As I covered in my CapicúaFM episode 89, we joined forces with the University Francisco Marroquín of Guatemala to protest and request correction from X.com (Twitter’s) translation department. We covered in detail within the episode that although the verb used by X.com (Twitter) is indeed a proper word in the DcRAE (Diccionario castellano de la Real Academia Española), in this case it’s a completely unnecessary linguistic calque, with a completely different meaning than the intended one. The inappropriately used verb postear (and in the preterite tense posteó) refer to the act of installing a physical wooden utility pole (like a telephone pole) as indicated in the photo (which is in public domain). The verb that X.com (Twitter) should be using is publicar with its third-person singular preterite conjugation publicó. For example, a correct sentence would be:
Ana publicó la noticia ayer en X.com.
In that sentence, it makes no sense to use posteó, since Ana did not install any utility pole.
We hereby request corrections from Elon Musk’s translation team. It offends me whenever I see the verb posteó used inappropriately each time I receive notifications from X.com (Twitter). Thank you in advance.
Note: My CapicúaFM podcast is turning 10 years old this month. As of yesterday, it has had 499,432 unique downloads in over 161 countries according to Podtrac. In addition, CapicúaFM has won two awards to date.
Related article
For more information
- The books The Castilian Conspiracy and La conspiración del castellano
- The podcasts Speak Castilian and CapicúaFM
Image credit for utility pole
By No machine-readable author provided. Silenceisfoo~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims). – No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims), Public Domain.
(Re-)Subscribe for upcoming articles, reviews, radio shows, books and seminars/webinars
Stand by for upcoming articles, reviews, books and courses by subscribing to my bulletins.
In English:
- Email bulletins, bulletins.AllanTepper.com
- In Telegram, t.me/TecnoTurBulletins
- Twitter (bilingual), AllanLTepper
En castellano:
- Boletines por correo electrónico, boletines.AllanTepper.com
- En Telegram, t.me/boletinesdeAllan
- Twitter (bilingüe), AllanLTepper
Most of my current books are at books.AllanTepper.com, and also visit AllanTepper.com and radio.AllanTepper.com.
FTC disclosure
Twitter (X.com) did not pay for this article. Allan Tépper paid ful price for his X.com Premium account from his own funds. Allan Tépper is the director of TecnoTur.LLC and AccentedDomains.com is a service of TecnoTur.LLC. Allan Tépper and TecnoTur.LLC have paid full price for Twitter services and as of publication time of this article, there is no other financial relationship between Twitter (X.com) and TecnoTur.LLC. Some of the manufacturers listed above have contracted Tépper and/or TecnoTur LLC to carry out consulting and/or translations/localizations/transcreations. So far, none of the manufacturers listed above is/are sponsors of the TecnoTur, BeyondPodcasting, CapicúaFM or TuSaludSecreta programs, although they are welcome to do so, and some are, may be (or may have been) sponsors of ProVideo Coalition magazine. Some links to third parties listed in this article and/or on this web page may indirectly benefit TecnoTur LLC via affiliate programs. Allan Tépper’s opinions are his own. Allan Tépper is not liable for misuse or misunderstanding of information he shares.