Once I read a funny story about a pair of words in Spanish: Vaca and Baca. Vaca is the female of the bull (a cow). Baca is the roof rak that you put on your car to carry the bicycle or the skis.
The joke shows a problen with the written Spanish. In English the sentence will be more or less: I put the cow on the roof rak of my car, and when I was driving the cow and the roof rak fell from the car.
In Spanish there are a lot of ways of telling this, but there's a problematic one: Puse la Vaca en la Baca del coche y, cuando iba conduciendo se me calleron las dos ....�Vacas/Bacas/BVacas/VBacas?
I don't know
So, if someday you put your "Vaca" in your car's "Baca", please, tied up them strongly not to fall down from the car! Or you won't be able to WRITE what happened to your car insurance company (in Spanish).
Bye!
Posts: 191 | Location: madrid | Registered: 10 December 2001
And speaking of cows....here is a meat question for you to help me solve, perhaps with Richard's help. Butchers differ on how to cut up a cow/steer/pig, etc, but I am having a heck of a time translating "lomo" correctly for a piece of translation related to the Basque cooking week(on again). My "big" dictionary says both "loin" and "rib", but "loin" covers a lot of territory: sirloin, tenderloin, loin chops, etc. In context, it's "lomos--note plural--fritos", so fried "something". I for one would never "fry" a slice of tenderloin, though I might fry a chop. Hey, at least I'm not asking for you to translate Basque!! (I thought I'd seen everything when I saw cod cheeks in the market)
And to return to the "amazing bi-labial fricative 'b' and 'v' of Spanish"---I keep running into both Balberde and Valverde(the latter makes more sense to me) Not a whole lot different from the "callendo"(cayendo) of the previous????
Pack light, sleep cheap, eat well.
Posts: 479 | Location: ROCKFORD,MI, USA | Registered: 23 May 2001
Hey Sue, not a pro at chopping animals but "lomo" here is "loin" (chops) not "ribs" as far as I know which ar called "costillas".
As for the "Valverde" and "Balberde" thing, it is most difintely "Valverde". Those who write it "Balberde" are either just misspelling it for lack of "edumacation" or they know it s with "V" but are playing on the "B" & "V" sounds. Some people from the Madrid Neighborhood of "Vallecas" spell it "Vallekas" with a "k" ever since a Spanish rock group from that suburb named itsef "Vallekas" with the "k" instead of the "c". So, as a joke people will say, "Soy de Vallekas, con "k"" (I'm from Vallekas, with a "k"".
Hi sue, Not sure if this will help in your translation, but here in the Canaries "lomo" is only ever used to describe slices of pork loin which has been smoked. It is almost like a tiny piece of gammon from the UK. This caused us problems in the mainland as in Alicante lomo was always served as a piece of roast pork loin. No wonder we got odd looks asking for it with "egg and chips"!!
________________________________________ Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional
I love the roof rack/Cow joke - reminds me of the story of the Brit driving in the mountains on his way to a party, first time in US. Hires a Jeep and crusing along admiring the scenery accidentally collides with a Moose. Feeling shaken, and as you know Brits are soft about animals, he gets out and finds that the Moose is still breathing, so he straps it on the fender and drives on to his rendezvous. He gets to the party and unstraps the Moose which is just coming round. When the door is opened by his hostess (an old flame) she throws herself round his neck, and by the time he manages to get away the Moose has disappeared. Now this is a fancy dress party, and a lot of the guests have dressed up as you would expect. Our hero (being a Brit) has just come in a Dress suit (Tux), and wanders off to the kitchen to get some food (he's just driven a long way & been through a stressful time!) In the kitchen he discovers the Moose with his head buried in a bowl of Ceasar salad and a couple of blondes draped across his back. As he is obviously enjoying himself, our hero does nothing. Just then the result of the fancy-dress competition is announced - the winner is the O'Donnel's (dressed as a Moose), second is the MOOSE! The O'Donnels & the Moose lock antlers - panic ensues. Our hero grabs a Champagne bottle and with tremendous presence of mind brings it down on the Moose's head and knocks him out cold. To avoid any embarrassing explanations he decides to make a quick exit, drags the Moose outside and straps him back on the fender. About a hour down the road he stops at a secluded spot and gets out to unstrap the Moose. Its at this point that he looks down and realises that its not the Moose, its the O'Donnels
Posts: 17 | Location: Leicester England | Registered: 24 May 2001
Saw my husband typing away to this message board and asked him if he had joined. Looking today I find he has been chatting away using my name,not important but it's not from me so I think it's time he had his own membership so you can meet him properly.He's really nice just give him time and he'll get round to joining!
Posts: 17 | Location: Leicester England | Registered: 24 May 2001
- rent or buy a cell phone from me for your stay in spain, more info at 
- already have a cell phone, get a spanish SIM card for it at 
