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- "El té es natural."
44 Comments
453
"Tea is natural" would be a general statement about tea. In other words, you would be saying all tea is natural. However, in the spanish translation, it states "the" tea is natural, referring to a specific cup of tea, or tea bag.
Because that would make no sense unless The Tea is a person.
I believe that what you are reaching for here is the idea that the tea is a variety originating in some area. The problem is that there are dedicated words for that idea in Spanish to express that idea (como nativo(a), u originario(a)), and even more commonly that idea would be expressed as <<El té es de aquí>>.
When it comes to secondary meanings to word, you need to be careful, because those are most often dialect specific or uses that are highly contextual and often not directly translatable. Your misunderstanding of natural as a parallel of "native to" is an excellent example of this language trap. The only time that natural would be translated as "native to" applies to persons when they are describing their ancestry: Mis abuelos son naturales
de Italia or origins: ¿De dónde es usted natural
?.
In a related usage, the noun version of natural can mean indigenous people, but it is never used to describe anything other than people in that sense.
1512
When would you use "natural" in the "unchilled" sense?
It didn't work for me here. Sometimes I do chill the tea a bit!
952
That is a possibility. El té natural (tinto) es lo que no tiene ningun aditivo/s (leche, azúcar, canela o hielo).
Hot tea (unchilled) is té caliente (sín hielo/no enfriado).
265
Was I the only one who thought the recording was poor? The beginning did not sound like "El té," it sounded like "Es té".
952
You aren't the only one.
It sounded like "El fé" which would be... The faith is natural.
So then, understanding Faith (la fé) is feminine gender, it had to be... The Tea is natural.
Whew!
1319
'The tea's natural' is an acceptable form in English in England. It was marked incorrect.