Hi Patrice,
You are picking up on the crankiness of Spanish! ¡Ay Caramba!
Expressions vary country to country - it?s important to remember
this, as no one expression is more correct than another. Manner of
speech and words chosen are often regional... ?Sobre? is used more by
some countries than ?encima?. Eventually you will get the ?feel? of
which expression is best.
======
Sobre:
======
About, on, over, upon, on top of, on the subject of, and as a noun, envelope!
On/about: You can remember this because it is ?On? a subject.
Speaking ?about? a subject, is speaking ?on? a subject.
Estamos hablando sobre nuestro viaje.
We?re talking about out trip.
Una pelicula sobre la guerra
A movie about war.
Here?s an example online:
Todo sobre España
All about Spain
http://www.red2000.com/spain/1index.html
and
Todo Sobre mi Madre
All about my mother
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0185125/
Another term for ?about? is ?se trata de?, from the infinitive ?tratar de?
¿De qué se trata la pelicula?
What is the movie about?
Se trata de ayudar los animals.
It?s about helping animals.
¿De que se trata todo esto?
What is all this about?
Over:
Se puso una cobija sobre la cabeza.
She put a blanket over her head.
On
Los jovenes dejan un dibujo sobre la arena.
The young people left a drawing on the sand. In English though, we
would probably say ?..in the sand?
To complicate matters further, we have ?encima?, also meaning over, on top of.
El pájaro está encima de la casa.
The bird is on top of the house.
Ponga la maleta encima de la cama.
Put the suitcase on the bed.
Los aviónes volaban por encima.
The planes flew over(head).
Ella camina encima del agua.
She walks on water.
This page has many examples of the use of ?encima?, such as
La lámpara está colgada encima de la mesa.
The lamp is hung over the table.
¿Por qué dejas siempre los calcetines sucios encima de la cama?
Why do you always leave your dirty socks on the bed? ..on top of the bed?
http://culturitalia.uibk.ac.at/hispanoteca/%C3%9Cbungsmaterial/Material/Preposiciones%20espa%C3%B1olas/encima%20de.htm
You have to evaluate the situation in choosing ?encima? or ?sobre?.
Although ?encima? does not always indicate the item is not actually
touching what it is on, it is often used that way. To be honest,
?sobre? and ?encima? are mostly interchangeable, except in cases such
as the hanging lamp!
For example, you are discussing a tablecloth. In this example, it is
a ?covering over? of the table.
El mantel grande sobre nuestra mesa es vieja.
The large tablecloth on our table is old.
Las nubes estan encima de las montañas.
The clouds are over the mountains.
El vive encima de una tienda.
He lives over a store.- In this case, ?encima? is better over ?sobre?
Using the word sobre draws to my mind a man, lying face down,
spread-eagled on the roof of a store!
Examples from Word Reference
There is a number over the door
Hay un número encima de la puerta
He jumped over the hedge
Saltó por encima del seto
She looked over her glasses
Miró por encima de sus gafas
Tom's father has no control over him
El padre de Tom no tiene control sobre él
http://wordreference.com/es/translation.asp?tranword=over&v=b
=========
Alrededor
=========
Alrededor is used as ?in the vicinity of?, ?about? and ?around?
Alrededor de
In English we might say:
There were many children around her. Some would say ?There are many
children about her?
Había un montón de niños alrededor suyo.
Se sentaron alrededor de la mesa.
They sat around the table.
Around the world
Alrededor el mundo
About $35 million dollars. Around $35 million dollars.
Alrededor de 35 millones de dólares
My life revolves around my family.
Mi vida gira alrededor de mi familia.
Rosa miró a su alrededor.
Rosa looked all around. ? all around herself/?at her surroundings
Here?s another example, a line of a song by Billos Caracas Boys, I
learned while living in Caracas. The song is entitled ?Bella Caracas?:
Con tus guirnaldas de cerros a tu alrededor
With your garlands of hills all around you (Caracas is partially
encircled by hills and mountains - Cordillera de la Costa)
http://www.musicavenezuela.com/htmles/letras/bella_caracas.html
===
De:
===
It gets even trickier! To me, ?de? is a more generic term, when not
speaking in depth on a topic, generally. De indicates a subject, or
topic.
