por cierto

sionnach commented on the word por cierto

In any reasonable universe, this would mean "certainly" or "of course". In fact it means "by the way".

October 22, 2007

uselessness commented on the word por cierto

Even in English, there's crossover there. I mean, should the phrase "of course" literally mean what we use it for? I'm pretty sure it's a shortened form of "it's a matter of course," meaning that the course of logic inevitably leads to some obvious conclusion. But the same phrase is also often used to mean "by the way" in colloquial speech; it's a conversational segue that refers to the same "course of logic," which in this case will lead the discussion into a natural transition. Similar to the way indeed is used, or in olden days, verily.

For more examples of this kind of phrasal crossover in slang, see duh and eh. ;-)

October 22, 2007

sionnach commented on the word por cierto

Please snap out of it, uselessness! "Of course" is not interchangeable with "by the way".

I agree that there can be some scope creep with this kind of (whatever part of speech "of course" is - an adverbial interjection?), but not to the extent you appear to suggest.

October 22, 2007

uselessness commented on the word por cierto

Person 1: "I love rain."

Person 2: "I agree, rain is wonderful. Nice and wet."

Person 1: "(Of course/By the way), while I enjoy the wetness, I hate the dark sky rain brings."

Person 2: "I'll, uh, make a note of that."

Okay, it's a stretch. They're similar, though not fully interchangeable. I concede this battle to you, but not without a whole lot of points scored for my team first. ;-)

October 23, 2007

frangarnes commented on the word por cierto

I think the best translation for por cierto is by the way.

The translations for certainly and of course are expresions like por supuesto, desde luego, naturalmente, ciertamente, etc.

October 23, 2007