Duolingo Forum

Fer²

You need water in order to make a cup of coffee.

You need water for making a cup of coffee, if you will.

The preposition para expresses finality, purpose.

Fer²

The "I would explode" here is meant as a synonym for "I used to explode", right? The speaker is saying that in the past he used to explode when he didn't vent, right? That is one possible interpretation, but colloquially «Si no me desahogaba, explotaba» can also be used for &quo...

Fer²

I personally wouldn't use por with llevar, just lleva tejiendo un chal varios días or, better yet, lleva varios días tejiendo un chal.

More examples at www.rae.es/dpd/llevar#3.

Fer²

"Yo la tengo grande"? I can't figure out exactly what that would mean, but from how you phrased it, I'd guess it's the Mexican equivalent of "I've a big one" (or it's lazy spoken form - "I've a biggun")? Yep, exactly, and not only in Mexico. Beware of direct object pro...

Fer²

The word modelo is común en cuanto al género (common gender?). So el modelo, la modelo, los modelos, las modelos.

Fer²

From the moment you include Pedro, the standard would be todos nosotros.

Fer²

Fun fact: the spurious h at the start of huelen (and hueso, hueco, huésped, etc.) is believed to come from medieval times, back when u and v were the same letter, and scribes needed a way to indicate that the word started with the vowel sound. Otherwise the natural way to read it would have been vel...

Fer²

Jimbo wrote: ↑Thu Dec 21, 2023 6:04 am
[...] pero yo sí no completamente te confío ya.

Pero yo aún no confío completamente en ti.

Fer²

I'd say that the situation in Spanish mirrors that in English. As you said, English started with three sets of adverbs: Whither gost thou? Where art thou? Whence comest thou? I go thither . I am there . I come thence . But over time the static form took precedence and directionality was implied or a...

Fer²

EranBarLev wrote: ↑Sun Dec 10, 2023 3:44 pm
The owl doesn't accept "We have to wait in line!" The official translation is too formal.

Have you tried generic 'you' instead of 'we'? The latter might be too context-dependent for Duo.

Fer²

Why is "We're planning to walk." wrong? The stupid owl didn't accept it, even though the hints say "walk". :x Maybe "We're planning to walk there"? This might be the ESL in me, but 'walk' alone seems to lack the directionality of ir . This is not about walking as an ac...

Fer²

Nothing wrong with iba a empezar or fue retrasada as far as I'm concerned. Imperfect can be used to describe the available information at some point in the past, just as the present can («La ceremonia es mañana, empieza a las ocho»). With prevista, you need estar. I think it's better style yo say «E...

Fer²

but I felt this sentence called for using 'comerse' which is a verb I struggle with knowing when [and when not] to use [my choice here was due to '4 slices' being a specified amount?] For what it's worth, I'd also favor the pronominal here, especially because it's a big quantity . Do you have the r...

Fer²

Regarding marido, it seems to come from Latin mas, maris meaning 'male' (as in ' mas culine'). Funnily enough, Latin did have marita for a wedded woman (she was 'man-ed'), but seems to have favored uxor, which hasn't survived in everyday Spanish (we do have uxoricida for 'wife-killer'). While there ...

Fer²

Interesting topic, thanks for bringing it up. My first guess was that testigo would be completely invariant, i.e. including the article, like "la persona" or "la victíma" which may refer to a male despite their feminine article (RAE calls these "Sustantivos epicenos" a...

Fer²

As far as I know, it is not strictly mandatory to use a redundant indirect object pronoun along with indirect objects, but it seems so perfectly common to do it that it may sound unusual or unnatural if you drop it. Yes, exactly. But note that it would be strictly mandatory if the indirect object i...

Fer²

That pronominal use of robar is alien to my variety of Spanish (from Spain), but it seems to fall under the category of expressive rather than reflexive (like comerse un helado or merecerse un premio ). This kind of use is the most likely to fluctuate across regions and even generations (I now hear ...

Fer²

At least in my variety of Spanish, robar is used like 'steal' rather than 'rob': the object of the action is the thing you steal, not the person or place you steal it from. «Los ingredientes están siendo robados» is perfectly fine, but «María está siendo robada» sounds odd to me. She would normally ...

Fer²

Jimbo wrote: ↑Sat Nov 04, 2023 3:39 pm
Creo que la mayoría de padres se preocupan mucho por sus hijos.

Seguramente, pero el uso del pretérito (se preocuparon) sugiere que el hablante está pensando en acciones concretas, más allá de una actitud genérica.

Fer²

Not only am I not entirely sure I translated 'turn it on' correctly, You did, but you should have said prendámos la (la tostadora). Also note that in Spain at least we'd use encender (encendámosla). I know prender is preferred in most (?) of the Americas, but I'm not entirely certain where. but I f...

