at the movies/cinema

[Magg]

Hola a todos:

Me gustaría saber cuales son las frases típicas que se utilizan en inglés cuando se va al cine y cuando, posteriormente, se comenta la película. Para aquellos que estéis interesados en la situación es español, nosotros diríamos:

1. Antes de:
¿Por qué no vamos al cine esta noche?
¿Vamos al cine...?
¿Os apetece ir al cine...?
¿Qué os parece si vamos al cine...?
Podríamos ir al cine... ¿no?
¿Qué hay en la cartelera? = ¿Qué películas hay?

¿Vamos a ver (título película)/la última de (nombre protagonista/director)?
¿Quién sale/trabaja/actúa en la película?
¿De qué va? = ¿De qué trata?
¿Se ha estranado ya la última de (nombre de director)?
¿Se ha estrenado ya 'Kill Bill'? Sí, está siendo/es (todo) un éxito de taquilla.

1. Después de:
¡Qué película más/tan buena/mala!
¡Qué horror de película!
Me ha gustado mucho.
Me ha encantado.
No me ha gustado (nada).
Al Pacino hacía/hace de malo/bueno/gangster/policía....

Ah! Se me olvidaba, en un contexto informal se suele utilizar el diminutivo 'peli'.

Bueno, hay muchas combinaciones, pero para empezar no está mal.
¿Cómo discurre este tipo de conversación en inglés? Gracias

 

[Masood]

1. Antes de:
¿Por qué no vamos al cine esta noche? =why don't we go to the cinema tonight?
¿Os apetece ir al cine...? =D'you fancy going to the cinema?
¿Qué os parece si vamos al cine...? [What do say/how about] we go to the cinema?
Podríamos ir al cine... ¿no? =we could go to the cinema (?)
¿Qué hay en la cartelera? = ¿Qué películas hay? =what films are showing?

¿Vamos a ver (título película)/la última de (nombre protagonista/director)?=we're going to see the latest film by <director>
¿Quién sale/trabaja/actúa en la película?=who's in the film? who stars in it?
¿De qué va? = ¿De qué trata?=what's it about?
¿Se ha estrenado ya la última de (nombre de director)? =has <directors name's>film been premiered yet?
¿Se ha estrenado ya 'Kill Bill'? Sí, está siendo/es (todo) un éxito de taquilla. Yes,it's a box-office success.

1. Después de:
¡Qué película más/tan buena/mala! what a great film/mediocre/bad film!
¡Qué horror de película!= what a dreadful/awful film
Me ha gustado mucho. =I liked it a lot
Me ha encantado.=I loved it
No me ha gustado (nada).=I didn't like it at all
Al Pacino hacía/hace de malo/bueno/gangster/policía....=Al Pacinos played the part of....

I might be wrong on some of these - please correct them. Plus, there are many alternatives, too.

 

[cuchuflete]

Masood did a nice job of translating the phrases. In the eeuu, one would substitute
'movie' or 'movies' for cinema.

Also, there are a number of other terms for película=movie. One that's a bit out-of-date, but still used, is 'flic'. I think it's origin is in the earliest black and white movies that flickered on the screen.

 

[Magg]

]¿Qué hay en la cartelera? = ¿Qué películas hay? =what films are showing?[/I]

Thanks Masood for spending your time translating the sentences. Just a question concerning the above: Can I say what films are showing? without a subject. Is that correct? I would have said: what films are they showing? or what films are being shown?

Al Pacino hacía/hace de malo/bueno/gangster/policía....=Al Pacinos played the part of....[/I]

Here, is it correct to just say: Al Pacino played a business man in/at the film , without 'the part of'? And which preposition?

Thanks a lot.

 

[Vicki]

]¿Qué hay en la cartelera? = ¿Qué películas hay? =what films are showing?[/I]

...Can I say what films are showing? without a subject. Is that correct? I would have said: what films are they showing? or what films are being shown?

These are all OK.

Al Pacino hacía/hace de malo/bueno/gangster/policía....=Al Pacino played the part of....[/I]

Here, is it correct to just say: Al Pacino played a business man in/at the film , without 'the part of'? And which preposition?

Yes, using "in". This is perfectly acceptable and is probably used more often.

Also, depending on what kind of "moving picture" you're talking about, you might take some care with saying "film" or "movie". "Film" tends to sound more serious and such than "movie" does. For example, if I were going to see a documentary on a weighty matter or an experimental/avant garde piece, I'd be more likely to say "Let's go see this film". Likewise, I'd say "movie" when talking about a Hollywood or even most kinds of narrative film. These are not hard and fast categories, of course.

Hope this helps provide more insight.

