English UK » Catalan | 82 [eighty-two] | Past tense 2

82 [vuitanta-dos] Passat 2

Did you have to call an ambulance?	Havies de trucar a una ambulància?
Did you have to call the doctor?	Havies de trucar al metge?
Did you have to call the police?	Havies de trucar a la policia?
Do you have the telephone number? I had it just now.	Té el número de telèfon? Fa no res el tenia.
Do you have the address? I had it just now.	Té l’adreça? Fa no res la tenia.
Do you have the city map? I had it just now.	Té el pla de la ciutat? Fa no res el tenia.
Did he come on time? He could not come on time.	Va venir a l’hora? No va poder venir a l’hora.
Did he find the way? He could not find the way.	Que va trobar el camí? No va poder trobar el camí.
Did he understand you? He could not understand me.	T’entenia? No em podia entendre.
Why could you not come on time?	Per què no vas poder arribar a l’hora?
Why could you not find the way?	Per què no vas poder trobar el camí?
Why could you not understand him?	Per què no el podies entendre?
I could not come on time because there were no buses.	No vaig poder arribar a l’hora perquè no anaven els autobusos.
I could not find the way because I had no city map.	No vaig poder trobar el camí, perquè no tenia un pla de la ciutat.
I could not understand him because the music was so loud.	No el podia entendre perquè la música estava molt alta.
I had to take a taxi.	Vaig haver de prendre un taxi.
I had to buy a city map.	Vaig haver de comprar un pla de la ciutat.
I had to switch off the radio.	Vaig haver d’apagar la ràdio.

Negative words aren't translated into the native language

When reading, multilinguals translate subconsciously into their native language. This happens automatically; that is, the readers do it without realizing. It could be said that the brain functions like a simultaneous translator. But it doesn't translate everything! One study has shown that the brain has a built-in filter. This filter decides what gets translated. And it appears that the filter ignores certain words. Negative words aren't translated into the native language. Researchers selected native speakers of Chinese for their experiment. All test subjects spoke English as their second language. The test subjects had to rate various English words. These words had different emotional content. There were positive, negative and neutral terms. While the test subjects read the words, their brains were examined. That is, the researchers measured the electrical brain activity. In doing so, they could see how the brain worked. Certain signals are generated during the translation of words. They indicate that the brain is active. However, the test subjects showed no activity with the negative words. Only the positive or neutral terms were translated. Researchers don't yet know why this is. Theoretically, the brain has to process all words the same. It could be, however, that the filter quickly examines each word. It is analyzed while still being read in the second language. If a word is negative, the memory is blocked. In other words, it can't think of the word in the native language. People can react very sensitively to words. Perhaps the brain wants to protect them from emotional shock…