Fer²

Past tense would be a closer match, but historic present is very common when talking about something that almost happened but didn't. See https://www.espanolavanzado.com/28-uso- ... e-o-pasado.

Fer²

@Fer²: Qué te parece simplemente "los dos (o tú y yo) tenemos bicicletas"? Queda claro que no se trata de una sola bicicleta. Sin embargo podríamos tener varias bicicletas cada uno, pero creo que normalmente se entiende que yo tengo una y tú también. Personalmente, prefiero usar «biciclet...

Fer²

¿Hay una razón que alguien decíamos esa oración largo en vez de algo como "Ambos de nosotros tiene una bicicleta"? No creo que «ambos de nosotros» sea correcto, parece un calco del inglés. Sí podría decirse «Ambos/Ambas tenemos una bicicleta». El verbo ya lleva implícito el «nosotros/noso...

Fer²

I'd rather piggyback on these discussions to share less common expressions and uses. That doesn't mean I advocate for their being taught by Duo or anyone else, though. I got the first sentence, but I am not sure I got the meaning/intention of the last one. I assume, given they are both in the same ...

Fer²

Cifi , I just realized that I went straight into research mode and never explicitly answered your original question. I wouldn't use either por. Prior to this exchange, I would've assumed it was some kind of Americanism and cautiously tried to offer a 'better' alternative. gmads , once again, we agr...

Fer²

_ the DPD says it's most common in the Caribbean, but recommends against it as it's likely an anglicism: https://www.rae.es/dpd/esperar. A search in CREA yielded several results, mostly Cuban, Dominican, Puerto Rican and otherwise US American, but also some Chilean ones. The note at the DPD express...

Fer²

Regarding esperar por alguien/algo, the DPD says it's most common in the Caribbean, but recommends against it as it's likely an anglicism: https://www.rae.es/dpd/esperar. A search in CREA yielded several results, mostly Cuban, Dominican, Puerto Rican and otherwise US American, but also some Chilean ...

Fer²

Ok, this is splitting hairs, but on the first and third sentences I do prefer Duo's translation: «Debe haber sido una conversación triste, lo siento.» «Debo haberte dicho ya que eres mi mejor amigo.» I think it is because this construction can have more gravitas. What these sentences express, to me ...

Fer²

gmads Ah, I see, sorry if I came up as defensive, I often read too much into people's replies to my comments. PtolemysXX I'm glad I made myself clear enough. To be fair, I was not sure whether your first reply to me was a genuine inquiry or am attempt at a pun, so I took a weird middle road. Text d...

Fer²

@Fer² I'd say that the image was quite clear, it is about wines. I cannot find any reference to shirt colors :| Indeed, but when you tap a word Duo will show you all possible translations in all possible contexts. Just like a bilingual dictionary would. You may disagree with this being a desirable ...

Duolingo Forum

Search found 78 matches

Re: why is there “para”.

Re: !Si no me desahogaba, explotaba!

Re: Ha estado tejiendo = lleva tejiendo?

Re: Yo tengo una casa grande. Ella tiene un carro grande. (en → es)

Re: ¿Eres modelo? (en → es)

Re: ¿Quieres bailar conmigo? (en → es)

Re: ¿En tu casa o en la mía? (en → es)

Re: ¿Por qué no vamos a un sitio más tranquilo? (en → es)

Re: Pensamos ir a pie. (en → es)

Re: ¡Hay que hacer cola! (en → es)

Re: Pensamos ir a pie. (en → es)

Re: was going to start

Re: No, solo mi mamá sabe la receta. (en → es)

Re: Marido y testigo

Re: Marido y testigo

Re: La viejita

Re: La viejita

Re: María, dame los ingredientes que están en tu bolsa. (en → es)

Re: Ellos se preocuparon mucho por sus hijos. (en → es)

Re: No, solo mi mamá sabe la receta. (en → es)

Re: Estábamos montando a caballo y casi nos caemos. (en → es)

Re: Tú tienes una bicicleta y yo tengo una bicicleta. (en → es)

Re: Tú tienes una bicicleta y yo tengo una bicicleta. (en → es)

Re: La pasajera esperó por cinco horas, pero su autobús nunca llegó. (en → es)

Re: La pasajera esperó por cinco horas, pero su autobús nunca llegó. (en → es)

Re: La pasajera esperó por cinco horas, pero su autobús nunca llegó. (en → es)

Re: La pasajera esperó por cinco horas, pero su autobús nunca llegó. (en → es)

Re: Debe haber = Habrá?

Re: Abrí la botella de vino de Burdeos...

Re: Abrí la botella de vino de Burdeos...