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- Topic: Spanish >
- "Él gana las elecciones."
23 Comments
I figured this out he is not a candidate. He is the one that owns the candidates. His money won the elections.
"wins the elections" sounds wrong. It seems unlikely that someone is running for multiple offices at once (although I guess it's technically possible -- presumably he'd have to resign from one of the offices he just won in order to serve in the other office.)
In some countries "elections" are commonly in the plural, for some reason. You could see at is winning the primary election, and the final election.
In Hungarian it is the case. We say "elections" very often when there is an election, so this translation did not strike me as extraordinary. The most probable explanation for this linguistic phenomena is that on election day, many people vote in many election districts, thus there are in fact little "elections"...
2569
@ rspreng.... you have made my point exactly, by your use of winning. In English as I know it in the present it would be. He is winning the election/s or if it is a fact even if the election is not over. He won the election. I suppose if he had an election every week you could say. He wins the elections, but even this sounds crazy.
Only scenario I can think of that might fit is multiple states voting on the same day to nominate a party candidate.
- 1224
Or maybe he's won many sequential elections, and so they say he "wins the elections" because he hasn't lost one. Or maybe he's been the campaign manager for several successful candidates. In any case, "he wins the elections" is a grammatically correct sentence.
Shouldn't "he wins elections" also be accepted? My understanding is that Spanish often uses a definite article for making general statements when English would have no article
If "He wins elections" is a valid sentence in English, and I contend it is, then how would you say it in Spanish? I think "Él gana las elecciones", and various translation programs agree. If correct, then DL should accept the English above as a valid translation of the Spanish, and not tweak me for leaving out the article "the", which is arguably unnecessary and ma be awkward English depending on the context, which DL does not provide.
So, is this a Spanish quirk, where you would generally use the plural "elecciones" for a typical candidate winning one office? Or is this a matter of English translation (some speakers apparently use the plural, some -- including myself -- the singular)?
I have to ask a stupid question-- is it gana and feminine because elecciones is feminine? and it is gano when it involves sports? It seems odd to me that the verb takes the gender of the game or the election and not the subject. Or is election actually the subject in this sentence? the elections are the won doing the winning and he is just along for the ride?
It is interesting that even though the syllable "ci" is accented in the spoken word here, it receives no accent mark.
It's because how spanish accentuation rules work. There are four main types of words in spanish according to their tonic syllables, not sure what names they receive in english so here they are:
1) Agudas u oxítonas: Those having their tonic syllable in the last position of the word, like: SoFÁ, cantiDAD, tambiÉN, paPEL, ruBÍ, acTRIZ, elecCIÓN, aMOR, meNÚ and avesTRUZ.
These words are only accentuated with the "tilde" (´) or accent mark if they finish on a vowel (a,e,i,o,u), the letter N or the letter S.
2) Graves, llanas o paroxítonas: Those having their tonic syllable in the penultimate position of the word, like: ÁRbol, TAsa, CÉSped, PESca, diFÍcil, PIso, DÓcil, elecCIOnes, aZÚcar and voLUmen.
These words are accentuated if they end on any letter other than a vowel, the letter S or the letter N.
The word “elección” is accetuated when singular because the tonic syllable is the last one and it ends on the letter N, it’s Aguda. But when plural in “elecciones” it is the penultimate syllable the tonic one, so, as this word ends with an S letter doesn’t even get a tilde, it becomes GRAVE.
There is an exception with words ending with “ia” as a diphthong or gliding vowel, those will always get the accent over the letter “i” even if they’re still paroxítonas, like: María, antropología, biología and cacería.
3) Esdrújulas o proparoxítonas: Those having their tonic syllable in the antepenultimate position of the word, like: aMÉrica, eJÉRcito, HÍgado, FÓSforo and BRÚjula. These words will ALWAYS be accentuated.
4) Sobreesdrújulas: Those having their intonation before the antepenultimate syllable in the word, like: Ágilmente, Éticamente, rePÍteselo, DÓcilmente and diBÚjamelo. These words will also ALWAYS be accentuated.
Hope it was useful =)
- 1401
Useful, thank you. Good to see that esdrújula is, itself, an esdrújula.
As to the question, I put “He is winning the election” and it was accepted.
In the US, you only get to run in one election at a time. So if you're talking about a US election, it is only proper to say "He wins the election." Whether you use the plural depends on where the election(s) is/are.
