Verb conjugations and how to determine correct word order?

[zoiberg137]

In writing a composition for class, I was told these sentences do not make sense as they are currently worded. Can anyone please help me to understand what I am doing wrong here? I'm not just looking for answers, but rather explanations... Also, bear in mind that my class has only studied the present and preterite verb forms so far...

Para este pasado nuevo año celebración...I am trying to say, "for this past new years celebration"

Es fue bien porque celebrando el nuevo año fue no importante a nosotros.
I am trying to say that, "it was OK because celebrating the new year was not important to us"


For these next two, the verbs preguntó and fue are apparently the wrong conjugations...but I have no idea why!:

Cuando mi esposa miró en su reloj ella vio que la hora fue doce y veiniticinco...


María preguntó a mi esposa ir a la tienda primera...

¡Todo ayuda es mucha apreciada!

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by zoiberg137

Para este pasado nuevo año celebración I am trying to say, "for this past new years celebration"

Problem: You're trying to translate word-for-word. This seldom works.
You need to translate the literal "for the celebration of the year new past". You do not need to specify 'this', as that will be understood.



Es fue bien porque celebrando el nuevo año fue no importante a nosotros. I am trying to say that, "it was OK because celebrating the new year was not important to us."[/COLOR]

Problem: You have two conjugated verbs back-to-back. This is not possible in Spanish. Choose the one conjugated in the preterit tense, since 'was' is the intended meaning.
Problem: 'celebrating' acts as a noun in the English sentence, so you must use the equivalent in Spanish - the infinitive.
Problem: You've not observed the proper form for verb negation. The word 'no' precedes the conjugated verb.
Improvement: Instead of saying 'importante a nosotros', you can use the verb 'importar'. Conjugate it into the third-person and use the indirect object pronoun 'us'.



For these next two, the verbs preguntó and fue are apparently the wrong conjugations...but I have no idea why!

Cuando mi esposa miró en su reloj ella vio que la hora fue doce y veiniticinco.

Problem: 'Mirar' means 'look at'. Don't use 'en' behind it.
Problem: 'Fue' is singular, third person. You need to use plural, third person with an hour that is greater than one. You also need to use a plural article to introduce the hour.
Problem: Check your spelling of twenty-five.

María preguntó a mi esposa ir a la tienda primera...

Problem: When you are asking someone to do something, you use the verb 'pedir', not 'preguntar'.
Problem: You also have to use two clauses when you're using that verb. The subordinate clause needs to be written using the subjunctive mood. You haven't studied the subjunctive mood yet, so it's not a good idea to use this construct.

"Les agradezco cualquier ayuda" is what you should say instead of the 'word-for-word' translation you used. Again, word-for-word translations seldom work. The English word 'appreciated' has at least two very different uses - one is used for describing the appreciation in value of something. This is the meaning of the Spanish form you tried.

[zoiberg137]

Thank you so much for your help!!! I must admit that at times I feel as though the more I learn, the farther away I am at understanding the language. I suspect that it will take me some time before I understand how to properly translate. In the mean time, even if I do translate everything literally, or word for word, so long as people can understand me (even if they laugh at me behind my back) then ultimately I will be very happy...

[Rusty]

You're welcome. I sincerely hope it helped.

Something you may want to try is to buy a novel written in Spanish and translate it into English (an idea that chileno proposes often). This will help you to get a feel for the 'rhythm' of the language. It'll also greatly build your vocabulary!

[pjt33]

Originally Posted by Rusty

Problem: You also have to use two clauses when you're using that verb. The subordinate clause needs to be written using the subjunctive mood. You haven't studied the subjunctive mood yet, so it's not a good idea to use this construct.

Pedir + infinitive might work in that particular example. Depends on the desired connotations.