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Old December 24, 2010, 08:48 AM
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AngelicaDeAlquezar AngelicaDeAlquezar is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Mexico City
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Native Language: Mexican Spanish
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Quote:
Originally Posted by laepelba View Post
En este ejercicio, tengo que traducir algunas oraciones al español. Tengo algunas dudas...

2) English: The important thing is to study.
Mi traducción: Lo importante es el estudiar.
La respuesta en el libro: Lo importante es estudiar.
Mi duda: Ugh!! Why no "el" there?

3) English: Swimming is the best exercise.
Mi traducción: El nadar es lo mejor ejercicio.
La respuesta en el libro: Nadar es el mejor ejercicio.
Mis dudas: El (lo?) mismo de #2 ... why no "el" there? (Ugh, again!) And why "el" and not "lo"?

5) English: Look for the eagle in the picture.
Mi traducción: Busca el águila en la foto.
La respuesta en el libro: Busca el águila en el cuadro.
No tengo duda. Solamente pienso que ésta es una oración muy lista . (The way I originally wrote it..... especially for someone studying sustantivos en español....)

10) English: See how easy this is!
Mi traducción: ¡Mira tan fácil ésto es!
La respuesta en el libro: ¡Mira lo fácil que está esto!
Mis dudas son tantas. (¡Ugh, otra vez!) Why "lo" instead of "tan"? Why estar and not ser? (I can probably figure out the ser/estar part myself....) And why no accent on "esto"????

Thank you in advance for any help you are able to attempt to give me. ¡Feliz Navidad!
"El" before an infinitive is usually not necessary. It just makes the sentence sound "heavier"... some people use the article with the infinitive mostly in more literary uses, so it sounds "out of place" in a more daily speech sentence.


2. "Lo" is only used when you're expressing a general idea. "El ejercicio" is a very definite activity.
Nadar es lo mejor -> Swimming is the best (activity you could ever do).
Nadar es el mejor ejercicio. -> Swimming is the best exercise.


5) "Foto" is a specific kind of picture, so if you don't know for sure there is actually a photograph where you must find the eagle, "cuadro" or "imagen" would be better words.


10) The verb in Spanish is only used at the end of a sentence in poetic uses of language. The verb is usually in the middle of a sentence in daily speech.
Mira qué fácil es/está esto. = Mira lo fácil que es/está esto. -> See how easy this is.
"Ser" and "estar" for once, can be exchangeable here... "está" is used if you focus on how easy you found it this time, and "es" if you focus on how easy it always is.

"Tan": Esto es tan fácil -> This is so easy.

"Esto" never has an accent, because it's not confused with any other word.
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