Buenas tardes,
Estoy intentando traducir esta frase:
¿Cúal(es) ha(n) sido el principal motivo(s) por el cual no ha participado?
mi intento de traducción es este:
¿Which has been the main reason for you not participating?
Muchas gracias!
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Buenas tardes,
Estoy intentando traducir esta frase:
¿Cúal(es) ha(n) sido el principal motivo(s) por el cual no ha participado?
mi intento de traducción es este:
¿Which has been the main reason for you not participating?
Muchas gracias!
What has been your main reason for not participating?Quote:
Originally Posted by vukta2015
HI Californian,
I think it is better this order: "What have your main reasons been for not participating?"
Anyway, I'd go with " What are the main reasons that led you to not participate / led you not to participate?"
I agree with diegonel.
¿Cúal(es) ha(n) sido el principal motivo(s) suggests that there were several possible reasons and the question is: which reason(s) applied.
My suggestion: "What has been the main reason, or reasons, that you have not participated." algo asi.
What about... What has been the main reason for you not having participated?
Your option is a little more formal in my book and I do not necessarily disagree with this option except that I think it should be singular.Quote:
Originally Posted by diegonel
In other words, there should only be *one* main, *number one* reason for anything. The rest cannot be also number one. So even the Spanish phrase while grammatically correct in my view does not meet the common sense test.
If we are asking for the reasons (regardless of being the main reason or not) then the word "main" should be excluded from the phrase/question.
I respectfully disagree Californiaman. Consider that you can have several main reasons, just as you can have several secondary ones. There could be several equally important, or main reasons.
I think we can agree to disagree. :-)Quote:
Originally Posted by vicente
Saludos!
I agree with you CaliforniaMan. MAIN REASON.
On the other hand , Vicente is right too, or at least what he says sounds sensible.
I have some friends who are Spanish teachers. I'll ask them about it.
Either way you go is OK. You cannot say that either is wrong.
Here's my reasoning:
Example 1: I'd love to move away from the city but my wife loves it here; I like my job; and my doctor is here. Keeping my wife happy, staying with my job and being close to my doctor right now are all important to me and are the main reasons I cannot leave.
Example 2: We know that several factors influenced you to skip the seminar; the distance you'd have to travel, the dates, the schedule, the speakers, the topics to be discussed and possibly others. In order to better plan our next seminar but we'd like to know which of these were the main reasons you did not participate.
So there is not a main reason in these examples. They are simply put (important) reasons.Quote:
Originally Posted by vicente
Quote:
Originally Posted by CaliforniaMan
There are several main reasons (of importance, which is one of the definitions of main).
Maybe this verbatim example from Merriam-Webster will help:
What are the main tourist attractions here? ¿Cuales son las atracciones turísticas principales aquí?
If you're still not convinced that there can be more than one main thing, google "main reasons".
"Many divorces fall into two main categories";
"Gottman offers research to support two main reasons and times for divorce";
"What were the main causes of World War I?";
"Essential Declarative:Analyze 5 main causes of the Great Depression";
"Main articles: Origins of the American Civil War";
"The three main causes of cancer are smoking, dietary imbalances (excess fat and calories; inadequate intake of fruits, vegetables, fiber, and calcium), and chronic infections"
...and on and on.
Quote:
Originally Posted by vicente
Understood..
Hi Guys!
I have asked a Spanish teacher about the issue of "razòn principal vs razones principales"
She told me that - at least in Spanish- it is grammatically better to use it in the singular.
¿Cuàl ha sido la razòn principal por la que no participaste?
It's in the answer that you might add more reasons if necessary.
She also added that the word "principal" lends itself for being used in the singular.
Anyway, nothing is black or white.
On the other hand Californian quoted some examples in the plural "5 main causes of the Great Depression";"two main reasons and times for divorce"