many other languages.



English is composed almost entirely of words borrowed from other languages!


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## belén

I guess all languages are composed of words borrowed from other languages!!!! 
That's the beauty of languages!!!


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## EVAVIGIL

Just a brief correction for Tormenta: "Spanish speaking people think (not thinks)".
In English, people is plural.
Cheers.
EVA.


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## Noel Acevedo

En Puerto Rico..., ahora he oido a amigos Venezolanos referise a la máquina como computador...


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## Beaver

lidia said:
			
		

> ¡Hola!
> En España es "ordenador".
> 
> Lidia


 
¡Hola Lidia!

Pero una computadora hace más que “ordenar”. Cuando yo empecé mi carrera con las computadoras en el año 1968, teníamos una maquinaria que se llamaba “Sorter” (¿Sorteadora?), ordenaba las tarjetas de 80 columnas. Esa maquinaria no podía hacer más nada. Yo prefiero computadora, que es lo se usa en Estados Unidos y otros países.

Y ahora, una pregunta de curiosidad. Mi papa nació en Valencia, España. ¿Cómo se dice y como se pronuncia computadora en Catalán?

El Castor


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## belén

Beaver said:
			
		

> ¡Hola Lidia!
> 
> Pero una computadora hace más que “ordenar”. Cuando yo empecé mi carrera con las computadoras en el año 1968, teníamos una maquinaria que se llamaba “Sorter” (¿Sorteadora?), ordenaba las tarjetas de 80 columnas. Esa maquinaria no podía hacer más nada. Yo prefiero computadora, que es lo se usa en Estados Unidos y otros países.
> 
> Y ahora, una pregunta de curiosidad. Mi papa nació en Valencia, España. ¿Cómo se dice y como se pronuncia computadora en Catalán?
> 
> El Castor



En catalán decimos "ordenador" sin pronunciar la "r" final.

Saludos,
Be


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## Jupiter

Después de todo este debate, la cuestión se traslada a la siguiente: ¿porqué en francés se llamó ordinateur a lo que en inglés se llamó computer? 

Navegando por la red encuentro una explicación del origen del neologismo ordinateur, que copio abajo. Me parece bastante curiosa. Para los que no lean francés, el resumen es que en 1955 la oficina de IBM en Francia hizo una consulta a un filólogo de la Sorbona sobre el nombre que se podía dar a esa máquina (¡¡Un ingeniero consultando a un lingüista!! ¡¡Esto parece ciencia-ficción!!). El profesor le sugirió 'ordinateur' (ordenador) o más preferiblemente 'ordinatrice electronique' (ordenadora electrónica).


Histoire de la creation du mot Ordinateur

Au printemps de 1955, IBM France s'appretait a construire dans ses ateliers
de Corbeil-Essonnes (consacres jusque la au montage des machines
mecanographiques -tabulatrices, trieuses etc. de technologie
electromecanique) les premieres machines electroniques destinees au
traitement de l'information. Aux Etats-Unis ces nouvelles machines etaient
designees sous le vocable "Electronic Data Processing System" ou EDPS.
Le mot "computer" etait plutot reserve aux machines scientifiques et
se traduisait aisement en "calculateur" ou "calculatrice".
Sollicite par la direction de l'usine de Corbeil-Essonnes, Francois
Girard, alors responsable du service promotion generale publicite, decida de consulter un de ses anciens maitres, Jacques Perret, professeur de philologie latine a la Sorbonne. A cet effet il ecrit une lettre a la signature de C. de Waldner, president d'IBM France. Il decrit sommairement la nature et les fonctions des nouvelles machines. Il accompagne sa lettre de brochures illustrant les machines mecanographiques. Le 16 avril, le professeur Perret lui repond. L'ordinateur IBM 650 peut commencer sa carriere.
Protege pendant quelques mois par IBM France, le mot fut rapidement
adopte par un public de specialistes, de chefs d'entreprises et par
l'administration. IBM decida de le laisser dans le domaine public.

La lettre de J. Perret.

     Cher Monsieur,                                         Le 16 IV 1955

     Que diriez vous d'"ordinateur" ? C'est un mot correctement forme, qui se
trouve meme dans le Littre comme adjectif designant Dieu qui met de l'ordre
dans le monde. Un mot de ce genre a l'avantage de donner aisement un verbe
"ordiner", un nom d'action "ordination". L'inconvenient est que "ordination"
designe une ceremonie religieuse ; mais les deux champs de signification
(religion et comptabilite) sont si eloignes et la ceremonie d'ordination
connue, je crois, de si peu de personnes que l'inconvenient est peut-etre
mineur. D'ailleurs votre machine serait "ordinateur" (et non ordination)
et ce mot est tout a fait sorti de l'usage theologique.
     "Systemateur" serait un neologisme, mais qui ne me parait pas offensant ;
il permet "systemation" ; - mais systemer ne me semble guere utilisable -
     "Combinateur" a l'inconvenient du sens pejoratif de "combine" ; "combiner"
est usuel donc peu capable de devenir technique ; "combination" ne me parait
guere viable a cause de la proximite de "combinaison". Mais les Allemands
ont bien leurs "combinats" (sorte de trusts, je crois), si bien que le mot
aurait peut-etre des possibilites autres que celles qu'evoque "combine".
     "Congesteur", "digesteur" evoquent trop "congestion" et "digestion"
     "Synthetiseur" ne me parait pas un mot assez neuf pour designer un objet
specifique, determine comme votre machine.
     En relisant les brochures que vous m'avez donnees, je vois que plusieurs
de vos appareils sont designes par des noms d'agent feminins (trieuse,
tabulatrice). "Ordinatrice" serait parfaitement possible et aurait meme
l'avantage de separer plus encore votre machine du vocabulaire de la
theologie.
     Il y a possibilite aussi d'ajouter a un nom d'agent un complement :
"ordinatrice d'elements complexes" ou un element de composition, par ex.:
"selecto-systemateur". - "Selecto-ordinateur" a l'inconvenient de 2 "o"
en hiatus, comme "electro-ordinatrice".
     Il me semble que je pencherais pour "ordinatrice electronique".
Je souhaite que ces suggestions stimulent, orientent vos propres facultes
d'invention. N'hesitez pas a me donner un coup de telephone si vous avez
une idee qui vous paraisse requerir l'avis d'un philologue.


                                                                   Votre
                                                                 J. Perret


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## NTFS

Bueno... segun con nuestro clientes aqui de AOL, otras dicen computadora normalmente pero otras usan ordenador/tore(cpu tower) para referirse con el CPU. 

 
>
Just a thought! hehehehe. Just wanna share my experiences... but im not that good in spanish... i've only studied for 3months. i still have a long way to go....


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