sentencia en su contra
/sentenθja en su kontɾa/from spelling rules
The English phrase "judgment against you" is translated into Spanish as sentencia en su contra.
This phrase is used in legal contexts to describe a formal ruling or verdict that is unfavorable to the person being addressed.
Which one should you use?
You may also encounter the formal phrases Fallo en tu contra or Veredicto en tu contra to convey the same meaning.
How does it change in a sentence?
The phrase changes based on the number of judgments and the level of formality used with the person. To refer to multiple judgments, change sentencia to the plural sentencias to get sentencias en su contra. If you are speaking to someone informally, you should change the possessive pronoun su to tu to get sentencia en tu contra.
How do you pronounce it?
/sentenθja en su kontɾa/
Did you know?
- The word sentencia does not just mean a legal ruling, but shares its roots with the English word 'sentiment' and the Spanish word 'sentir', meaning 'to feel'.
- While English speakers use 'judgment' to describe both a legal ruling and a person's character, using sentencia in Spanish almost exclusively refers to the formal, documented legal decision.
- A legal ruling in Spanish can be described as firme, which means it is final and can no longer be appealed.
Examples in context
- Escuché que hubo un juicio en tu contra. ¿Es cierto?I heard there was a judgment against you. Is it true?
- Sí, fue un fallo en mi contra. No esperaba ese resultado.Yes, it was a judgment against me. I didn't expect that result.
- El juez dictó una sentencia en su contra.The judge issued a judgment against him.
- No podemos ignorar la sentencia en su contra.We cannot ignore the judgment against her.
- Ellos recibieron una sentencia en su contra ayer.They received a judgment against them yesterday.
Example conversation
A lawyer is updating a client on his court case.
- SofíaAlejandro, el tribunal ya tomó una decisión.Alejandro, the court has already made a decision.
- Alejandro¿Cuál fue el resultado final, Sofía?What was the final result, Sofía?
- SofíaLamentablemente, hay una sentencia en su contra.Unfortunately, there is a judgment against you.
- AlejandroNo puedo creer que hayamos perdido el caso.I cannot believe we lost the case.
Sources
- IPA marked “from spelling rules” is derived from standard Spanish spelling, where Wiktionary gives none.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries contra, en, sentencia, su, CC BY-SA 4.0.
