Glossary entry (derived from question below)
Spanish term or phrase:
...pidele a Dios que este pais vuelva a la normalidad...
English translation:
pray for this country to return to normal
Spanish term
European Spanish at its best
Native in: Spanish (Variant: Standard-Spain)
Works in: English to Spanish, French to Spanish, Portuguese to Spanish, and 3 more.
...pidele a Dios que este pais vuelva a la normalidad...
Gracias.
Non-PRO (1): Muriel Vasconcellos
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Proposed translations
Chile
40 Years Business, Legal, Certificates
Native in: Spanish 
Works in: English to Spanish, Spanish, Spanish to English
pray for this country to return to normality
¡Saludos!
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Margarita Gonzalez
7 mins
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Gracias, Marga
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Rene Ron
54 mins
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Gracias, René
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JaneTranslates
: Or, "Pray for this country to be normal again."
1 hr
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Thank you, Jane
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Muriel Vasconcellos
: "Normality" has a different meaning in English; this construction calls for an adjective.
3 hrs
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Thanks, Muriel. I did think it did, but couldn't find one. What would you suggest?
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Philippe Maillard
6 hrs
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Thanks, Philippe
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Xenia Wong
9 hrs
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Gracias, Xen, pero Muriel tiene razón. Veamos qué nos dice. ¡ELLA SABE!
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Accurate & Reliable
Native in: Spanish 
, English
Works in: English to Spanish, Spanish to English, French to English, and 2 more.
ask God ("pray so that God will ...") to bring this country back to normalcy
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Adriana de Groote
27 mins
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gracias
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Muriel Vasconcellos
: "Normalcy" is a coined political term, not appropriate here. The construction calls for an adjective.
3 hrs
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thanks
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jrb
: Carmen, I would have said normality rather than normalcy
5 hrs
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normalcy is used in socio-political and religious texts
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United States
May God help this country to return to normality
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María Eugenia Wachtendorff
: Pero aquí estás expresando un buen deseo/augurio, María.
4 mins
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United States
43 years of Border Experience and fast.
Native in: English , Spanish
Works in: English to Spanish, Spanish to English
Ask God to make this country normal again
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JaneTranslates
: Any country, I'd say. I like your natural, straightforward version or Ma. Eugenia´s more formal one, depending on the context.
1 hr
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Gracias, Jane.
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Mexico
Creative, Original, Reliable and fast
Native in: Spanish
Works in: English to Spanish
Pray God this country goes back to normality
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Note added at 1 hr 54 mins (2005-07-11 05:38:12 GMT)
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or returns en vez de goes back
Pray (to) God that the/this country can get back to normal
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jrb
3 hrs
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Sofie Andrea Clark
5 hrs
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Muriel Vasconcellos
: I didn't see your answer when I proposed mine. I have a problem with "pray TO," but otherwise I would agree.
17 hrs
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United States
Each translation a gem!
Native in: English (Variant: US)
Works in: Spanish to English, Portuguese to English
Pray God that this country may/will return to normal.
I often translate the subjunctive as future in English. It depends on the context, of course. Here you could say "may return"[subj.] "will return" [fut], or "returns" [indicative].
San Francisco Mayor Angelo Rossi's 1939 Labor Day Speech
**Pray God that all Americans back our President** in his struggle to keep us out of war. And you men and women of Labor celebrating today the rights given you ...
www.sfmuseum.org/hist1/rossi.html
**Pray God that the world will** remain faithful to the poor fishing villages of ... Pray God that the earthquake disrupted more than the rotation of the earth. ...
www.noevalleyministry.org/sermons/2005/010905.html
... it becomes obvious which two men are the finalists in the duel, we can look at them and **pray God that the lesser fiend wins**, but we mustn't support him. ...
www.credenda.org/issues/12-2magistralis.php
... Notre Dame's theology department stood before the high altar in Sacred Heart Church and pronounced their Profession of Faith. **Pray God that they will**. ...
www.ad2000.com.au/articles/1990/feb1990p6_652.html
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Note added at 20 hrs 11 mins (2005-07-11 23:55:05 GMT)
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Maria Eugenia, there are all kinds of options! I was trying to capture the feel of the original.
\"Pray God that/to...\" is highly idiomatic and doesn\'t follow regular grammatical rules. It can be used with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person, or, as I did, with no person at all, sort of, but not entirely, like Ojala [I can\'t type in accents, sorry!] which is why I chose it for this answer.
\"Pray for this country to...\" (your option) is perfectly OK. It\'s actually a 2nd person imperative (\"[I\'m telling you to] pray for this country to ...\") There was nothing wrong with your answer. It didn\'t mention God, but it\'s probably a good equivalent, especially if you consider that we don\'t use God as much in English as people do in Spanish (I did have a doubt about \"normality\"). Yours is 2nd person imperative, whereas mine is an anonymous invocation to God, which is what I thought the asker wanted to know how to express.
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Marina Soldati
6 hrs
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Thanks, Marina!
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María Eugenia Wachtendorff
: I agree with you, Muriel, but I still wonder why you can't say "pray for *something to happen*". Is it always "pray that"? THANK YOU VERY MUCH, MURIEL!! Love, MEW
12 hrs
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Thanks Maria Eugenia! -- see my answer to you above.
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Discussion