Spanish Translation of Conjunctions II

In the previous situation we examined the distinctive uses of ‘sino´ and ‘pero´, the two Spanish translations of the English conjunction ‘but´.

The English conjunction ‘but´ has a third parallel in Spanish, namely, ‘mas´. The use of ‘mas´, though, is limited to Spanish literature, especially Spanish poetry and drama in verse. The Spanish translation of the English literary expression ‘The nightingales depart; but they come back to sing again in the spring´ will therefore use ‘mas´ to be rendered as ‘Los ruiseñores se van; mas vuelven en primavera a cantar…´. Translators must, however, be capable of distinguishing between the conjunction ‘mas´ and the adverb ‘más´. One way of doing so would be to remember that the ‘a´ in the adverb ‘más´ is accented while the ‘a´ in the conjunction ‘mas´ is unaccented.

The second type of conjunction is known as the subordinate conjunction. It is used to introduce a subordinate clause in a sentence. A subordinate clause is a group of words that contain a subject and a verb, but the clause cannot stand independently of the main clause. In other words, it is not complete and meaningful in itself.

Some of the common English subordinate conjunctions and their Spanish translation are as follows: before/antes (de) que, although/aunque, when/cuando, since/desde que, until/hasta que, because/porque, etc. Their detailed consequences in translation will be seen ahead.