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Kristine
I'm a professional format editor. I can tell you from experience that the same text translated from English to Spanish takes up more space. Not sure if it's because their words tend to be longer, or if it's all the masculine and feminine articles that we don't use in English that add in more words, but there you have it.
Josh Allen
It's part of a larger conspiracy to change the plot so that Spanish speakers will miss the true meaning of the book. It's an ongoing retaliation for the seizure of English merchant ships by the Spanish in 1585.
Yofu Chang
Using your question for an example.
"Why is the Spanish version 544 pages and the English version is only 382?" (14 Words)
"¿Por qué la versión en español tiene 544 páginas y la versión en inglés sólo tiene 382?" (15 Words)
Some words in spanish are longer. Pages = páginas. Why = Por qué
"Why is the Spanish version 544 pages and the English version is only 382?" (14 Words)
"¿Por qué la versión en español tiene 544 páginas y la versión en inglés sólo tiene 382?" (15 Words)
Some words in spanish are longer. Pages = páginas. Why = Por qué
Lusra Gray
The word you're looking for is "analytic languages" vs. "synthetic languages." Linguists use that vocab to talk about exactly what you noticed: why do some languages use more words to say the same thing?
Basically, it's about how their grammar stacks meaning with words. If I want to say "dog" generally there will be one word to use in a language. But if I want to say "your dog", some languages will require two or more words to make that distinction (ex: "your" + "dog"). Other languages will just tack on a sound to the word "dog" to make a longer word that means the same thing (Latin is famous for this.)
Languages that can condense lots of meaning into single words - by adding little prefixes, or by having words that mean multiple things - are called "synthetic". Languages that "isolate" meanings into separate words are called "analytical".
Most of the time linguists talk about languages being on a spectrum between synthetic and analytical. For example, Spanish is more analytical than English. And that means, more words are often used when making a Spanish translation of an English text. And so in terms of printing, more little words + all the spaces between those => more pages.
Basically, it's about how their grammar stacks meaning with words. If I want to say "dog" generally there will be one word to use in a language. But if I want to say "your dog", some languages will require two or more words to make that distinction (ex: "your" + "dog"). Other languages will just tack on a sound to the word "dog" to make a longer word that means the same thing (Latin is famous for this.)
Languages that can condense lots of meaning into single words - by adding little prefixes, or by having words that mean multiple things - are called "synthetic". Languages that "isolate" meanings into separate words are called "analytical".
Most of the time linguists talk about languages being on a spectrum between synthetic and analytical. For example, Spanish is more analytical than English. And that means, more words are often used when making a Spanish translation of an English text. And so in terms of printing, more little words + all the spaces between those => more pages.
George P.
Yes, Spanish just tends to take more words to convey the same meaning clearly, and just doesn't have as many different words as English (which has drawn from a lot of other languages). For example, "toe" in English is "dedo del pie" in Spanish.
Toni
Someone said that Spanish is more analytic than english and that is not true. English has almost no flexion, and Spanish and other Roman languages use flexion in pronouns, substantives and verbs. In English you say "I speak, We speak, You speak" where Spanish just "Hablo, hablamos, habláis" without pronoun, or where english says "I would speak" or "I will go" Spanish says "Hablaría" (hablar = speak, -ía = Me + would) and "Iré" (ir = go, -é = Me + will). English is the most analytic language in Europe, as other Indoeuropean languages are all more or less synthetic.
The fact is that, in Spanish, we use longer words than in English. That's because English has mostly germanic and french words, the germanic words are normally just the root (like in "word-" and not "wordo/worda/wordaz") and French has also lost very endings of the latin original words (for instance, murum > mur).
The fact is that, in Spanish, we use longer words than in English. That's because English has mostly germanic and french words, the germanic words are normally just the root (like in "word-" and not "wordo/worda/wordaz") and French has also lost very endings of the latin original words (for instance, murum > mur).
George
The signs you see on a bus will be typically one line for English, e.g., "Keep feet off seats", vs. two lines in Spanish, "No ponga los pies en los asientos". Computer programmers also know there'll be need for more text real estate in any language other than English.
That being said: The print could be bigger in the Spanish version.
That being said: The print could be bigger in the Spanish version.
Lukáš
Bigger letters? :-)
Kate
Translating into languages that are spoken quickly (e.g., from English to Spanish or Japanese) entails expansion, whereas translating into languages that are spoken slowly (e.g., from English into Mandarin Chinese) typically entails contraction.
and
Languages like English, which are spoken more slowly, have high grammatical density — that is, there’s a lot of information crammed into few syllables. Conversely, languages like Spanish, which are spoken more quickly, tended to have low grammatical density.
Source: https://www.transfluent.com/en/2015/0...
and
Languages like English, which are spoken more slowly, have high grammatical density — that is, there’s a lot of information crammed into few syllables. Conversely, languages like Spanish, which are spoken more quickly, tended to have low grammatical density.
Source: https://www.transfluent.com/en/2015/0...
Verónica Juárez
Any book translated from English to Spanish will take more words and pages. Spanish uses a lot of articles and as Chantal already said English is more flexible and you can express a whole idea with a "pack of concepts" that will need a complex gramatical structure in Spanish which can be translated in more words, articles, conjunctions, etc.
Chantal
I'm an English-Spanish translator. Spanish often requires more words to translate something in English. As a language, English is more flexible so you can make up words or pack concepts into words in ways that Spanish can't do. Same thing with French. You need to unpack the words (like a .zip file, I guess) so you can get the right meaning with the right connotations across.
Jorge Chávez
Spanish is a less dense language than English, basically you say more in English with fewer words than in Spanish, Spanish is notoriously low density
Nicola Volpe
Target language expansion :)
I work in a translation agency and it's very very normal. It's a nightmare for DTP providers and publishers instead.
If you open the Don Quixote in Spanish and in English you will find that the English version is way shorter.
I work in a translation agency and it's very very normal. It's a nightmare for DTP providers and publishers instead.
If you open the Don Quixote in Spanish and in English you will find that the English version is way shorter.
Daniel Bratell
Other people have already mentioned the verbosity of the different languages, but page count in books can also vary a lot depending on format, margins and font sizes. It is quite possible those were not identical between the two editions.
Petras Furtado
It´s usual in the latin languages; going from english to portuguese (my native language), for instance, takes about 30% more words. Also, english has a lot of 3- or 4-letters words that need 6 letters or more to convey the same meaning in portuguese.
Alvare
Por que somos Bergas prro
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