quiso y pensó

[gramatica]

Hola a todos:

En el libro de Harry Potter dice lo siguiente:

A su lado estaba Hedwig, dormida en su gran jaula. Quiso preguntarle ¿Qué es Ud.? pero pensó que sonaría demasiado grosero, así que le dijo:
¿Quién es Ud.?

Me preguntaba si se podría tambien decir de esta manera:

Quería preguntarle, ¿qué es Ud? pero pensaba que sonaría…./Quería preguntarle que es Ud?, pero pensó que sonaría….


Más tarde dice:

Lo siento-murmuró-no quise ofenderlo

¿Se podría también decir "no quería ofenderlo/ofenderle"?

Muchas gracias

[Rusty]

La frase "no quería ofenderlo/le" es la traducción correcta de "I didn't want to offend him". Querer lleva un sentido diferente en el pretérito. It means 'tried'. In its negated form, it means 'refused'. Only in the imperfect does it mean 'wanted'.

I would also use 'pensaba que sonaría'.

[Tomisimo]

Lo siento-murmuró-no quise ofenderlo.
I'm sorry- he murmured- I didn't mean to offend you. (It was not my intention to offend you.)

[Alfonso]

Gramática, all and each of the options you wrote are OK.
But those chose by the translator are stylistically the best.

[gramatica]

Thank you very much everyone

Rusty:

La frase "no quería ofenderlo/le" es la traducción correcta de "I didn't want to offend him". Querer lleva un sentido diferente en el pretérito. It means 'tried'. In its negated form, it means 'refused'. Only in the imperfect does it mean 'wanted'.

Lo de la traducción del indefinido de querer, no siempre significa "tried." To try is tratar de/intentar. For example, if I wanted to say "Yesterday, I wanted pizza" meaning "Yesterday, I wanted pizza, but I couldn't get it"/I tried to get pizza yesterday, you would say "Ayer quise pizza." Verbs that are said to change meaning in the preterite and the imperfect only have multiple translations in English, but they do not change meaning in Spanish. I hope this helps
No duden en corregirme. A lo mejor me equivoco

Alfonso:

Una pequeña correción:

Gramática, all and each of the options you wrote are OK.
But those chosen by the translator are stylistically the best.

I hope this helps

Regards

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by Alfonso

Gramática, all and each of the options you wrote are OK.
But those chosen by the translator are stylistically the best.

Was I, and many others, taught wrong about querer taking on a different meaning in the preterite, and yet another in the negated form in the same tense? I learned that I couldn't use quise if I wanted to say I wanted. I was told that quería was the only way to say that.

[gramatica]

Hi,

This explains the difference between the imperfect and the preterite, and there is a section about "quise" and "quería"

I hope this helps
http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/serv...0000004.htm#21

[Tomisimo]

Originally Posted by Rusty

Was I, and many others, taught wrong about querer taking on a different meaning in the preterite, and yet another in the negated form in the same tense? I learned that I couldn't use quise if I wanted to say I wanted. I was told that quería was the only way to say that.

By and large that is correct (quise=tried; no quise=refused), but it's not always the case.


No quería ir = I didn't want to go.
No quise ir = I made it clear I didn't want to go. (I refused to go, etc)

Quería ir = I wanted to go.
Quise ir = I wanted to go, but I wasn't able to = I tried to go.

[Alfonso]

Maybe you may pay attention to the fact that you can use quería as a polite way to ask for something (I'd like, but also I wanted) but you cannot use quise with the same nuance. Does this clear anything up?

[Rusty]

Thanks, everyone. I understand now why the rules I learned don't always apply.