Vengo al Café esta noche con un café, té o cualquier otra infusión para todos (¡cómo no podría ser!) y con otra de mis preguntas de inglés-español, con una de esas con las que abuso de vuestra paciencia.
Voy al grano. No entiendo la diferencia entre «year by year» y «year to year». He buscado en mi diccionario de cabecera y no me ha aclarado nada. Voy a poner algunos ejemplos.
The figures increase year by year/year to year.
The figures show an increase year by year/year to year.
We’re living year by year/year to year, we are not thinking of the future.
No sé si «year by year» y «year to year» significan lo mismo. Por lo poco que he visto sería igual si fuese «month» o «day» en lugar de «year». Mi traducción sería «año tras/a año».
¡Gracias y saludos cordiales!
Hello monic!
Off the top of my head, I would offer the following.
My best friend’s brother is homeless. He is living day by day. His financial situation got so bad that his day to day expenses were just too much and he lost his job and his house.
This is how I use the terms. If I have the grammar right here, «day by day» functions as an adverb (how) and «day to day» functions as an adjective.
Let’s see what others say.
Hello and thank you, Gerardo!
The examples that you give help me a lot. Please, can I make you two questions? Is the same with year and month? And I found on a day to day basis and on a day by day basis in the Internet: can you use these phrases?
Thank you!
I have said both of these phrases (‘day by day’ and ‘day to day’) out loud about a thousand times since last night. I have come to the following conclusions:
In terms of the «adverbial» form I mentioned above, either ‘day by day’ or ‘day to day’ is acceptable — or at least heard — although I, personally, prefer ‘by’ in this context.
Ex.
He is living day by day/day to day.
When followed by a noun, only the expression with «to» is correct, in my opinion.
Ex.
My son is a drug addict. He buys illegal drugs on a day to day basis.
NOT: He buys illegal drugs on a day by day basis. (This basically answers your question from above.)
All of these expressions work the same way — whether you use day/month/year.
I hope you won’t mind if I make a minor correction to your English from above…
Can I ask you two questions? Not: make.
and
Is it the same with year and month?
Thank you again, Gerardo! Your reply is very clear and helpful.
And thank you for the corrections too: I always welcome corrections!
Regards
Hi Monic,
I’m sorry I’ve only just seen this and now that I have, I’m not sure that I’m going to be as helpful as I would like.
In the three original examples which you gave, I think that if I had written them myself, spontaneously, I would have probably used «year by year» in all three of them.
Gerardo has gone over them a thousand times and come to a conclusion. I find that when I go over things too many times, I lose my objectivity as to what sounds natural somewhere along the way of trying to find logical reasons or «easy» explanations.
So I’ll just tell you the first things that flashed into my head, but they may well be wrong, disputable or incomplete:
Like Gerardo, I prefer «to» when the use is adjectival, but I might be tempted to use hyphens – i.e. on a day-to-day basis. What do you think about that, Gerardo, or anyone else?
Secondly, I find «year by year» a little vaguer than «year to year». If something improves, let’s say, year by year, I understand that there’s a gradual and constant change which can be appreciated if you compare one whole year with the previous one at any point in time during that year. But if I heard «The figures increase year to year», I might think that there is a yearly analysis of the statistics, which comes out on a certain day, let’s say the 31st December.
A third point is that I think either expression could be translated «año a año», as you say, or maybe «de año en año», but I’m not so convinced that «año tras año» would work in every context (especially your third example) because I take that to be «year after year»/»one year after another» (sometimes meaning «eternally»/»for too long»/»for longer than I would like»).
I sincerely hope not to have confused you further.
Kind regards to all.
Thank you, Nibbles! Your comments are very useful and your explanations have helped me a lot.
The difference between «year to year» and «year by year» you make is very interesting. And you are right regarding the third example I wrote: it would be translated better «de año en año» or «año a año». I think that «año tras año» is possible in this example, but I agree with you: it would be the same as «year after year».
I thought that it was an easier subject and my question even stupid, but I was wrong! Thank you again to you both! Kind regards to all.
Buenas tardes, Monic, Gerardo, Nibbles y todos:
Si me lo permites, Monic, a mí también me gustaría darles las gracias a Gerardo y Nibbles, porque siempre nos ayudan con sus intervenciones claras y útiles. Lo único que yo voy a hacer es comentar sobre algo de lo dicho con el fin de revitalizar la discusión acerca de este tema y asentar algunos conceptos.
Me parece que lo que ha dicho Gerardo, al principio de esta conversación, acerca de que day-to-day se emplea más como adjetivo antepuesto a un sustantivo es importante, Monic. Creo que si nos concentramos por un momento en esas dos frases que has planteado a Gerardo en tu antepenúltimo comentario, podemos entender el matiz básico entre by y to en este tipo de frases, el que ha mencionado especialmente Nibbles. On a day-to-day basis sería como decir de manera diaria o cotidiana, por lo que tendría más sentido usar to.
Vamos a por unos ejemplos (que son siempre una perla, en mi opinión):
Day-to-day responsibilities/problems (on a routine or on a daily basis; «del día a día»). The day-to-day running of the company. I’m battling the disease on a day-to-day basis.
Nuestro «día a día» puede significar tanto todos los días como de una forma constante y continuada. En resumen, creo que el matiz es el que han comentado ellos: day by day es de manera continua y gradual y day-to-day diaria o rutinariamente.
Con respecto a los guiones, estoy contigo, Nibbles, y, así, creo que lo «más correcto», que no es siempre lo más habitual en la práctica, es incluirlos cuando una frase actúa como adjetivo antepuesto. Personalmente sí que los uso en estos casos.
Cualquier corrección o extensión de lo dicho es siempre agradecido. Saludos a todos.
Las gracias te las doy yo a ti, Blasita. Tienes un don para entender lo que yo quería decir y expresarlo de manera que los demás también lo puedan entender 😉 😀
Gracias Blasita por tu aparición en una de estas «películas» que me monto. Fue algo que yo te pedí expresamente porque sabía que tu comentario me serviría de mucho.
Si se me ocurren otras frases en las que tenga dudas, podré seguir preguntando y fastidiando más a los «blasiteros», ¿verdad? 🙁
¡Muchas gracias a todos!