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Consider the following scenario:

"How much is this MacBook?" He asked the store clerk.
"Two thousand dollars, sir!" Said the store clerk with a smile.
Now, two thousand bucks is no small sum so Jim decided to buy himself an Acer instead.

The now in the last sentence above is not used in the sense of time so, to me, ahora doesn't seem to be the right translation. How would we translate this now into Spanish? I can't really explain the exact meaning of now in this context; to me, it seems more like a filler, maybe?

P.S. Please also state your country/region in your answer so I know if your translation has any regional nuance. Also, please do not quote RAE because I am not interested in knowing what the dictionary or literature says. I am keen on knowing how it's spoken in the streets. I want to know how YOU would say it in your conversations (which might not always be what the dictionary says).

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7 Answers 7

up vote 2 down vote accepted

I'm from Sevilla, Spain and for me "ahora" or "ahora bien" sound also good. All of the words mentioned above would also sound good to almost any spanish speaker but as you say it is more a filler. You can remove it from the sentence without making it lose sense as @ArcDare says. In a narrative text you can find something like these:

Ahora, 2000 pavos no es "calderilla", por lo que Jim decidió comprarse un Acer en su lugar

Ahora bien, 2000 pavos no es "calderilla", por lo que Jim decidió comprarse un Acer en su lugar


Así / Así pues 2000 pavos no es "calderilla", por lo que Jim decidió comprarse un Acer en su lugar

Como 2000 pavos no son "calderilla" Jim decidió comprarse un Acer en su lugar

all of these sentences sound good to me

P.S: "calderilla" means a very small sum of money, normally your tiniest coins.

Note that you can refer to calderilla in singular and plural as a "sum of money" or as "the count of your coins" this use to happen with a word that holds itself as a total composed by various things.

Hope this helps and hope my english is at least "readable" jeje

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I think I would use "ahora bien".

You can find the definition in RAE, but I find it ("esto supuesto o sentado") quite obscure. I would say it translates to "that said".

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I'm from Spain.

If I had to, I would go with "Así / Así pues" . BUT In my opinion, no native would use this or any other particle.

They would just go with "2000 pavos no son poco, así que Jim decidió comprarse un Acer en su lugar.".

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I've sometimes heard "Es que" used at the start of a statement, to emphasise the statement, a bit like "now". Could that be used here e.g. "Es que 2000 pavos no son poco, así que Jim..."? I think maybe "es que" is more for explanations like "Jim decidió comprarse un Acer en su lugar. Es que 2000 pavos no son poco."? –  user568458 May 28 '14 at 10:29
Doesn't removing the "Now," from the start of the sentence cause the narrative style to be lost? –  Tom Fenech May 28 '14 at 10:50
@user568458 : "Es que" is used to justify an idea. First example... naah, it doesn't sound natural, second one fits best. –  ArcDare Jun 2 '14 at 9:03
@TomFenech : No, it doesn't. It's one of those situations where the translation is not literal from one language to another, and no spanish speaker will miss anything without it. –  ArcDare Jun 2 '14 at 9:04

I'm not Spanish at all (I'm English) but I think that the correct word to use in this context is bueno, as the word "now" is an interjection which is being used to introduce the following statement.

Bueno, 2000 pavos no son poco, así que...

It is mentioned here. This isn't entirely based on looking up the word; I speak Spanish (Castellano).

pavos is a good translation for "bucks" in my opinion.

A colloquial alternative to "is no small sum" could be es una pasta ("is a load of money"):

Bueno, 2000 dólares es una pasta, así que...

Of course, I would appreciate the perspective of a native speaker!

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Thanks for chipping in despite not being a native speaker. I kinda like your angle as "bueno" does ring closer to what "now" is used for in this context, i.e. a filler. Like you, I'm also curious to see what native speakers feel about using "bueno" in this translation. –  Amit Schandillia May 28 '14 at 12:04
@Amit no problem, I saw it on the "Hot Network Questions" so thought I'd have a look! I've added another suggestion for the second part of the phrase. –  Tom Fenech May 28 '14 at 14:33
"pavos" is indeed the typical translation of "bucks" in Spanish, at least in the movies :) –  fedorqui Aug 1 '14 at 12:26

I'm from Paraguay (South America) and for me "Ahora, dos mil dolares no es una suma despreciable, así que ..." sounds good.

Other options are (at least for Paraguayan street slang):

  • Bueno, dos mil dólares es mucha plata, y por eso...
  • Como dos mil dólares es mucho dinero...
  • Dos mil dólares es mucho dinero...

hope it helped.

As you may have noticed, here we don't normally use "no es poco" and instead use "es mucho" (it's the same meaning but not the exact words)

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Shouldn't it be "son mucho" instead of "es mucho"? –  Amit Schandillia May 28 '14 at 16:47
No, because "dinero" is singular, hence ES mucho DINERO –  Maluchi May 29 '14 at 18:01

I live in Chicago but have a Venezuelan wife and some experience with Spanish.

In the English sentence, "Now," is very close to "Well,", which in my life has always been spoken in the vernacular Espanol as "Bueno,".

Compare: Now, two thousand bucks... Well, two thousand bucks...

...The two words (now and well) are interchangeable. Even if you say:

Now you see, two thousand bucks... Well you see, two thousand bucks...

...Now you understand? ;-)

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"En este/ese momento" can be an option but I should omit that word because the time "now" is inherit in the sentence context. I am from Spain and I should traduce it like this:

Dos mil dólares no son una pequeña suma (de dinero) por lo que en su lugar Jim decidió comprar un Acer.
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