TRANSLATION EXERCISE, LESSON 16 (7/02) Su nombre _______________

Hispanicisms. Here is an extract from another “Letter from Ramón” published in the Buenos Aires Herald. First correct the English by replacing hispanicisms with appropriate English forms. The “back translate” into Spanish to show what Ramón was probably thinking in his native Spanish as he wrote the English.

Ramón’s letter (extracts):

My esteemed friend:

It is to be lamented that it should not be possible for us to encounter ourselves. The truth is that I don’t give any more with one thing and another.

In the past proximate week I have engaged in the tramitations to put a little society of limited responsibility with a friend. Something modest, you understand, in the line of importation, with a little section in which we will occupy ourselves with properties. If it runs it will be something good.

The secretary I have called by the phone several times. Disgracefully every time I have arranged to encounter myself with her I have had to do. The other day I told her to make herself presentable and I would take her to eat someplace. What do you think - my watch wasn’t well and I arrived a little retraced -- three hours, I think.

Until soon,

RAMÓN