Decir ‘no puedo soportar’ en inglés is not as easy as pie (tarea fácil) si no tienes cuidado.
I’m a trained translator (that is the way to say in English that you have studied to be able to do your job – In Spain you’d just say ‘Estudié traducción’).
So, I am a trained translator.
And there is one thing translators become very good at:
we become experts at spotting (localizar) FALSE FRIENDS.
When you are a translator you need to be careful with all those words that ‘sound similar’ in Spanish and English, but which are treacherous (traicionero).
One of the most commonly misused words by students of English is ACTUALLY
*(if you have been with me for some time now you might remember that I sent an email about it. You can check it here).
Decir no puedo soportar en inglés
Another very common FALSE FRIEND is this one: the verb TO SUPPORT.
You may think that SUPPORT in ENGLISH means SOPORTAR in Spanish (Spain’s Spanish). Well: it doesn’t.
One of my lovely students, O. is having trouble with one of her feet. Her foot hurts (le duele el pie).
She wanted to say this in English:
“No puedo aguantart/soportar el dolor”.
And to express that idea, she used SUPPORT, like so many Spanish-speaking people would have used (habrían usado).
The problem is… SUPPORT is a FALSE FRIEND.
A very BAD FALSE FRIEND. It does not mean SOPORTAR.
So…
How do we say ‘NO PUEDO SOPORTAR / AGUANTAR’ in English, then?
Here you have a couple of POSSIBILITIES:
CAN’T STAND= to hate
- I can’t stand this song… can you please turn the volume down?
As in:
Decir ‘no puedo soportar’: otra opción
O puedes decir ‘no puedo soportar’ this way:
TO BEAR (sí, como ‘oso’ y se pronuncia igual /be – a/): to accept, tolerate, or endure something, especially something unpleasant:
- Tell me now! I can’t bear the suspense!
- It’s your decision – you have to bear the responsibility if things go wrong.
- [ + to infinitive ] He couldn’t bear to see the dog in pain.
- [ + -ing verb ] I can’t bear being bored.
(Del Cambridge Dictionary).
El problems con ‘el soporte técnico’
Y después de eso vengo yo y te digo que la expresión ‘soporte técnico’ es una traducción tan mala como extendida ya (desgraciadamente) … A VER SI ADIVINAS por qué…
Tiene que ver con el verdadero significado de SUPPORT en inglés.
Ahí lo dejo. Tira de monoligual dictionary to find out (averiguarlo).
¡Puedes escribirme en los omentarios si lo averiguas! I’d love to read you.
Ok. Time to go. Have a fun.
Elvira
