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raferguson

Aug 24, 2006, 12:51 PM

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I am afraid I let your birthday go by.

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I was translating a letter, and realized that I did not know how to say "in a timely manner" in Spanish. In the previous sentances, the letter writer is apologizing for forgetting or remembering late a birthday, due to some health issues. The phrase is "I am afraid I let your birthday go by."

I ended up translating it as:

Desafortunatamente, no escribí una tarjeta por sus cumpleaños con anticipacion.

But I don't like my translation. It looks more or less gramatically correct to me, and it kind of conveys the idea, but it is not very close to the original phrase. I looked in the dictionary for a while, but did not find anything that looked right to me. I could not figure out a good way to translate "in a timely manner" either.

I am sure that many of the people here could come up with a better translation. ;-)

Gracias de antemano.

Richard

http://www.fergusonsculpture.com

misslyn

Aug 24, 2006, 2:46 PM

Post #2 of 3 (2206 views)

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Re: [raferguson] I am afraid I let your birthday go by.

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How about "Lo siento que no celebro tu cumpleaños a tiempo"? It's not literal but it could work.

Lyn

jerezano

Aug 24, 2006, 8:45 PM

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Re: [misslyn] I am afraid I let your birthday go by.

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Hello,

************
"I am afraid I let your birthday go by."
*****************

What probably would be said locally here in Zacatecas is:

Lo siento mucho que se me olvidó tu cumpleaños.

I'm really sorry that I forgot your birthday.

But does it matter really? Your correspondent will accept your appology no matter how you say it. You said it OK.

"In a timely manner", could possibly be "en tiempo"--on time. I'm not sure. Be careful with "ä tiempo" which is used here locally to mean "room temperature" "¿Quieres agua fria?" "No, a tiempo, por favor."

Adiós. jerezano.