What is relevant is what is relative or concerning something: a wheel is relevant to the operation of a car or a bicycle, for example.
Relevant is an adjective that refers to what is concerning, connected or relative . The term comes from the Latin word attĭnens .
For example: “Regarding security, the president announced that the State will buy new satellites to monitor the borders and fight drug trafficking,” “We are going to do the following: you are in charge of contacting clients and I am dedicated to to everything related to suppliers” , “I consider that I have the professional preparation relevant to this position” .
Examples of relevant
The relevant refers to that which concerns . Suppose the governor of a province is giving a speech about the opening of a new hospital. In this framework, in addition to reporting the characteristics of the hospital, the president provides details about the investment made by his government in public health. These data are relevant to the inauguration in question since they are part of the same topic. On the other hand, if the governor started talking about football or music, to name two possibilities, these comments would not be relevant to the event.
For something to be relevant, it must always be put in relation to another element: nothing is relevant by itself . A wheel is a circular piece that has the ability to rotate around an axis. Wheels are relevant to the operation of a bicycle, but they have nothing to do with the operation of a telephone or a camera. Therefore, wheels are only “relevant” in some contexts, when they relate to certain things (such as a bicycle, a car, or a truck).
Atinente is not a term frequently used in everyday language.
Some considerations
According to the definition provided by the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ) for the term atañer, we know that it means to correspond or incumbent , and this is clearly explained in the previous paragraphs: the professional preparation that corresponds to the position for which one is applying , the speech that corresponds to the participants in the inauguration of a hospital, etc.
The word relevant is the adjective that is part of the family of the verb atañer and that is why they share their meanings although their use varies: "This content concerns our research" is the same as saying "This content is relevant to our research."
Among the most common synonyms of the term we find the following: pertinent, belonging, referring and touching . On the other hand, it is also related to the words concerning and allusive since they can be used in similar contexts, with certain differences and considerations.
Relevant in everyday language
It is important to note that the relevant adjective is not commonly used in everyday speech, but is reserved especially for the press and literature. In an informal conversation it is more natural to say “it is related” or “it has to do” than “it is relevant” . This is not an isolated phenomenon or, much less, exclusive to this term; On the contrary, it responds to a tendency among Spanish speakers to avoid the conciseness of an adjective and opt for an extensive and messy construction.
The word "that" , used as a relative pronoun or conjunction, usually abounds in everyday speech. Thanks to its great flexibility, it allows us to get out of trouble when we do not remember a very specific term, such as an adjective, but it carries a very high price: it negatively affects the clarity of the message, since it requires greater attention to the agreements between verb tense and number.
Let's look at an example in which one of the disadvantages of avoiding concision is clearly demonstrated: "The boss told me that this is the document that pertains to what she expressed in the meeting we had this morning" is more difficult to understand - and less aesthetic - than "The boss told me that this is the document relevant to what was expressed in this morning 's meeting."