I hear a word on Spanish radio that sounds like 'talmente', however
there's no listing in the dictionary.

It seems it could be 'tal mente' such mind (although this is kind of
odd), or a conjugation of the verb 'taller' (which I don't really know
what it means), or it seems there sould be a word 'talmente' meaning
'suchly', or 'as such'. Perhaps it's something other than all of these
though. I used to know someone whose last name was Talamante, so it
seems there must be a word somewhere in this area.

Muchas gracias en adelante.

Patrice

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Request for Question Clarification by livioflores-ga on 18 Apr 2005 08:23 PDT

May be you heard TOtalmente (totally)

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Clarification of Question by patrice29-ga on 18 Apr 2005 08:50 PDT

No, it wasn't totalmente, unless talmente is slang or short for that.

Hello, Patrice,

It's good to see you around again. And this time, you helped me learn
a word of my own language, thanks for that!

In María Moliner's Dictionary for the Usage of Spanish, you can find
"talmente" defined as "exactamente como: (example) su casa es
*talmente* una cueva" = "exactly like: (example) his / her house is
*talmente* (exactly like) a cave". Evidently, as you supposed, its
meaning is derived from "tal" = "such", and it's under the series of
definitions starting with "tal" that you'll find it in the mentioned
dictionary. Your Spanish is improving every day ¡Felicitaciones!

Best,

Guillermo

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Clarification of Answer by guillermo-ga on 18 Apr 2005 11:56 PDT

However, the other possibilities that you suggested could be as well.
The "tal mente" option, while odd as you said, could be used like in
this hypothetical statement: "debemos considerar la opinión de Sephen
Hawkins, el pensamiento de *tal mente* es para tener en cuenta" = "we
must consider Stephen Hawkins' opinion; such a mind's thought is to be
taken into account". OK, that wouldn't be a brilliant phrasing, but
radio spokespeople having to talk continuously for hours sometimes do
make phrases like that one. As to "talmente" as a possible short form
of "totalmente" could also be possible, not as much a slang
expression, as a humoristic exaggeration of a popular too-fast talking
that sometimes omits first or last syllables -or because that person
was actually talking too fast. You decide based on the context, which
of the three possibilities was the use you've heard. Regardless that,
the existence of the word "talmente" by its own merits, as I described
it in the answers, is a fact.

Regards,

Guillermo

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Clarification of Answer by guillermo-ga on 18 Apr 2005 12:00 PDT

Sorry for the typo: Stephen, no "Sephen".

I'll keep listening for this word, and try to get more context next
time to be able to tell definatively.

It's good to learn about the María Moliner's Dictionary. I need to get
a copy of that.

Thanks for the clear answer.
Patrice

Thank you, for the rating and tip :-)

I had never heard the word "talmente" before, so I believe it's not
really used in Latin America, but probably in Spain it is.

The "Diccionario de Uso del Español" by María Moliner is definitely an
asset for those interested in learning Spanish in depth, even native
Spanish speakers. Colombian literature Nobel Prize Gabriel García
Márquez recommended it publicly, and I bought it under the suggestion
of my friend, the Argentine poet (Guggenheim Fellow) Guillermo
Saavedra (not me, just a namesake). You may be interested in this
Google search: ://www.google.com/search?as_q=mar%C3%ADa-moliner&num=100&hl=en&newwindow=1&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=diccionario+de+uso+del+espa%C3%B1ol&as_oq=buy+comprar&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&safe=images

Since I see you so interested in improving your Spanish, please let me
give you a tip. In your question, when you said "muchas gracias en
adelante", you probably meant "muchas gracias por adelantado" ("many
thanks in advance") or else "desde ya, muchas gracias" (an equivalent
expression). (I guess that in English I make a lot of that kind of
mistakes that are easily understood although not exactly correct ;-))

Best regards,

Guillermo

Instead of "talmente", in Latin America we'd say "tal cual", used
exactly as in the example that María Moliner used for "talmente".