Translate Spanish label, please?

Was able to reach an acquaintance in Chile. She confirmed that the message is to return the machete to the vendor if it's not good.

And she made me jealous by also confirming that she is still eating those little langostino lobsters that Red Lobster quit serving here. They got them from Chile, out of the Humboldt Current fisheries.

Thanks to you wiseacres who wouldn't just give a straight answer earlier, now I have to sit here pining for shellfish that I can't get.

What a way to begin a Monday! :rolleyes:

On the plus side, my correspondent did acknowledge that she has noticed how like the Texas flag the Chilean flag is. I guess they know a good thing when they see it.
 
On the plus side, my correspondent did acknowledge that she has noticed how like the Texas flag the Chilean flag is. I guess they know a good thing when they see it.[/QUOTE]

Unfortunately, that may be backwards.
Chile adopted their flag 19 years before Texas did.
( sorry to add more misery to your Monday)
 
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It translates as:
"That it be returned to the seller if the blade does not turn out good."
Keep in mind what is used in one Spanish speaking area may mean something different in another. For example in Puerto Rico a Papaya is a fruit, in Cuba it means something completely different.
Steve
 
Spanish translation

From a sticker label on the blade of a machete made in El Salvador by Corneta, which is owed by Imacasa:

"Que se devuelva al vendedor si esta hoja no sale buena"

Does this mean to return to seller if the blade is no good?
What does "sale" in particular mean? Is it derived from "salir"? How does that make sense?

I suspect that to understand, I need both literal and colloquial translations. And does "hoja" mean both blade and page, as of paper? I see pocket notebooks containing, say, 80 hojas.

I'm a gringo but I attended the U of Costa Rica "well back in the previous century," and I have friends in Argentina who, at my request, critique my Spanish. We spent January with them in Buenos Aires.

First, "salir." That is the verb from which is derived "sale." Like many verbs in English, it has various uses. For example, if I want to say "My brother was dancing with Alia." It could be said thus: "Mi hermano salió a bailar con Alia." It means to carry out, or do, followed by the activity. It can mean "to go out" or to stick out": "Le sale mucho el pañuelo del bolsillo." His pocket (or bag) looked stuffed with bread. The translation would be colloquial, but common.

"Hoja" also has many applications. "Leaf," of course, but in the application you cite it means the blade.
"Las hojas colorean ya." Colorean would translate "coloring," and "ya" is one way to say "now," or "already."
"La hoja estaba muy afilada" would translate "The blade was very sharp." It can also mean "page," as you found. In some applications it can have a larger meaning such as "record." We might say show me your (work) record, and in Spanish "record" could translate "hoja."

On-line translators have trouble with application, so you have to use caution trying to do a word-for-word comparison. In English we have the word "fly." It has different meanings, depending on the application.
We also say "What page are you on?" when we are asking if the others are in agreement with us.

Hope this helps.
 
I quit reading and translating Spanish about twelve years ago when I went into a seedy-looking little Mexican restaurant down in the four corners area.

A buddy and I had been hauling a trailer load of horses up to my place and were dead tired and hungrier than a coyote with a litter of pups and a broken leg.

Anyway, this fat ol' Mexican guy in a grayish-yellowish t-shirt with who-know-what kind of stains down the front tossed a couple of greasy menus on our table, grunted, then walked away.

We checked the menu, then noticed a statement someone had scrawled in pencil at the bottom of the page.

It read: Gringos, escupimos en tu comida.:D
 
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^ We have some of those in eastern WA. Nary an anglo in the place as they cater to the working Hispanics. I seek those places out for the food and just don't pay any attention to the conversations. The Mexican food we get around here is barely fit to eat.
 
Mule Packer said:
I quit reading and translating Spanish about twelve years ago when I went into a seedy-looking little Mexican restaurant down in the four corners area.

A buddy and I had been hauling a trailer load of horses up to my place and were dead tired and hungrier than a coyote with a litter of pups and a broken leg.

Anyway, this fat ol' Mexican guy in a grayish-yellowish t-shirt with who-know-what kind of stains down the front tossed a couple of greasy menus on our table, grunted, then walked away.

We checked the menu, then noticed a statement someone had scrawled in pencil at the bottom of the page.

It read: Gringos, escupimos en tu comida.:D
Click to expand...


