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Spanish / Portuguese word for an inferno

Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 12:20 am
by freshcoffee
Hi All

I'm trying to find out what the Spanish or Portuguese word is for an inferno, in the English sense meaning large fire, not "hell". How would these languages translate something like - "the building was engulfed in a blazing inferno?" If they use the word "Inferno", how would they distinguish in a sentence like, "a blazing inferno burned in hell"

etc

Thanks very much!

Re: Spanish / Portuguese word for an inferno

Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 12:45 pm
by zenmonkey
El edificio era un infierno.
El enorme fuego ardiente en el infierno.
Era un infierno.

To avoid using the same word twice in a sentence you'd use a descriptive construct like above.

Re: Spanish / Portuguese word for an inferno

Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 2:42 pm
by Querneus
"incendio infernal" (an infernal fire) is a phrase you can find many results of in the form of news reports.

"El edificio fue devorado en un incendio infernal".

Re: Spanish / Portuguese word for an inferno

Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 3:26 pm
by 白田龍
I'm native Brazilian and I think you could probably say in Portuguese that a place was an "inferno em chamas", or that "ardia um fogo infernal".... We also have the word "fogaréu", to describe a great fire, but it sounds dated and you'd probably not use it in the same context.

Re: Spanish / Portuguese word for an inferno

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2019 6:41 am
by freshcoffee
Thank you to each one of you! This is really helpful and what an amazing resource this site is. :D :D