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shoe

Sep 24, 2007, 6:53 AM

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Spanish Blood Pressure

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I had a discussion with my Mexican girlfriend about blood pressure as her sister was just diagnosed with high blood pressure. She said her sister had "presion alto" and since I have had it we talked about it and the solutions for it. She said that blood (sangre) is not used in the description of the problem. I asked about low blood pressure. She said it was "baja presion". This is very confusing to me as I do not understand why high blood pressure would have the description after pressure and low would have it before.

Anyone know why this is?

How would the pressure in the eye be stated if high or low (glaucoma)? Something must be used to describe there the pressure is wrong.

Are there more examples in the Spanish language where this is true?

cya,
shoe

Nothing is intrinsically good or evil, but its manner of usage may make it so.
-St. Thomas Aquinas

raferguson

Sep 24, 2007, 10:31 AM

Post #2 of 8 (7221 views)

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Re: [shoe] Spanish Blood Pressure

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I have seen presión arterial alta, or hipertensión, which is what the American Heart association uses. They just don't use the word sangre when describing blood pressure.

http://www.americanheart.org/...l?identifier=3024128

Richard

http://www.fergusonsculpture.com

shoe

Sep 24, 2007, 7:07 PM

Post #3 of 8 (7209 views)

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Re: [raferguson] Spanish Blood Pressure

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Yes, "hipertension" is the work used here for either high or low blood pressure.

This girl worked in a medical clinic for years and has some idea of what she is talking about.

I am just wondering about how they really use the words and why they seem to be backwards or so different.

If my Spanish was a lot better probably she could tell me more but unfortunately I still can't understand super well.

cya,
shoe

Nothing is intrinsically good or evil, but its manner of usage may make it so.
-St. Thomas Aquinas

Don Moore

Sep 24, 2007, 8:37 PM

Post #4 of 8 (7201 views)

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Re: [shoe] Spanish Blood Pressure

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Languages have rules (if you are prescriptive) or patterns (if you prefer to be descriptive) that are made to be broken. Note the current tendency in English to say the media is rather than the "correct" form -- media are. (Media being the plural form of medium from Latin.). It is probably better to say it the way your "expert" says it until you are faced with another "expert" who says it another way.
Don Moore

jerezano

Sep 25, 2007, 7:31 AM

Post #5 of 8 (7191 views)

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Re: [shoe] Spanish Blood Pressure

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Hello shoe,

presión is from latin just as our word pressure is from the same latin root. presión is feminine.

presión alta [note the second a in alta] means high pressure of course.

presión baja or baja presión means low pressure.

Why should we use the word sangre? It is just understood. If we were talking about natural gas pressure with a PEMEX engineer we probably wouldn't use the word gas either.

Now as to placement of the adjectives alta or baja. Either in front of presión or behind is perfectly OK. The normal place in Spanish for an ajective is to follow the noun [contrary to English]. But, the placement is subtle. Following the noun it tends to stress the adjective. In front of the noun it tends to stress the noun. So, which is more dangerous? alta or baja?

Usually a high blood pressure is considered more dangerous than a low blood pressure. So the only explanation I can come up with for presión alta is that, besides being the normal place for the adjective, it is more dangerous than baja presión. Whether this explanation is true or not makes no difference. Again, it is perfectly ok to place the adjective at either location. But note that the placement of the adjective with different nouns can make a difference in meaning. I can't think of an example off hand, but our friend Quevedo can probably come up with at least a dozen.

Perhaps an example would be a town called Palmas Altas which woud mean to me that the town has some really tall palms. Altas Palmas on the other hand would mean to me a place with lots of tall palms. See what I mean by "subtle"?

>>>How would the pressure in the eye be stated if high or low (glaucoma)? <<< Since I understand that glaucoma is a problem of high pressure, I would say presión alta. Is there really a danger from a low pressure in the eyeball? Never heard of it if so but then I am still learning.

Adiós. jerezano

(This post was edited by jerezano on Sep 25, 2007, 7:50 AM)

jerezano

Sep 25, 2007, 7:43 AM

Post #6 of 8 (7189 views)

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Re: [shoe] Spanish Blood Pressure

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Hello shoe,

hipertensión and hipotensión are not the same. Hiper (English hyper) is from Greek and means over excited or some such.

Hipo is from Greek and means under excited or some such.

So there is hipertensión for high blood pressure and there is
hipotensión for low blood pressure. But those are medical terms not in common use. presión alta and baja presión are our common terms.

Adiós. jerezano.

quevedo

Sep 25, 2007, 4:39 PM

Post #7 of 8 (7169 views)

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Re: [jerezano] Placement of adjectives in Spanish

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Muchas gracias for your clear and complete explanation, amigo de Jerez.

I agree with you: both alta presión and presión alta are correct and, may I add, both widely used. I have never given a thought to what you say, that the placement of the adjective accents either the noun or the adjective itself. Personally I'm not sure of this.

There are other cases when you would not like to change the order. For example, Me encontré con un hombre alto and Me encontré con un alto hombre: even if the two expressions are correct, you will always use the first.

Saludos cordiales y cordiales saludos,

Quevedo

jerezano

Oct 3, 2007, 1:24 PM

Post #8 of 8 (7117 views)

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Re: [quevedo] Placement of adjectives in Spanish

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Hola all,

Gracias Sr. Quevedo. Yes there are times when one definitely would not want to change the order of adjectives.

One such change in meaning here in Jerez that I have been warned against is: It is perfectly OK to say Encontré esta mañana a una mujer alegre.

It is definitely NOT OK to say Encontré esta mañana a una alegre mujer. This last would have the connotation that perhaps the woman was what we just might call a "merry widow". Something one would definitely not want to say inadvertently about a woman.

Adiós. jerezano