Lesson Seven

Introduction:

In this lesson, the second in Part Three of the course, we’ll turn our attention to connotative meaning, or how the meaning of words can depend on the context in which the word is used. We’ll explore the concept of word collocation: the ways words are commonly used together in different languages, and provide some examples of words that collocate differently in English and Spanish. We’ll take a look at idioms and fixed expressions and examples of how the same idea is often expressed differently in Spanish and English. Finally, we’ll go over connecting words and phrases which are frequently used in letters to help you achieve natural expression and flowing translations. This lesson will focus on practical examples aimed to help you expand the tools you have to draw upon when translating.

Objectives:

After completing this lesson you will:

• Be able to analyze words that are commonly used together in both English and Spanish and identify when they do not coincide.
• Identify common idioms and improve your translation of these from the source language to the target language.
• Be able to translate conjunctions and connecting words between Spanish and English in a way that is naturally expressed.

Key Topics:

7.1) Word Collocation
           a) Connotative meaning
           b) Collocation

7.2) Idioms and Fixed Expressions

7.3) Conjunctions and connecting phrases