# darse cuenta



## Zlatko

Cómo se dice en inglés "Me acabo de dar cuenta que... ???


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## Pearl

Zlatko said:
			
		

> Cómo se dice en inglés "Me acabo de dar cuenta que... ???



I have just realised that...


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## pen

Pearl 
You are correct it is just "realized" instead of realised.
Tambien podemos decir "I just found out"

Pen


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## braco

Pearl said:
			
		

> I have just realised that...


I HAVE JUST REALIZED THAT...


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## braco

braco said:
			
		

> I HAVE JUST REALIZED THAT...



PERO "I JUST REALIZED THAT.." SERIA TRADUCIDO COMO ME ACABO DE DAR CUENTA, SERIA MAS EXACTO...


Gracias por sus correciones...


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## blue-eyes

As far as I know, and have always used, we Brits would use "realise" whilst you Yanks would use "realize".  The same as with "advertise" and "advertize" for example. Not that the one is more correct than the other. However, if you do a spell-check using Microsoft Word, it will pick up "realise" as a spelling mistake, as the software is definitely from your side of the ocean.


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## pen

Gracias por tu clarificacion!

Pen


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## clagnol

Actually, "advertize" is not the standard spelling in the United States. We still spell it "advertise" here.


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## siddz

Realise is the English spelling and realize the American one and yes if you put realise into Word it will say it is spelt incorrectly.  However this is easy to alter for all the English people, just make sure the 'English (UK)' language is installed in word and then you can set it as the default.  Try looking in 'Tools>Language>Set Language' to change the language or the default language.

Siddz


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## cirrus

A slangy alternative in British English would be "I've just clocked.."


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## 19brendan81

In Australia the slang alternatives are "twigged" or "clicked"  i.e  suddenly he twigged that his hair was on fire.


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## Saltant

Actually, all -ize endings are original English spelling, and -ise endings are americanizations, as it were.

Similarly, connexion is the correct English spelling of 'connection'.


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## zumac

For certain cases of "darse cuenta",
you could also say "it just occurred to me."

Saludos.


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## 19brendan81

_"Actually, all -ize endings are original English spelling, and -ise endings are americanizations, as it were."_

Absolutely not, realize is quintessentially american, along with all ize endings.


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## Saltant

19brendan81 said:


> _"Actually, all -ize endings are original English spelling, and -ise endings are americanizations, as it were."_
> 
> Absolutely not, realize is quintessentially american, along with all ize endings.



No, I can assure you with absolute certainty that that is incorrect.

EDIT: My Sources are the OED and Fowler's Modern English Usage c.1926


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## Saltant

I hate to labour the point, but I was in disbelief myself when I first read it. I quote from Fowler's Modern English Usage:

"...the suffix itself, whatever the element to which it is added, is in its origin the Greek -izein, Latin -izare; and as the pronunciation is also with _z_, there is no reason why in English the special French spelling [i.e. -ise] should be followed."

It also says how -ize is the accepted form of the Oxford university Press, the Cambridge University Press and _The Times.

_Thus it seems that -ise is a French perversion of both Latin and Greek endings, and nothing to do with America at all.


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## parhuzam

Perdon por interrumpir la polémica...   (Though, I do find it interesting reading)

"darse cuenta" puede ser ....   "I just became aware that..." (and we don't have to worry about the _ise and -ize endings)

Saludos....

Y ahora suena la campana en el quadrilatero....


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## gotitadeleche

Saltant said:


> Actually, all -ize endings are original English spelling, and -ise endings are americanizations, as it were.
> 
> Similarly, connexion is the correct English spelling of 'connection'.



But how can you say -ise endings are americanizations, when we usually use -ize endings?


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## chicaleek

Para los que dicen I JUST es I HAVE JUST hay que decir lo past participle


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## parhuzam

chicaleek said:


> Para los que dicen I JUST es I HAVE JUST hay que decir lo past participle



Hola,

the " just became aware" ... is used.

If you want to use : "have"  then.....

"I have just become aware....  equally correct in the context.

Saludos a todos.


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## mostlyharmless

as well as 'Me acabo de dar cuenta que', can you also say 'acabo de darme cuenta que' ?


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## mal67

Yes, that's perfectly fine too.


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## 19brendan81

"Thus it seems that -ise is a French perversion of both Latin and Greek endings, and nothing to do with America at all."

So are you trying to tell me that infact americans use ise endings and not ize, just like the rest of the world?  No, thats not correct at all.  For all intents and purposes - ize is american, and ise is what the rest of the world uses.


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## mostlyharmless

Thanks mal67!

Brendan; I think what Saltant wanted to say was that as far as the historical evolution of the English language goes, the -ize ending came first and the -ise ending was a French corruption that came later, presumably through the Norman invasion of England when French became prestigious in England and English words took on French spellings. So I would say that the fact that America has come to use -ize endings is either a reversion back to the past or an innovation that happens to be the same as what was used in the past. (assuming Saltant's sources are correct.) Either way, the UK definitely employs -ise in general and America -ize. 

On this subject of English spelling, I hate the fact that 'until' is spelt with one 'L' but its abbreviation 'till' is spelt with two. How silly!!


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## mal67

I would guess that the adoption of more French-style spelling in the UK is far more recent than the Norman invasion...otherwise (as a matter of logic), since that invasion pre-dated the American colonies, the same spelling should be used in the US.  But more crucially, the difference in spelling appears to be a modern one - and thus must be far, far more recent than the Battle of Hastings (?) etc.


