Learn Spanish (Spain): Nunca debes traducir esta expresión literalmente, o sea, palabra por palabra. - You must never translate this expression literally, in other words, word for word.

Nunca debes traducir esta expresión literalmente, o sea, palabra por palabra.

You must never translate this expression literally, in other words, word for word.

Breakdown of Nunca debes traducir esta expresión literalmente, o sea, palabra por palabra.

la palabra

the word

por

for / by / through / in (during a part of the day)

este

this (m.sg., also esta, estos, estas, esto)

nunca

never

Questions & Answers about Nunca debes traducir esta expresión literalmente, o sea, palabra por palabra.

How exactly is o sea being used in this sentence?

The phrase o sea translates to 'in other words' or 'that is to say'. Here, it acts as a clarifying connector. It tells the listener that you are about to rephrase or explain the previous idea (literalmente) in a simpler or more specific way (palabra por palabra).

Why do we say palabra por palabra instead of palabra para palabra?

We use por here because it expresses a unit-by-unit correspondence. Just like you would use por in ciento por ciento (percent) or día por día (day by day), you use it for the one-to-one equivalent of 'word for word'.

Why isn't there a no in Nunca debes traducir? I thought Spanish used double negatives.

Spanish does use double negatives, but only if the negative word comes after the verb (like No debes traducir nunca). Because the negative word Nunca is placed before the verb in this sentence, the no is dropped. Both structures are completely natural and mean the same thing.

Does literalmente work the same way as '-ly' adverbs in English?

Yes! The suffix -mente is the Spanish equivalent of the English '-ly'. To form it, you take the feminine singular form of the adjective (though literal is exactly the same for both masculine and feminine) and add -mente to the end.