that that

[Noelia]

Tengo una duda que apareció cuando estaba traduciendo algo:

- y después de veinte años aparece alguien y dice que esa hija no es tuya

- and after twenty years someone shows up and says that that daughter is not yours

Existe esto? Se puede decir "that that" ?

Noelia

[Robie]

I have seen "that that" before and have probably even written it. It's not wrong, but I try not to use it if I can find a different way to say something. In this case, you can get the same meaning without using the first that (notice I dropped the one that corresponds to 'que'...does that sound familiar?)

- y después de veinte años aparece alguien y dice que esa hija no es tuya

- and after twenty years someone shows up and says that that daughter is not yours.

Robie

[Noelia]

Thank you Robie. It didnt sound correct to me either, I'd probably have said it the same way you did, but remember those subtitles I was working with? Well they want me to translate as literal as possible and that means that sometimes I have to go word for word.

In Spanish "que" and "esa" are different words, but it turns out that in English both are "that" so when I had to write "that that" didn't look very normal to me, that's why I asked.

Noelia

[johnr]

Noelia,

'That that' es algo que he escrito de vez en cuando en un email bastante formal, y mientras estaba escribiendolo, me parecía raro pero creo que es correcto, por lo visto desde el punto de vista gramática. Pero después de haberlo escrito, casi siempre lo cambiaría.

Cuando era joven teníamos un acertijo que trataba de la cantidad de 'that' que se podía tener en una frase mientras teniendo sentido.

Por ejemplo, aquí está dos frases cortas usando 'that'.

1. He said that that 'that' that that man used was wrong.
2. the signpainter said that that that that that that that that signpainter had
painted followed was crooked.

Además de 'that' tenemos otros con las palabras 'had' etc. Aquí está un sitio web con unos ejemplos.

www.creativepuzzels.nl/spel/speel1/speel2/punct-2.htm