Te quiero, pero no te amo

[CrOtALiTo]

Originally Posted by Caballero

Lo he oído en una telenovela. ?Cúal es la diferencia entre los dos?

The difference is that you dear to the person or women but anyway you don't love to the person, you don't grasp to feel nothing of love for her.

I hope you can understand me clarify.

[Caballero]

and what about "Te enamoro"?

[Rusty]

Te enamoro.
= I'm making you fall in love. (I'm winning your heart.)

Me enamoro de ti.
= I'm falling in love with you.

[Caballero]

Ah, ok. Thank you.

[Luna Azul]

Originally Posted by caliber1

Estaba manejando con mi amigo, y yo escuche muchas veses le dice mi amigo, "te quiero y te amo" a su esposa porque se le olvidó su cumpleaño

Corrections please!

I think this is the first time I don't agree with Rusty's corrections

"Iba en carro con mi amigo y lo escuché muchas veces decirle a su esposa "te quiero y te amo" porque se le había olvidado su cumpleaños.

"Iba en carro": In Spanish only the driver "maneja", the others "van en el carro/coche/automóvil"

"escuché": The preterite must be used here because it's an action that only takes place once.

"Se le había olvidado": It's talking about the past. The Past Perfect sounds better. I'm not sure the Preterite is correct, it sounds like translated literally from English.

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by Luna Azul

"escuché": The preterite must be used here because it's an action that only takes place once.

I'm really not challenging your Spanish here but I'm puzzled. You say the above when the context is "yo escuche muchas veses"

In English, the preterite would make no sense. Either the perfect (I have heard many times) or even an imperfect (Often I used to hear ..). Not that this is an argument for a perfect in Spanish though, the differences are baffling.

[Luna Azul]

Originally Posted by Perikles

I'm really not challenging your Spanish here but I'm puzzled. You say the above when the context is "yo escuche muchas veces"

In English, the preterite would make no sense. Either the perfect (I have heard many times) or even an imperfect (Often I used to hear ..). Not that this is an argument for a perfect in Spanish though, the differences are baffling.

Dear perikles, I don't understand what you're saying. Why would you use the subjunctive there? escuche

Let me see..

The first verb must be in the imperfect (iba) because it's an action that takes place in the past at the same time as another action. The second verb is in the preterite because it's an action that happened once. I assume this because of the fact that a person only has one birthday every year.

Even if it's not a one time action, let's say I drove with my friend several times and he kept saying "I love you" over and over, "escuchar"would then be in the imperfect:

"Iba en carro con mi amigo y lo escuchaba muchas veces decirle a su esposa...."

In this case I'd add something to the sentence like "Siempre que iba en carro con mi amigo lo escuchaba...." because otherwise it sounds weird.

Of course in English the preterite would make sense:

"I was driving with my friend and many times I heard him say to his wife...."

What's wrong with that?

[Rusty]

Just chiming in ...

The preterite sounds good to my ears in the English version of the sentence.
I thought the preterite should have been changed to the imperfect because of the 'muchas veces' phrase. However, I now agree with the changes that Luna Azul has suggested.

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by Luna Azul

"Iba en carro con mi amigo y lo escuché muchas veces decirle a su esposa ...

"escuché": The preterite must be used here because it's an action that only takes place once.

Originally Posted by Luna Azul

Dear perikles, I don't understand what you're saying. Why would you use the subjunctive there? escuche

I copied the original (incorrect) text from post no. 8, and not your correction above. What I didn't understand is how you can claim "it's an action that only takes place once" when it's escuché muchas veces. The "muchas veces" kind of indicates more than once.

[Luna Azul]

Originally Posted by Perikles

I copied the original (incorrect) text from post no. 8, and not your correction above. What I didn't understand is how you can claim "it's an action that only takes place once" when it's escuché muchas veces. The "muchas veces" kind of indicates more than once.

The action that takes place once is the fact that I drove in the car with my friend.

Adding "siempre" to the sentence, as I did in one of my examples, indicates that the action takes place several times, which was not the case in the original sentence. Therefore I assumed it was only once.

It's correct in Spanish to use the preterite with "muchas veces".

"Fuí a ese sitio muchas veces"
"me llamó varias veces"

You say the preterite wouldn't make sense in English. What tense would you use?