Saludos.
Vicki

 

[Magg]

Yes, using "in". This is perfectly acceptable and is probably used more often.

Also, depending on what kind of "moving picture" you're talking about, you might take some care with saying "film" or "movie". "Film" tends to sound more serious and such than "movie" does. For example, if I were going to see a documentary on a weighty matter or an experimental/avant garde piece, I'd be more likely to say "Let's go see this film". Likewise, I'd say "movie" when talking about a Hollywood or even most kinds of narrative film. These are not hard and fast categories, of course.

Hope this helps provide more insight.

Saludos.
Vicki

Thanks Vicki

Extra information always helps.

Just one more doubt: You wrote Let's go see this film and I miss 'to' in that. I would have written Let's go to see this film.
Can you explain me that, please?
Seriously, English sometimes drives me mad.

 

[Masood]

]¿Qué hay en la cartelera? = ¿Qué películas hay? =what films are showing?[/I]

Thanks Masood for spending your time translating the sentences. Just a question concerning the above: Can I say what films are showing? without a subject. Is that correct? I would have said: what films are they showing? or what films are being shown?

Al Pacino hacía/hace de malo/bueno/gangster/policía....=Al Pacinos played the part of....[/I]

Here, is it correct to just say: Al Pacino played a business man in/at the film , without 'the part of'? And which preposition?

Thanks a lot.

Your suggestions:
what films are they showing? or what films are being shown? are perfectly valid.

also
Al Pacino played a business man in the film is good, too. 'at' en lugar de 'in' seria incorrecto.

 

[jacinta]

Just one more doubt: You wrote Let's go see this film and I miss 'to' in that. I would have written Let's go to see this film.
Can you explain me that, please?
Seriously, English sometimes drives me mad.

Oh, I know. It seems that all rules in English are made to be broken!

It is correct to say:
"Let's go see the new Colin Ferrell movie"
"Let's go eat at the new restaurant downtown"

You can put in "to" after "Let's go" in both sentences. It is more usual in informal speech to not use it.

 

[Magg]

Oh, I know. It seems that all rules in English are made to be broken!

It is correct to say:
"Let's go see the new Colin Ferrell movie"
"Let's go eat at the new restaurant downtown"

You can put in "to" after "Let's go" in both sentences. It is more usual in informal speech to not use it.

Thanks Jacinta, I believe you but let me ask you one more thing. When you say the sentence is acceptable in informal speech you also mean it is grammatically well written; say, wouldn't any English teacher correct that sentence in a writing, considering it is an informal one?

Sorry for being so persisten but I want to know.

 

[marietta]

I've also heard What's playing? refering to the movie they're showing.

 

[Vicki]

I've also heard What's playing? refering to the movie they're showing.

Yes. When the context is clear, as you pointed out, this is very common usage.

When the context needs to be established, you would probably want to be more explicit, "What's playing in town this week?" or "What's playing at the Roxy?"

Hope this helps.
Vicki

 

[Vicki]

When you say the sentence is acceptable in informal speech you also mean it is grammatically well written; say, wouldn't any English teacher correct that sentence in a writing, considering it is an informal one?

This is a good example of why it makes sense to abandon notions of "correct" and "incorrect" — except when it's a case of the expression or word in question simply never appearing in the language or feeling strange to a native speaker, even if it is understandable. There's another way to look at it:

"Let's go see the new Colin Ferrell movie" — general
"Let's go to see the new Colin Ferrell movie" — culto/educated
"Let's go seeing the new Colin Ferrell movie." — incorrecto/incorrect

"...habián cuatro policías en la esquina." — general
"...había cuatro policías en la esquina." — culto/educated
"...habíaron cuatro policias en la esquina." — incorrecto/incorrect

This way of thinking about it makes it easy to accept that it's OK to use one in talking to friends, in writing dialogue or informal letters, etc. — while the other is sure to be better accepted in certain contexts (school, business writing, etc.).

Hope this helps. I'll step off my soapbox now.

Saludos.
Vicki

 

[jacinta]

Thanks Jacinta, I believe you but let me ask you one more thing. When you say the sentence is acceptable in informal speech you also mean it is grammatically well written; say, wouldn't any English teacher correct that sentence in a writing, considering it is an informal one?

Sorry for being so persisten but I want to know.

Oh my, Magg, you are going to make me look it up??? I'm afraid I don't know the rule of the semantics here. If I were an English teacher and I saw the phrase written "Let's go see a movie", I would accept it as correct grammar. Now, why??? Someone else will have to help here. I am saying in my head "Let's go to see a movie" over and over and it just doesn't roll off my tongue like "Let's go see a movie" does.
Sorry I can't be of more help here.

