Indicative Practice in the Present Tense

[irmamar]

Originally Posted by AutumnBreeze

OK, thanks Rusty! I'll make the corrections .

I get the change in sentence 3 to 'estoy' since drawing is not a permanent thing, correct?

Correct!

Hmmm, not sure I understand the change to 'al mirar' in sentence 4. Why is the gerund not used here? .

You could also use gerund if you said "mientras / cuando estoy viendo películas". But gerund is not commonly used in Spanish as in English. It's most used "mientras veo películas"

I'm confused about the placement of the definite article in front of certain nouns. I know it's for general placement but I'm missing something about what that means.

How could I explain that 275 are the determinant for trees? I could say "Son doscientos setenta y cinco los árboles que hay aquí, here you could use the definite article, but if you use a numeral determinant (275), you can't use the definite article because the cardinal is using its function. It's more difficult in English.

So for words like 'gustar', when you conjugate them the conjugation used needs to agree with the direct object?

In this sentence, "los perros" is not a direct object, but the subject, so the concordance verb-subject is required. In Spanish we say "la estructura profunda" (I don't know in English, sorry) of a sentence, because we can put the different elements of a sentence in a different order. To make the "estructura profunda" we put the elements in order and change some pronouns to get more explicit the sentence. So, in this one, the "estructura profunda" would be:

Los perros (subject) -me- gustan (verb) a mí (IO)

I haven't looked too closely at the difference b/w 'para' and 'por' just yet.

Maybe "por" and "para" are a bit difficult to distinguish for a foreigner speaker. I think with some exercises about it will be enough.

Why is 'buena' used before 'salud' in sentence 10? Am I missing something about qualitative adjectives?

This is the same case as above "buena" is a determinant of "salud". I'd say "para una buena salud" instead of "la buena salud", maybe it's because in my country it's said in this way.

I hope this makes sense . My kiddo does not want me making corrections or understanding anything at all right now .

I hope it will be helpful.

[AutumnBreeze]

Yes, this is very helpful irmamar, thank you!

Yeah, I meant subject, not direct object, sorry! Was a wee bit distracted there, to say the least .

I'm going to come back and look at these explanations more after I put my son to sleep for the night .

[irmamar]

Originally Posted by AutumnBreeze

Yes, this is very helpful irmamar, thank you!

Yeah, I meant subject, not direct object, sorry! Was a wee bit distracted there, to say the least .

I'm going to come back and look at these explanations more after I put my son to sleep for the night .

I suppose this is because "the dogs" would be a DO in English, and "I" would be the subject. But languages change even the structure of a sentence:

I like the dogs
Los perros me gustan

Good night for your son

[chileno]

Originally Posted by irmamar

I suppose this is because "the dogs" would be a DO in English, and "I" would be the subject. But languages change even the structure of a sentence:

I like the dogs
Los perros me gustan

Good night for your son

Los perros me gustan
I like dogs. Suena mejor.

Good night to your son

Lo mismo para esta.

[AutumnBreeze]

Originally Posted by irmamar

I suppose this is because "the dogs" would be a DO in English, and "I" would be the subject. But languages change even the structure of a sentence:

I like the dogs
Los perros me gustan

Good night for your son

You know what I'm finding funny? I haven't even been studying Spanish that long and I've been using Spanish words in my head when I'm writing or speaking English. My head kind of goes back and forth with the grammar and vocab, and I've noticed that I almost unconsciously try to come up with the Spanish equivalent for what I'm trying to say at the same time. It's weird! I can't exactly explain it lol.

I'm also pretty excited about the fact that things I know how to say correctly in Spanish I say to my son so we can practice together, and he'll answer me in Spanish or English, which I find very cool.

Dang, that was a tangent. Uh, I'm prone to those ....

[chileno]

Originally Posted by AutumnBreeze

You know what I'm finding funny? I haven't even been studying Spanish that long and I've been using Spanish words in my head when I'm writing or speaking English. My head kind of goes back and forth with the grammar and vocab, and I've noticed that I almost unconsciously try to come up with the Spanish equivalent for what I'm trying to say at the same time. It's weird! I can't exactly explain it lol.

I'm also pretty excited about the fact that things I know how to say correctly in Spanish I say to my son so we can practice together, and he'll answer me in Spanish or English, which I find very cool.

Dang, that was a tangent. Uh, I'm prone to those ....

But is it a nice tangent...

I can totally relate to that, as I am sure others in the forums. Even though I hear people saying all the time that different people learn in different ways, all this makes me think all the time that that is an erroneous idea...

[CrOtALiTo]

Originally Posted by Rusty

I agree that llevarme is much more acceptable, but I've heard conducirme/manejarme al/a la _____.

Rusty, I can be agree with you, but anyway exist other way to speak the words that you written in your post, the sentences Conducirme and manejarme are totally distinct in itself build. Although you can interpret the words as (to take). This words are not so accurate in the use with To take, therefore, I can recommending you that if you need to use the word conducirme and manejarme you better use the word llevarme instead of conducirme or manejarme, I tell you this because I consider that the word llevarme is more correct than the others ones.

If you have some commentary about my opinion, you are free to tell me.

[cmon]

Originally Posted by AutumnBreeze

Hmmm, not sure I understand the change to 'al mirar' in sentence 4. Why is the gerund not used here? .

Found this in grammar book.

The infinitive after al

"The infinitive is used after the contraction al to indicate an action that took place at the same time as another action or as an immediate consequence of the other action. English uses upon plus the gerund."

I think that would apply to your sentence, but not positive.

[AutumnBreeze]

Originally Posted by cmon

Found this in grammar book.

The infinitive after al

"The infinitive is used after the contraction al to indicate an action that took place at the same time as another action or as an immediate consequence of the other action. English uses upon plus the gerund."

I think that would apply to your sentence, but not positive.

Thanks cmon! Ok, I get what they're saying here, though I don't know if that works in this particular situation. Maybe if I said something like:

"Upon waking, the dog stretches and takes a drink of water."

then that rule applies?

Eh, my brain's fuzzin' out though so I'm going to .

[irmamar]

Wouldn't you use "on"?

Al llegar los vi
On arriving I saw them