Subjunctive or infinitive?

[Sunflower]

I'm writing a composition for class, and I have a question about this sentence:

"Incluso la abuela venía de su cuarto, cojeando con su bastón, para mirar un pobre pajarito (que) perder/perdiera su cabeza."

It's supposed to say, "Even the grandmother would come out of her bedroom, hobbling on her cane, to watch a poor little bird lose its head." Just the infinitive doesn't look right to me, but I'm not sure if I'm using the subjunctive right either. Help please?

[JPablo]

Originally Posted by Sunflower

I'm writing a composition for class, and I have a question about this sentence:

"Incluso la abuela venía de su cuarto, cojeando con su bastón, para mirar un pobre pajarito perder su cabeza."

It's supposed to say, "Even the grandmother would come out of her bedroom, hobbling on her cane, to watch a poor little bird lose its head." Just the infinitive doesn't look right to me, but I'm not sure if I'm using the subjunctive right either. Help please?

I think infinitive may work. But I have put in red a couple of things you may fix in your translation.

You could also say, "cómo un pajarito perdía la cabeza" (more or less literally, "how a little bird would lose its head")

Not sure if I told you too much... but check on the red words for a better Spanish wording...

[Sunflower]

Originally Posted by JPablo

I think infinitive may work. But I have put in red a couple of things you may fix in your translation.

You could also say, "cómo un pajarito perdía la cabeza" (more or less literally, "how a little bird would lose its head")

Not sure if I told you too much... but check on the red words for a better Spanish wording...

Thank you! I think I overthink the subjunctive sometimes.

As for the words in red, would it be better to use salía and ver, respectively? If not, what do you suggest, and why?

My instructor won't correct things like this. If "venir" means "to come" and I use it to mean "to come," he will leave it as written, even if "salir" would have been a better choice. And I don't blame him; he doesn't have the time to nitpick every less-than-perfect word choice when there are students still struggling to understand the basic concepts. So I am very grateful for any fine-tuning in my Spanish because I won't receive it anywhere else!

[JPablo]

You are welcome.
You got it right. (salía/ver)
I don’t see any reason not to be as precise as possible. Not that one has to be literal, but if one can be exact in communicating concepts, while being as idiomatic as possible in the target language, the better. Of course, no reason to nitpick unnecessarily... and to concentrate on what you are teaching, learning one thing at a time, makes sense, but as you progress you can always set your standard a little bit higher and higher as you go...

[micho]

Originally Posted by Sunflower

I'm writing a composition for class, and I have a question about this sentence:

"Incluso la abuela venía de su cuarto, cojeando con su bastón, para mirar un pobre pajarito (que) perder/perdiera su cabeza."

It's supposed to say, "Even the grandmother would come out of her bedroom, hobbling on her cane, to watch a poor little bird lose its head." Just the infinitive doesn't look right to me, but I'm not sure if I'm using the subjunctive right either. Help please?

Como se ha indicado anteriormente, creo que "... para mirar como un pobre pajarito perdía la cabeza" es correcto.
Estuve intentado hacer otras frases "para mirar a un pobre pajarito perdiendo la cabeza", "para ver a un pobre pajarito perder la cabeza" (sin mirar) y yo creo que en este caso se adaptaría mejor.
Mirar implica intención de ver y no se usan de la misma forma.