Help translate

[mikemacabre]

I saw this picture and as you know I'm trying to improve my spanish without using a translator. Just going by what I've learned so far. Which isn't much since I've kinda just started to learn. So here goes. Please correct if I'm wrong.

Si te enjas = If you get mad
Entenderé = Unsure here but I know it means to understand. My guess is "I understand." I know the "é" plays a big part but I'm unsure how the é would replace "Yo" wouldn't "Yo Entender" also work? If it even means "I understand."
Si no me hablas = If you don't talk to me
Entenderé
Si me ignoras = If you ignore me
Entenderé
Pero si dejas de importarme = I'm unsure here what it means here.. I think its saying " But if you leave" I can not translate "de importarme" I guess its means something like "less important."
Es tu turno de ENTENDER = It's your turn to UNDERSTAND.

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by mikemacabre

Si te enojas = If you get mad
Entenderé = My guess is "I understand." Right verb, wrong tense. It means "I'll understand." I know the "é" plays a big part (Yes! It's the ending of a conjugated verb, and the ending is extremely important.) but I'm unsure how the é would replace "Yo" (Technically, it conveys 'yo', so it's not necessary to say 'yo'. It doesn't replace 'yo'. If you wanted to be emphatic, you could say 'yo' in conjunction with this ending.) wouldn't "Yo Entender" also work? (No.) If it even means "I understand." (It doesn't. 'Entender' is an infinitive - the unconjugated form of the verb. It means '(to) understand'. A subject pronoun, like 'yo', cannot be used with an infinitive.)

Si no me hablas = If you don't talk to me
Entenderé
Si me ignoras = If you ignore me
Entenderé
Pero si dejas de importarme = I think its saying " But if you leave" ('leave' is one meaning of 'dejar', but when 'dejar' is followed by 'de + infinitive', it means 'stop ___ing'.) I cannot translate "de importarme" ('importarme' - infinitive 'importar' + indirect object pronoun 'me')
Es tu turno de ENTENDER = It's your turn to UNDERSTAND.

Not bad! I spelled a few things out for you. See if you can come up with the right translation of 'Pero si dejas de importarme'.

[mikemacabre]

Some of you all should be Teachers.. Hopefully over paid teachers someday haha

I had to brush up on what a indirect object was

Ok so when dejar is followed by de plus an infinitive (importar) its means stop..... that leave me with importarme... importar is a word alone with "me"

When I saw importarme... I thought it was important... now that you broke it down into two... I see importa.. when I see that I think of "¿Por qué importa? Why does it matters... It can't be "stop mattering"... mattering isn't a word lol

Mmmm

[Rusty]

'Mattering' is a word. It's a gerund (a noun), formed from the infinitive 'matter'.
If you think it sounds strange, translate importar as 'be important', instead. Then the infinitive 'be' would become 'being' - the gerund of the infinitive 'be'.
So, 'stop mattering' or 'stop being important' are both translations of 'dejar de importar'.

Now, the indirect object pronoun 'me' needs to be translated. Since this object indirectly receives the action of the verb, 'to me' is a good translation in this case.

The verb dejas is conjugated, so it means 'you stop' in your sentence.

So, I think you have all the pieces. What do you get when you put it all together?

[mikemacabre]

I had to use your dictionary and look up importar.. at the very bottom it has an another example of importar with an indirect object pronoun 'importarse' no importarse un bledo Informal, No me importa un bledo not to care about I couldn't care less.

When I looked up 'bledo' I did not know what that word meant. The I saw 'importarle" no importarle un bledo Informal not to give a hoot about something V Informal

as pronouns
le - you, him, it, her, to her
se - themselves, itself, himself, herself, yourself, oneself, self, yourselves
me - me, myself

Pero si dejas de importarme - But if you stop caring
Es tu turno de ENTENDER - It's your turn to UNDERSTAND.

[Lar69]

According to google translate
bledo=damn
No me importa un bledo= I don't give a damn

Ive never heard that term before.

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by mikemacabre

le - you, him, it, her, to her
se - themselves, itself, himself, herself, yourself, oneself, self, yourselves
me - me, myself

Pero si dejas de importarme - But if you stop caring
Es tu turno de ENTENDER - It's your turn to UNDERSTAND.

Not quite, but you learned a few things.

When a Spanish verb appears in a dictionary with 'se' as a suffix, that means it's a pronominal verb. The verb may be reflexive (subject and object are one in the same) or reciprocating (subject and object act on each other - they reciprocate). (There are also pronominal verbs that are 'idiomatic' in usage - their meaning is different than when not used pronominally.) The pronouns used with pronominal verbs are known as 'reflexive' pronouns. You listed 'me' and 'se', above. The others you didn't list are 'te', 'nos', and 'os'. All this said, your example isn't using a pronominal verb.

When a Spanish verb appears in a dictionary with 'le' as a suffix, this indicates that the verb is used in a phrase that contains an indirect object pronoun. You correctly listed 'le' above (but may want to add 'to' to each of the English translations). The other indirect object pronouns are 'me', 'te', 'nos', 'os' and 'les'. ('Se' is also an indirect object pronoun, but is only used to replace 'le' or 'les' when a direct object pronoun is also present.)

Have a look here to see all the pronouns used in Spanish, but don't get overwhelmed. Just look at the indirect object pronouns (labeled 'dative' in the table) for now. (If you want to take a peek at the reflexive pronouns, they're near the bottom of that page. )

Now, getting back to your example, you haven't translated the indirect object and you decided to translate importar as 'care' instead of 'be important' or 'matter'. In this case, that isn't the best option.

'Importarle' is the infinitive form (the one found in good dictionaries that list phrases), as you were able to find in our dictionary. The form in your example is also an infinitive, but the appropriate pronoun ('me') has been suffixed. If the infinitive were conjugated, the pronoun would be placed prior to the conjugated verb. Here are some conjugated examples of importarle:
me importa = it matters to me | it's important to me
no te importa = it doesn't matter to you | it isn't important to you
le importa a él = it matters to him | it's important to him
no le importa a ella = it doesn't matter to her | it's not important to her
le importa a usted = it matters to you | it's important to you
nos importa = it matters to us | it's important to us
os importa = it matters to you | it's important to you
les importa a ellos = it matters to them | it's important to them
les importa a ellas = it matter to them | it's important to them
no les importa a ustedes = it doesn't matter to you | it isn't important to you

So, if we use 'be important' as the translation of the infinitive 'importar', and add the suffixed indirect object pronoun 'me', the translation becomes 'be important to me'.
And, since 'dejar de + infinitive' means 'stop ___ing', the translation of 'dejar de importar' is 'stop being important'. Now let's add the suffixed indirect object pronoun to the mix. This yields 'stop being important to me'. 'Matter' is another way to say 'be important', so we could also translate 'dejar de importarme' as 'stop mattering to me'.

Pero si dejas de importarme = But if you stop being important to me -or-
But if you stop mattering to me

[mikemacabre]

I'm kinda disappointed at myself, because I could not understand Pero si dejas de importarme It lead me to all this good information. I promise this is not something I'm going to read once and put away. The wiki link is bookmarked. I'm not going to just read what you explained to me but study it! Thanks Rusty! \m/

[Rusty]

You're welcome.
It's good to know you bookmarked the link. It'll come in handy until all those pronouns are committed to memory.

[Lar69]

Hey Mike, don't be disappointed, you did better than I would have. I've learned from this thread too. That's what it's all about!