How to read word strings

Some very brief explanation

What are word strings
Word strings are groups of words that are presented one after the
other with no prepositions or linking words to tell us how they are
related.
elite dominated nationalist movements is an example
The word movements in underlined to show you that it is the most
important word in this string.
The last word is always the important word. It marks the topic, that
element you are talking about. (es el tema central alrededor del que giran las demás
palabras)
What are word strings
In conversation, English speakers do not use word strings much, but in
academic language they are quite frequent and if you want to
understand a text you must bear them in mind (tener en cuenta, recordar).

Let´s go back to elite dominated nationalist movements.

How to read this group of words?

How to read the string
The first thing to remember is that you have to read them from right to
left, just in opposite direction to what we do in Spanish. Then, what you
get is the following (si odenáramos esas palabras como se hace en español lo que
obtendrías sería lo de abajo):
Movements nationalist dominated elite.
(movimientos nacionalistas dominados por la elite)
(Nosotros posponemos ellos preponen, nosotros decimos la palabra importante primero y
después los adjetivos)
How to read the string

Elite dominated nationalist MOVEMENTS

You are talking about the movements, not about the elite or
nationalism. This is very important to remember. If you don´t get that
relationship you may not understand what they want to say.
Strings may be too long
Smoking room (sala para fumar)
Crying boy (niño que llora)
White house (casa blanca)

In these examples you only have two words, so it is easy to establish

the relationship.
Strings may be too long
We have problems when we find more that two words:

American capital withdrawal

The Army city destruction
Societies growing affluence

So proceed first from the last word in the string, read from right to left.

Retirada de capital americano

Destrucción de la ciudad por el ejercito
Afluencia creciente de las sociedades
Strings may be too long
• See that we (Spanish speaking people) have to guess what´s the
relationship and imagine the missing prepositions.
• Things can be even more difficult. Strings of 4, 5 or even 6 words can
be found.
Country leader question time
Widow pension pay committee
Landscaping Company disturbance regulations
Remarkable economic as well as artistic achievement
ambiguity
When you have so many words together there may be some problem
of ambiguity because, inside the string, words can group differently.
For instance:
Country leader question time
The word country goes with leader? Or does it go with time? Both
options are possible.
Our knowledge of the world makes us know that it goes with country.

Turno de preguntas del líder del país

Ambiguity
• So many times the only way you have to understand the string is by using your
knowledge of the world and by taking into account the context in which you find
the string.
Widow pension pay committee

How to group words here?

It could be that a widow pension pay the committee (la pensión de una viuda
paga al comité) where pay would be a verb and committee the direct object. This
goes against our knowledge of the world. SO
“Comité sobre la paga de la pensión de las viudas” makes much more sense. The
word pay has been understood as a noun, not a verb.
Sometimes nouns and verbs share the same
form
• One of the problems to understand that string was that pay can be a
noun or a verb. The same happens with elite dominated nationalist
movements, which without a context, may seem that dominated is a
verb, but here it is working as an adjective.
• (no es la élite dominó los movimientos nacionalistas)
• There are many words that can be a noun and a verb. Pay, control,
produce, are some examples. So be careful if you find them in a string
and pay attention to the context in which you find them.
We will go on working with them.