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Glossary entry

Spanish term or phrase:

Tutear/tuteo

English translation:

informal modes of address

Added to glossary by Jairo Payan
Dec 11, 2012 19:04
11 yrs ago
7 viewers *
Spanish term

Tutear/tuteo

Spanish to English Other General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters
En la redacción del texto evite el tuteo.

He visto algunas versiones pero me gustaría escoger la mejor basada en los "agrees" de los colegas.

Gracias mil
Proposed translations (English)
4 +12 informal modes of address
4 on a first name basis

Discussion

Noni Gilbert Riley Dec 11, 2012:
No there isn't a long distance... ...which is why I wouldn't post this - it would be nicking from you and Phil!

But I fear that informal would be talking about register in general, whereas this comment is directly addressing the question of, "how to put it in English", not being too in your face.

Or maybe it is all one and the same thing. Sigh.
Lucy Phillips Dec 11, 2012:
I agree, if it's not appropriate to be as specific as you had to be, Phil, 'overly familiar' sounds closer to the idea than 'informal'.
patinba Dec 11, 2012:
Phil/Noni Is there really such a difference between "informal modes of address" and "overly familiar forms of address"?
Noni Gilbert Riley Dec 11, 2012:
Further to Phil's observations. I like this approach, and think "don't use overly familiar forms of address" should do it.
philgoddard Dec 11, 2012:
I had this recently in a translation - it was marketing style guidelines for an international organisation, designed to be read by people whose first language wasn't necessarily English. I had to say 'If your language has formal and informal versions of the word 'you', don't use the latter".
If you have to translate it somehow, you could say "overly familiar".

Proposed translations

+12
2 mins
Selected

informal modes of address

avoid informal modes of address

address - definition of address by Macmillan Dictionary
www.macmillandictionary.com/.../british/address - Traducir esta página
informal modes of address. Thesaurus entry for this meaning of address. This is the British English definition of address. View American English definition of ...
Politeness | LLAS Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies
www.llas.ac.uk › Resources - Traducir esta página
Some speakers are able to drop quickly into informal modes of address and create a relaxed atmosphere while others prefer to keep a certain distance between ...
Informality as a mode of official communication | Club Troppo
clubtroppo.com.au/.../informality-as-a-mode-of-... - Traducir esta página
1 Dec 2012 – ... are as much part of the real world as supposedly informal modes of address. I'm not sure if that should even be an issue because raising the ...
Peer comment(s):
agree Henry Hinds
6 mins
Thank you!
agree macimovic : Yes, one of the first things I've learned.
9 mins
Thank you!
agree MPGS : :)
14 mins
Thank you!
agree Edward Tully
14 mins
Thanks!
agree Marina56 : ok
22 mins
Thank you!
neutral philgoddard : I don't think this quite covers it. It may be quite OK to use informal language (we don't have any context), but not to call the reader "tu". The chances are that this sentence could be left out altogether, since the distinction doesn't exist in English.
24 mins
agree Sonja Scherling
25 mins
Gracias!
agree EirTranslations
42 mins
Gracias!
agree Iván Luchiano
49 mins
Gracias!
agree franglish
1 hr
Thank you!
agree AllegroTrans : Whilst it is about not using "tu" etc. I don't think it should be omitted - this solution works well
6 hrs
True. Thank you!
agree Evans (X) : (tha thou's them as thou's thee)
14 hrs
Love it! Thanks!
agree Tatty
15 hrs
Thank you!
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Mil gracias a todos por sus interesantes aportes"
3 hrs

on a first name basis

Just contributing what I feel 'tuteo' means, i.e. using the verb form that one chooses when addressing someone by their first name.

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Note added at 1 day4 hrs (2012-12-12 23:48:18 GMT)
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Let me share a couple further thoughts on this option!!! My suggestion comes from the fact that this is translating into English and no matter how informal you go, the 'tuteo' verb form just won't exist. So if calling someone 'tú' will translate the same as calling them 'usted' (=you), there's no way an English speaker who's not familiar with Spanish verb forms will understand what is being talked about.
I agree with Allegro that using a person's first name and 'tutearlos' doesn't neccesarily go together, but let's agree that this is the most common use.
So in the case in question, assuming, as the post suggests, this is advice on letter writing, the complete sentence could read like 'Do not address your reader as if you were on a first name basis with them' or something of the sort.
Reference:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/on+a+first-name+basis

http://lema.rae.es/drae/?val=tuteo

Peer comment(s):
disagree AllegroTrans : Using "tu" and the associated verb form does not always go with using a person's first name - the two concepts are quite separate
2 hrs
agree Tatty : I really like this solution, but I don't think that it fits the context in this particular instance.
12 hrs
Something went wrong...
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