 

[Magg]

Thanks Vicki and Jacinta.

 

[funnydeal]

Oh, I know. It seems that all rules in English are made to be broken!

It is correct to say:
"Let's go see the new Colin Ferrell movie"
"Let's go eat at the new restaurant downtown"

You can put in "to" after "Let's go" in both sentences. It is more usual in informal speech to not use it.

The correct preposition after the verb "go" is "to", in all tenses and always. It is a rule.

I went to my Mom's house
I will go to my Mom's house
I am going to my Mom's house
I am going to go to my Mom's house
I have gone to my Mom's house

etc...

Please correct me.

 

[Vicki]

The correct preposition after the verb "go" is "to", in all tenses and always. It is a rule.

I went to my Mom's house
I will go to my Mom's house
I am going to my Mom's house
I am going to go to my Mom's house
I have gone to my Mom's house

It's more complcated than that. We need to be sure that we're dealing with the same kinds of verb phrases.

Your examples are of the structure:

go + destination
"To" is a preposition that is "attached to" the destination.

As you say, it is indeed incorrect English — not simply grammatical according to some standard of what's proper, but in the sense that no English speaker finds these sentences acceptable, in general or educated usage.

NEVER "I went Mom's house"
NEVER "I will go Mom's house" etc.
and as a direct comparison with the example in question,
NEVER "Let's go Mom's house"

The sentence refered to earlier, however, has a different structure:

go + verb

In most cases, the same structure applies for educated and general usage:

GOOD "I went to see a film." NEVER "We went see a film."
GOOD "I am going to see a film." NEVER "I am going see a film."
GOOD "I have gone to see a film." NEVER "I have gone see a film."
but these two are acceptable to native speakers (and that's how linguists evaluate these matters):
Let's go see a film.
I will go see a film.

I'm sure there are other nuances and that this could be analyzed further, but the important point is this:

The underlying structures are different, which can mean that sometimes sentences that look superficially the same are not the same at all.

Hope this helps.

Saludos.
Vicki

 

[LadyBlakeney]

"...habián cuatro policías en la esquina." — general
"...había cuatro policías en la esquina." — culto/educated
"...habíaron cuatro policias en la esquina." — incorrecto/incorrect

Please, pleeeease Vicky, don't consider "habían cuatro policías" as correct. It is not. Although this is a very common mistake, it is totally wrong and a sign of illiterateness (I don't know if this word exists in English, sorry) that we should try to remove from common people's speeches. Besides, my ears bleed every time I hear it.

 

[Magg]

Vicki,

Thanks for your explanations. They are very useful.

 

[Masood]

Please, pleeeease Vicky, don't consider "habían cuatro policías" as correct. It is not. Although this is a very common mistake, it is totally wrong and a sign of illiterateness (I don't know if this word exists in English, sorry) that we should try to remove from common people's speeches. Besides, my ears bleed every time I hear it.

Hi - when would you use 'habían'? Please give a couple of examples!
Thanks.
Te corrijo:
a sign of illiterateness -> a sign of illiteracy

 

[funnydeal]

It's more complcated than that. We need to be sure that we're dealing with the same kinds of verb phrases.

Your examples are of the structure:

go + destination
"To" is a preposition that is "attached to" the destination.

As you say, it is indeed incorrect English — not simply grammatical according to some standard of what's proper, but in the sense that no English speaker finds these sentences acceptable, in general or educated usage.

NEVER "I went Mom's house"
NEVER "I will go Mom's house" etc.
and as a direct comparison with the example in question,
NEVER "Let's go Mom's house"

The sentence refered to earlier, however, has a different structure:

go + verb

In most cases, the same structure applies for educated and general usage:

GOOD "I went to see a film." NEVER "We went see a film."
GOOD "I am going to see a film." NEVER "I am going see a film."
GOOD "I have gone to see a film." NEVER "I have gone see a film."
but these two are acceptable to native speakers (and that's how linguists evaluate these matters):
Let's go see a film.
I will go see a film.

I'm sure there are other nuances and that this could be analyzed further, but the important point is this:

The underlying structures are different, which can mean that sometimes sentences that look superficially the same are not the same at all.

Hope this helps.

Saludos.
Vicki

Thanks you very much Vicki.

That was a great explanation. I am learning.

 

[jacinta]

Hi - when would you use 'habían'? Please give a couple of examples!

Hi- Habían is the plural form of haber in the imperfect past tense. for example:
"Habían viviendo en California el año pasado pero ahora viven en Texas."

(This is a difficult tense for me to think in; maybe someone can give a better example.)
In other words, haber in this context is used as a "helping verb" as it is called in English.

Remember, the past tense of "hay" is "había".

Saludos