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## mostlyharmless

I don't know really... but America did have a spelling reform, I don't know how recently, but it changed English spelling, like the word endings '-our' to '-or' (colour > color), and centre > center, so I thought that perhaps the same reform might have incorporated changing -ise endings to -ize.  We could find out more on the internet!


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## mostlyharmless

Ok I read up a bit more on this, and there was no 'change' involved from -ise to -ize because both are in fact correct and it just rests on preference as to which one you use. Different newspapers in Britain chose different endings, but I would say that overall, the -ise ending is more common in England, though a dictionary will tell you both are correct. Maybe it was decided in America to stick with -ize endings for consistency, and because the 'z' sound is phonologically more accurate considering how we pronounce 'ize'. There are some interesting debates and articles if you google it.


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## DiegoDeEscocia

Saltant said:


> I hate to labour the point, but I was in disbelief myself when I first read it. I quote from Fowler's Modern English Usage:
> 
> "...the suffix itself, whatever the element to which it is added, is in its origin the Greek -izein, Latin -izare; and as the pronunciation is also with _z_, there is no reason why in English the special French spelling [i.e. -ise] should be followed."
> 
> It also says how -ize is the accepted form of the Oxford university Press, the Cambridge University Press and _The Times.
> 
> _Thus it seems that -ise is a French perversion of both Latin and Greek endings, and nothing to do with America at all.



Sorry to say that he is right....The ize endings are closer to the latin and greek origins. However I still favour 'ise' endings for many many latin words as we did not *get* many of these words directly from latin at all - we got them due to the fact that our nobility spoke *french* for a long time and that as they dropped that habbit they had to *learn* english as a second language and 'ise' is truer to the french....(this is also why we say 'you' for you singular instead of 'thou' (the original you singular - you is in fact the plural form- the nobles found they could use 'tu' or 'vous' to address a single person the latter being a formal form of address - similar to usted - they started doing the same thing in english and promptly put an end to our second person singular pronoun...indeed half the problem was also that they started refering to themselves as 'we' (the royal we) and therefore eveyone around them  started refering to them as 'you' (as they were already refering to themselves in the plural) )....There is an argument that many of these words came from french and that we therefore aught to use the french endings.....but it's an academic slogging match. Over here and indeed all over the commonwealth 'ise' rules supreme. Frankly 'ize' hurts my eyes....


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## ORL

"Me acabo de dar cuenta *de* que..."

I have just realized that...

Most posts are off-topic...


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## king me i

I was reading Hard Times by Dickens the other day, and noticed that he used the -ize endings. Many of these spellings were not standardised until some point in the last 150 years; in the time of shakespeare there were multiple ways to spell the same words. Often we say "americanisms" when actually the US has preserved the words that us English have vandalised, for example we would probably say that a "faucet" is an americanism, a word instead of the British tap, yet it is simply a word that is considered archaic in England.


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## DiegoDeEscocia

You're right regarding the fact that there used to be many many spellings for most words.

In the library of the royal medical society we have books dating back more than 300 years - and it's really interesting to notice how the same word is often spelled differently from one sentence to the next.

As for dickens using the ise vs ize endings - it is entirely possible. Also many authors deliberately broke with customs and norms. There was a big strumash over the 'ise' and 'ize' endings over there a hundred or more years ago. It's not 100% an americanism per say as I said in my previous post -more an academic split from long ago....although the way things have panned out the fact that it is american is the modern result. As I see it there are two possiblities - 1. you're reading an american english copy of a dickens book. or 2. Dickens originally used the ize endings - which wouldn't be a striking revelation!

As for the word faucet - when used to refer to a tap yes it's archaic over here to the point that people would think you pretencious. When used descriptively to describe other objects (rather than specifically taps) it may still be found in some places.

While we're on the subject of preserving french origins of words.... if ever a word smelled more of french origins it's 'faucet' ;-)


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## littledogboy

I suggest that *darse cuenta* is best translated as *take notice*.

(I know this thread is old, but it seems that Google keeps bringing people here.)


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## king me i

*Darse cuenta* can be * to realise, to become aware, *or *to take notice*, depending on content.


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## kingkongufulgus

What many British people think are Americanisms are actually from a form of English spoken in England around the Victorian age. The colonists came to the U.S. and the language here froze, while it continued to develop along a different path in Britain. Examples are putting "a-" in front of a continuous verb: a-walking, a-running, a-laughing. Look at old British literature and you'll find it. Here it's language that has been trapped in the Apalachans and is still used mainly by hillbillies, or back-woods folk. But yes, that's the Queen's English. There are word choices too that have taken a similar path, not just grammar. Like "Fall" for "Autumn." Shakespeare used Fall far before the (North) Americans.


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## kingkongufulgus

That was to say that the -ise/-ize ending is probably from a similar evolution, and the fact that it's French makes all the more sense. Because of the Normans, French has made possibly the biggest impact on English over any other language. Almost all latin similarities between English and other latin-based languages can be traced back to French. Anyway, my guess is that the French influence (of the -ise/-ize ending) inbedded in an older version of English probably froze in the United States, leaving Larry the Cable Guy a better Shakespearean actor than Kenneth Branagh. I would definitely pay to see him play Richard III.


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## Bzcenci

Zlatko said:


> Cómo se dice en inglés "Me acabo de dar cuenta que... ???


Zlatko: Se dice "me acabo de dar cuenta _de _que".  NUNCA decir "he realizado que..."  error que suelen cometer los anglo y francohablantes.


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