My understanding is that loco means mad as in crazy, not angry. But in A2 - Spanish, Beyond Beginners, it is being translated as angry, as in “If you don’t share your sweets, I will get mad.” Surely this is an error?
they don’t maintain those A1 & A2 courses any more
Too bad. But am I correct that what they have is wrong? Thanks.
I moved your post to Spanish course forum so Memrise language specialist can advise you correctly
Hey – thanks! I thought I had posted it in the proper spot, but apparently not. Thanks very much for your help.
Everything is OK. There is just a special thread for Memrise official courses and Angileptol kindly allowed us to ask her language-advice about those A1 and A2 course. She can’t change anything there though because those courses are not supported anymore
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It’s not wrong. Even in English, “mad” is not exactly the same as angry.
But loco means crazy, not angry, right?
Yes, but "mad’ also on some level means crazy, not angry. I love this part of language learning, where you are forced to stop and think about the meaning/roots of your own language.
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I agree – mad in English can mean either angry or crazy. But that isn’t the issue that I’m raising. My belief is that the Spanish word loco means crazy (not angry) and that it’s use in the sentence “If you don’t share your sweets, I will get mad” is incorrect.
As you can see in the above screenshot, “loco” can translate to either crazy or mad. And that makes sense for this sentence, because it’s the sort of sentence where in either English or Spanish, you’re really expressing an irritation rather than rage.
In this context, mad=angry. So I think using loco would be wrong here. The translation of loco is only for mad=crazy I think.
You could perhaps do some mental gymnastics and say mad=intense frustration=loco. But for that to work the sentence should have given us more context.
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Yes, agreed, and see my latest reply to Lurajane. Thanks!
Yes, I see what you’re saying. In this particular context, however, unless the speaker was furious at the other person for not sharing the sweets, I think that loco isn’t the right word. Thanks!
Here’s a link with lots of examples of how loco can be used:
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Wow, that is a virtual treasure-trove of information! And it reinforces my idea that loco should NOT be used for angry. Thanks!
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