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Me gustaría conocer frases en español que signifiquen lo mismo que la siguiente frase en inglés:
"With each passing hour/day/year/etc ..."
Por ejemplo:
"With each passing day, her knowledge of Spanish increased."
_____?_____, sus conocimientos de español aumentaban.
Cuando lo intento traducir directamente, mi opción es "Con cada día/año/etc pasado..."
¿Es correcto? ¿Es esta una forma común de decir esto, o hay otras frases más comunes para este concepto?
In my answer I'm going to try to keep the translation as closer to the original phrase as possible, because there're so many valid ways to say the very same. So I'm going to be concret.
In the translation there's a little mistake. The verb. It's past, but It's in the wrong form.
With each passing hour/day/year/etc ...
The next one is another valid translation.
A shorter way:
We can also change cada (each) by el paso de:
Finally the shorter one:
Con los días/horas/años su español mejoraba.
We have elided that the time goes by, we just mentioned days/months/years for such meaning
Note that In spanish (at least in Spain), we speak about improving our language skills rather than increasing the knowledge about the language.
However, both ways (to improve and to increase) are interchangable in this phrase. Both are valid.
Note: passing is in continuous form. The -ing brings motion to the time. In spanish the motion has been introduced by que: que pasaba. This is the way we do reference explictly to the motion of the time.
If we want just to use the verb without que. We could also say:
Semantically both say the very same. Sintactically both are differents. The last one would not be an acurated translation to the original one.
Apart from Laiv's answer, there is a shorter way of saying the same:
- loc. adv. progresivamente.
- loc. adv. de un momento a otro.
So you can just say:
Su español mejoraba por momentos.
The same is valid for other units of time:
Su español mejoraba por días.
Another option:
- loc. adv. De manera continuada y progresiva o reiterada.
So:
Su español mejoraba día a día.
You can also say:
Su español mejoraba día tras día.
Su español mejoraba año tras año.
More options:
de un día a otro, o de un día para otro
- locs. advs. En muy poco tiempo o de manera inminente.
So:
Su español mejoraba de un día para otro.
Su español mejoraba de un mes/año a otro.
As a venezuelan, I can tell by the way that we speak here, we say
con cada día/hora/minuto que pasaba
Ejemplo:
"Con cada día que pasaba, su conocimiento de Español mejoraba"
There are also another expressions as for example:
Conforme corrían las horas
O
Conforme pasaban las horas
Ejemplo:
"Conforme corrían/psaban los días, su conocimiento de Español mejoraba"
