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Showing posts from March, 2022

What is UNCHARTED in Spanish?

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"This country is uncharted, oh, no... it's Ecuador"    One thing is for certain: Fuera del Mapa is not the best translation for UNCHARTED.  In fact, Fuera del Mapa is best translated as Off the Map, not UNCHARTED, but that is how the movie (yes, there is a movie with that title and a video game series) was introduced in the Spanish-speaking market. Synonyms of UNCHARTED are Unexplored, Undiscovered, Untraveled, and Unmapped. Among all those, the best possible translation would be INEXPLORADO or SIN DESCUBRIR.  

How do you say MIERCOLES DE CENIZA in English?

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"Why do I feel like playing Tic Tac Toe all of a sudden?" MIERCOLES DE CENIZAS is ASH WEDNESDAY in English and is mostly a Catholic tradition. It is important because it marks the end of Carnival and the beginning of Lent. Lent commemorates the forty-day period Jesus spent fasting and praying in the desert. What Catholics do is attend mass on this day which is usually the first Wednesday in March. This mass event is different from others because there is one more rite added: the imposition of the sign of the Holy Cross on the attendees' foreheads. In order to draw the cross sign, catholic priests use ash, hence the name ASH WEDNESDAY. ASH WEDNESDAY also demands from observant Christians the practice of fasting and abstinence, but very few seem inclined to do so these days.