De can be used for ?about? too! Used often as we would in English, as
in the following example:
Hablando de dinero? (Speaking of money, in general, not in discussing details)
Speaking of money?
Escribiendo de mi vida?
Writing on (about) my life
Poemas de amor
Poems of love
Un libro de historia
A history book (A book on the topic of history)
Los reportajes de crimenes...
The crime reports (reports about crime)
===========
Sobrecarga:
===========
Overload, excess
La sobrecarga de información
Information overload
Tenemos sobrecarga de maletas.
We have excess baggage.
Sobrepeso means overweight, excess weight
You could say ?Tenemos sobrepeso? for excess baggage, as the word
'baggage' would be understood from the context.
However, you can also say "Sobrecarga del peso" for overweight, but I
find just using 'sobrepeso' much easier. Spanish can get so wordy, but
in English we can say "She is overweight" or "She is carrying around a
lot of excess weight", even "That heavy woman is excessively
overweight". When learning Spanish, go with the simplest. Later, with
more proficiency, you can get more verbose!
This simple site will help you visualize some of the confusing prepositions
http://www.thebeehive.org/external_link.asp?r=/school/high/subjects.asp?subject=218&e=http://www.lingolex.com/spanish.htm
I hope this has clarified these confusing words for you! If not, or if
I have omitted anything in my answer, please request an Answer
Clarification, before rating, and I will be happy to respond.
Sinceramente
crabcakes |
Clarification of Answer by
crabcakes-ga
on
07 Jan 2005 15:05 PST
Hello again Patrice,
Another sticky Spanish trap! Spanish just seems to like to throw in
a lot of ?extra? words, doesn?t it?
Cerca does mean close, or as a noun, wall/fence!
Acercar means to bring closer to. ?Acercate a mi? ?Come closer to me?
'Acerca de' means ?About? , a phrase acting as a preposition, and
called a'compound preposition'. It does not really mean "near to", but
does mean 'near to the topic' as in 'concerning' and 'about'.
Literally it sounds like "Near of". "De" is so often used in Spanish
to mean "from", "of" and with other preopsitions to make these
confusing compound prepositions.
Son los libros de mi madre.
They are my mother's books. (They are the books of my mother)
Yo soy de Venezuela.
I am from Venezueala. (I am of the country of Venezuela)
De la Sierra Nevada...
From the Sierra Nevada mountains...
?Todo acerca de Google? ?Everything about Google? To remember, you
could think of it as saying ?Everything that is close to (the topic)
of Google? or ?Everything concerning Google?
://www.google.com/intl/es/about.html
Estamos hablando acerca de la fiesta.
We are talking about the party.
Estamos hablando de la fiesta.
We are talking about the party.
Both of the above examples are correct. The difference would be if you
are responding to a question. The first example may be more
appropriate as an answer.
Me to you and some friends "De que estan hablando?" What are you (all)
talking about?
You "Estamos hablando acerda de la fiesta"
Acerca de ? about, concerning
?Fortunately, both Spanish and English have a wide range of
prepositional phrases that function in much the same way as simple
prepositions. (Although the term "prepositional phrase" is used here,
some grammarians prefer the term "compound preposition.") An example
can be seen in a sentence such as Roberto fue al mercado en lugar de
Pablo ("Robert went to the market instead of Paul"). Although en lugar
de is made up of three words, it functions much the same as one word
and has a distinct prepositional meaning as a phrase. In other words,
like single-word prepositions, prepositional phrases show the
connection between the noun (or pronoun) that follows and other words
in the sentence. (Although you could probably figure out what en lugar
de means by translating the individual words, that isn't true of all
prepositional phrases.)?
http://spanish.about.com/library/weekly/aa071702a.htm
The last example on this page shows some a uses of ?acerca de? and ?sobre?
http://www.businessspanish.com/LECCION/Preposi4.htm
Hope this was helpful!
Hasta luego,
crabcakes
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