We shouldn't allow questions in Spanglish

Question

First, let me be clear that I am not attacking the OPs of these questions. I think this is an important issue that needs to be brought up soon in the beta process.

A couple sample questions to look at:

• vaso de agua o vaso con agua? Which is correct?
• Pretérito of ser and ir

Both of these questions actually mix languages (Spanglish?) in their titles (and the second one in the actual question, too). I think this needs to be discouraged.

Note that I'm not arguing against allowing Spanish and English questions (or answers), I'm arguing against randomly mixing the two.

• Let me consider the first one first:

  The proper phrasing (and I've already made this edit), I believe, is "vaso de agua" or "vaso con agua"? Which is correct? or "vaso de agua" o "vaso con agua"? Cuál es correcto? The addition of quotation marks is necessary in either case, I believe. I hope what I'm pointing out is clear here... The entire question should be in English or in Spanish (the exception being the bits in quotes, which are what the question is about)

• The second one may be a bit of a special case. (Although I don't think it actually is).

  I believe the proper phrasing for the second question should be: Preterit of ser and ir. There's no need to mix languages here, either unless the OP is actually asking about subtlties in the Spanish pretérito tense that don't exist in the English preterit tense. But even then, the question itself still needs to be changed:

  How did the verbs ser and ir evolve to have the same conjugation in the pretérito (and also in the imperfecto and futuro of subjuntivo)? And why do their forms in pretérito begin with fu-?

  [Emphasis mine]

  futuro of subjuntivo just sounds sloppy to me. It should be futuro de subjuntivo if it actually makes sense to say this in Spanish. More likely future subjunctive is the proper phrase here, since the rest of the question (except for verb tense names) is in English.

I hope that my edit on the first question is pretty uncontroversial, but if not, please express your dissenting opinions here. On the second one, I think we need to decide what actually makes sense. Is there a case to be made for expressing verb tenses in Spanish for the sake of clarity, even when the question is otherwise in English? And if so, does this question match that case?

Answer 1

The unofficial rule on GLU is to comment and answer questions in ONE language. So, even the native speakers will sometimes ask in German (e.g. for a very special dialect that is not of interest to learners of German) sometimes in English

German question title means german question text, answer, comments are mandatory. For obvious reasons (Many people seem to come here to learn Spanish, much more than on ELU/GlU imo considering the many translation-tagged questions) spanish comments on english questions/answers are a no-go.

Tags on GLU are in English

Answer 2

I think shouldn't allow is too strong wording. We shouldn't act like dictators or cops but we do want a good quality site.

I don't think it's bad though to say we should encourage using only one language in posts. That way we promote good quality without alienating newcomers.

The best way is to simply edit posts where the mixing is distracting or confusing.

Answer 3

In my original question (Preterite of ser and ir), the only Spanish words were grammar terms (préterito, subjuntivo etc.), and the verbs themselves.

In my questions about Spanish in this site and other forums, I prefer to use grammar terms in Spanish rather than in English, because an English term is not always an exact equivalent of a Spanish one (e.g. the usage of the Spanish gerundio is not identical to the English gerund, if I'm not mistaken).

However, I do agree that questions and answers in one main language should be encouraged. Embedding Spanish technical terms in a question written in English should be OK, but not "random" mixture of Spanish and English.

Answer 4

I agree with you, questions should be written in a single language.

In another question, "Should we allow question and answer bodies in Spanish?" we treated a similar subject. I voted for both, but the point is: nobody voted for some other language than those two.

Therefore, I'd say that any language/code-switching/pidgin/language system other than those two is not allowed and this is not our decision, but a Stack Exchange policy (although I'm not sure where it's explictly written). With this last paragraph, I'm saying that Spanglish, Portuñol or any language system regarding Spanish should not be allowed.

Answer 5

To answer your first point of contention, you are totally all mixed up as to what exactly constitutes "Spanglish"! Spanglish is a sentence spoken in Spanish in which the speaker is at a loss for the correct translation and so interjects the English word in lieu of the correct Spanish word. Your example exemplifies the improper grammar by a non-native speaker, that is called in slang "mocho" chopped, and properly called "la idioma mochada" the chopped idiom. The immediate aforementioned is NOT "Spanglish". Your second example is totally in error and shows that you are a non-Mexican as "we" know the difference between the verb "ser"= to be, and the verb "ir" = to go. Neither is interchangable with the other. Example via conjugation of verbs: "yo-soy, tu-eres, Ud. & Uds.-eres, nosotros & vosotros-vamos, ellos or ellas-seran. yo-voy, tu-vas, Ud. & Uds-van, ello & ellas-van. Those are the proper conjugation of the two different verbs however the verb ser is subjective and can be used as an adberb, and the verb ir is active and cannot be used as an adverb.