Spanish help...

abctriplets

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Ok, so in my book I've got a Spanish-speaking deckhand who has just grabbed hold of metal box whose temperature is hovering at absolute zero. (just go with me...)

I'm looking for the Spanish equivalent of "Ah! That hurts!" - or anything in the appropriate ballpark.

Previously I was told to write “¡Ay! ¡Eso duele!” but I had a beta reader suggest this was wrong, saying I should use either ‘Me duele’ or ‘Este me duele’

I was told to check with the experts here :)
 

Deb Kinnard

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"¡Ay, me duele!" is correct. "That hurts" is an English idiomatic expression. The thing that's doing the hurting is feeling no pain, is it? It's the victim who's got the owie, so the Spanish literally "it hurts me" is semantically closer than the English version.
 

maxmordon

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Spanish speaker here."¡Ay, me duele!" is grammatically correct, but feels a tad artificial to be honest...
 

backslashbaby

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I won't put Spanish expletives unless I get a nod that it's OK or what you want, but that would sound more authentic to me [a non-native]. Depending on the character, he might use blasphemous or pseudo-blasphemous phrases that would be authentic, too, imho.
 

JulieHowe

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The Spanish equivalents of s--t or f--k might be more appropriate under the circumstances.
 

cptwentworth

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I was going to say, that's not what my husband would say, and he's native. More like "Chinga tu madre, este pinche cosa me duele."

I can hear him in the basement right now yelling the same thing at the TV for a soccer game...
 

backslashbaby

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I was going to say, that's not what my husband would say, and he's native. More like "Chinga tu madre, este pinche cosa me duele."

I can hear him in the basement right now yelling the same thing at the TV for a soccer game...

Listen to you go :D :D My friend's grandmother always says, "CHI...nelas!" ;)
 
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Sargentodiaz

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I was going to say, that's not what my husband would say, and he's native. More like "Chinga tu madre, este pinche cosa me duele."

I can hear him in the basement right now yelling the same thing at the TV for a soccer game...

Try non-generic "Chinga! Este pinche cosa me duele."
The first one is more like swearing at an individual.
 

VeggieChick

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Ay, me duele! does not sound like something a native speaker would say in a moment of surprise. It's the correct translation, but it doesn't sound right. It literally means "it hurts me," which is a weird thing to say. Something like "Ay, esto duele!" (this hurts!) would be more appropriate.
 

talkwrite

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Hi;
I translate for a living and I have a different option
Me duele, eso me duele refers to what part of the body is feeling the pain...."my thumb huts", "my foot hurts". So "Ay eso me duele" is technically incorrect since you are talking about a metal box.
I would use this is hurting (injuring) my hand-
Ay Eso me lastima mi mano (simple present tense) or you could go Me esta lastimando mi mano. This is hurting (injuring) my hand
or use the actual sensation (freeze burn)
AY Eso me quema ( same word as burn)

Maybe that will help.
 
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Deb Kinnard

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I went for short-and-stressed, so I came up with something more succinct. When I'm in pain it's a word or two, nothing more!

But Talkwrite has it spot-on except for one thing: I've been told it's not stated "eso me lastima mi mano" but "eso me lastima la mano" since the "mi" is already implicit in "me" of the reflexive verb.

¿No es verdad?
 

Bartholomew

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Ok, so in my book I've got a Spanish-speaking deckhand who has just grabbed hold of metal box whose temperature is hovering at absolute zero. (just go with me...)

I'm looking for the Spanish equivalent of "Ah! That hurts!" - or anything in the appropriate ballpark.

Previously I was told to write “¡Ay! ¡Eso duele!” but I had a beta reader suggest this was wrong, saying I should use either ‘Me duele’ or ‘Este me duele’

I was told to check with the experts here :)


¡Miércoles! (Literally: Wednsday, but some Spanish speakers will say this instead if Mierda, which means Shit.)
 

Symphony

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Hi there,

(Please accept apologies for the lack of Sp. punctuation - I'm useless at finding these things but you know where they go ...)

Ay, me duele is a very literal translation. If you're looking for more 'natural' speech, then for example if someone's head is really booming away, they're likely to say
Ay, que me duele la cabeza! or Ay, cuanto me duele la cabeza!

If you were in a doctor's surgery and he was 'probing' to see where something hurt, the most likely reaction when he hit the spot would be:
Ay, que dolor!

Hope this helps? The Spanish are so much more expressive than we are in their language and don't use it the same way at all, so the less literal the better, I think.

Good luck,
Symphony
 

VeggieChick

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Yep. These options sound a lot more realistic.


Hi there,

(Please accept apologies for the lack of Sp. punctuation - I'm useless at finding these things but you know where they go ...)

Ay, me duele is a very literal translation. If you're looking for more 'natural' speech, then for example if someone's head is really booming away, they're likely to say
Ay, que me duele la cabeza! or Ay, cuanto me duele la cabeza!

If you were in a doctor's surgery and he was 'probing' to see where something hurt, the most likely reaction when he hit the spot would be:
Ay, que dolor!

Hope this helps? The Spanish are so much more expressive than we are in their language and don't use it the same way at all, so the less literal the better, I think.

Good luck,
Symphony
 

Fresie

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Absolute zero? Wouldn't his hand desintegrate on the spot?

I'd think it'll hurt so much he'll just scream his head off, like someone tortured. :e2chain:
 

Skyraven

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well you could pull a bart simpson and say Ay caramba instead of "carajo" which is a curse.