I don't doubt it. I read where a cop actually caught some fast food worker spitting on his food. He arrested the punk and charged him with endangering the public and unsanitary operation of a food serving business or something. I like to see these jerks get hauled up short for things like that. I avoid some places because I really wonder if they do things like that. Especially to cops in uniform... I really just don't have a lot of respect for most in fast food places, anyway. Even where race isn't a factor, some of these younger workers may lack a sense of responsibility and basic sanitary commitment.

I hope that you left that place without eating and reported them to the health dept. Even as a joke, that note could be considered a terroristic threat, I hope.
 
Harkrader said:
From a sticker label on the blade of a machete made in El Salvador by Corneta, which is owed by Imacasa:

"Que se devuelva al vendedor si esta hoja no sale buena"

Does this mean to return to seller if the blade is no good?
What does "sale" in particular mean? Is it derived from "salir"? How does that make sense?

I suspect that to understand, I need both literal and colloquial translations. And does "hoja" mean both blade and page, as of paper? I see pocket notebooks containing, say, 80 hojas.

I'm a gringo but I attended the U of Costa Rica "well back in the previous century," and I have friends in Argentina who, at my request, critique my Spanish. We spent January with them in Buenos Aires.

First, "salir." That is the verb from which is derived "sale." Like many verbs in English, it has various uses. For example, if I want to say "My brother was dancing with Alia." It could be said thus: "Mi hermano salió a bailar con Alia." It means to carry out, or do, followed by the activity. It can mean "to go out" or to stick out": "Le sale mucho el pañuelo del bolsillo." His pocket (or bag) looked stuffed with bread. The translation would be colloquial, but common.

"Hoja" also has many applications. "Leaf," of course, but in the application you cite it means the blade.
"Las hojas colorean ya." Colorean would translate "coloring," and "ya" is one way to say "now," or "already."
"La hoja estaba muy afilada" would translate "The blade was very sharp." It can also mean "page," as you found. In some applications it can have a larger meaning such as "record." We might say show me your (work) record, and in Spanish "record" could translate "hoja."

On-line translators have trouble with application, so you have to use caution trying to do a word-for-word comparison. In English we have the word "fly." It has different meanings, depending on the application.
We also say "What page are you on?" when we are asking if the others are in agreement with us.

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

Thanks! It was VERY helpful. I appreciate your kindness and your thoroughness. :)
 
Stevens said:
It translates as:
"That it be returned to the seller if the blade does not turn out good."
Keep in mind what is used in one Spanish speaking area may mean something different in another. For example in Puerto Rico a Papaya is a fruit, in Cuba it means something completely different.
Steve
Click to expand...

I've read that in one South American country a word simply means "melons", like honeydew or cantaloupe. In the adjacent country, the same word is mainly slang for a pair of female appendages.

Even English has local applications. In one Modesty Blaise novel, the Cockney sidekick, Willie Garvin, warned Modesty of a villain, "He's fly, Princess." Meant in Cockney slang that the man was suspicious or aware of them.

How does one say "pocketknife" in Spanish? Cuchillo de bolsillo"?
 
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Texas Star said:
I read where a cop actually caught some fast food worker spitting on his food. He arrested the punk and charged him with endangering the public and unsanitary operation of a food serving business or something.
Click to expand...

Yep. That incident happened in Eureka, California at the local Taco Bell. We were living about 30 minutes north in the community of McKinleyville at the time. It was all over the news.

It happened to one of the local Sheriff's deputies. He pulled up to the drive-in, placed his order, then drove up to the window. He happened to see one of the workers, a purple-haired, pierced-face, punk hock one into his order. The kid obviously thought it was pretty funny. Naturally, the officer didn't seem to see the humor in it.

The manager kept expressing that she just couldn't believe this employee would do such a thing. After all, as she put it, "He's really a nice boy." Gimme a break. The deputy witnessed it and had the order with the loogie on it for evidence. It wasn't going to be hard to determine it came from the punk kid.

The placed was closed down within days. I don't think the Health Department closed it down either. It didn't have to. Everybody quit coming to the place. Nobody came. Nobody! The building remained vacant for over a year at least. Another Mexican restaurant finally bought the place and did a complete renovation so no one could possibly mistake it for a former Taco Bell.

Of course, this particular Taco Bell was known for hiring the dregs of society. I think one of the requirements for employment there was to have either purple, magenta, green, or orange hair fashioned into a spike. Also it helped if you had so many piercings that it looked like you fell face first into a fishing tackle box. Then again, you were sure to be hired if you also had the numbers "666" tattooed across your forehead.
 
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