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I just have a couple of questions for clarification. These might not be important to others, but it is where my mind is right now – trying to understand more of the subtle differences between words.
1. “RUPTURA should only be used when speaking of relationships or other abstract nouns.”
When I read this, it was not clear to me what you mean by “other abstract nouns.” I understand “una ruptura de un matrimonio”, but where else might I use “ruptura”? Some further investigation showed me that it can be used with a contract or with a break from the past. It may not be important in this lesson, but at this point I am trying to understand this kind of difference in words that might be translated into English by the same word.
2. Me dio un jalón / tirón.
I pulled a muscle.
Is this sufficient for the listener to understand that a muscle was pulled? In other words, do jalón and tirón automatically refer to a muscle? Dictionaries do not make this very clear. They lead me to believe that other things might also be pulled/tugged. Perhaps the use with “dar” is the key, but even DeepL does not indicate that it is a muscle that was pulled when I use dar.
¡Muchas gracias!
Hola, Carolyn.
These are excellent questions! Thank you.
Here, “abstract nouns” refers to immaterial nouns: concepts or nouns you cannot touch.
Check out this explanation from RAE re: the difference between ROTURA Y RUPTURA. Additionally, when I investigated this further, multiple sources confirmed that “ruptura” should only be used for immaterial nouns, such as relationships, contracts, etc.
That being said…
The Diccionario de Esapñol de México allows the use of RUPTURA to express the following: “Momento y hecho de romperse alguna cosa: la ruptura de una membrana, la ruptura de la fuente”, and despite the above “rule,” I think it is common for native speakers to use RUPTURA to a express break/rupture in a material object. I will ask Gloria in our next class and add her reply here.
Bottom line, I would not sweat this “rule” too much, because it is broken all the time. However, if you use ROTURA to describe breaks and ruptures in material objects, you can’t go wrong.
You are absolutely right that you can use this phrase to express pulling or tugging on other things. However, when expressing a pulled muscle, I think simply saying “me dio un jalón/tirón” is most common. This is how Gloria initially presented the phrase. It is understood from the context. For example, “me dio un tirón en el cuello / la espalda / la pierna.” Gloria noted you could also say, “Me dio un jalón / tirón en el músculo.” However, when I did a Google search for “me dio un tirón en el músculo,” there were very few examples, whereas there were a ton of examples for “me dio un tirón” en [la parte del cuerpo], referring to a pulled muscle.
I hope this helps! Si te quedan dudas, responde a este comentario.
Un abrazo,
Molly