Ayuda con mi tarea!

[MommySonDad]

Okay im just starting spanish but we have some homework were supposed to be working on and i kinda need help. I need help with correcting my grammatical problems and things like that. Yea. So we Had to make an acronym thing about what we did on a holiday a holiday so yeah. Heres what i did. By the way, i had to say something with a w so i just said willy wonka
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Hacíamos muchas cosas como truco o trato y va a la casas embrujadas

Abrían sus puertas y danos dulces para comer después de terminamos

Leíamos los palabras a las lápidas cada año.

Llorabamos nuestros fundas de almohadas con los dulces de nuestros vecinos.

Otro niños corrían alrededor de los calles porque era muy entusiasmado

Willy wonka hace dulces personas compran para dar a los niños a las
halloween

Empezar nuestra búsqueda a las siete y media y terminala a las ocho y media

Evitabamos los gatos negros por que ellos eran mal suerte.

Nunca ibamos a una casa si los luces eran apartado porque ellos no tuve dulces

if you dont understand what im trying to say in a sentence jut ask

[Rusty]

Hi,

Welcome to the forums!
In this forum, we mark what is wrong and will sometimes give hints as to how to correct the errors, but we don't do the work for you.

The kind of writing you're trying to do, where each sentence starts with a letter that names the holiday you chose, is called an acrostic.

(I corrected your English outright so those who are learning the language won't be confused.)

Originally Posted by MommySonDad

Okay, I'm just starting Spanish, but we have some homework we're supposed to be working on and I kinda need help. I need help with correcting my grammatical problems and things like that. Yeah. So, we had to make an acrostic about what we did on a holiday a holiday, so, yeah, here's what I did. By the way, for the holiday I chose I had to use a 'w', so I just wrote Willy Wonka.
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Hacíamos muchas cosas como (missing the article) truco o trato y va a la casas embrujadas. (conjugate the verb 'ir' in the same tense and person you used for the verb 'hacer')

Abrían sus puertas y danos dulces para comer después de terminamos. Again, your first verb is conjugated into the right person and tense but the second is not. The indirect object pronoun needs to precede the verb instead of being suffixed.

Leíamos los palabras a las lápidas cada año. (use another preposition - 'on' is not translated as 'a')

Llorabamos nuestros fundas de almohadas con los dulces de nuestros vecinos. (The opening verb isn't what you wanted to write. Watch agreement.)

Otro niños corrían (alrededor de) los calles porque era muy entusiasmado. (watch agreement)

Willy wonka hace dulces (missing conjunction and article) personas compran para dar a los niños a las
halloween. (on/for, but not 'to' Halloween - check article) (There's a Spanish phrase for Halloween if you'd rather use that instead of the borrowed English word. )

Empezar nuestra búsqueda a las siete y media y terminala a las ocho y media. The first verb needs to be conjugated. The second should be conjugated equally (match person and tense). The direct object pronoun should precede the verb instead of being suffixed to it.

Evitabamos los gatos negros por que (ellos) eran mal suerte.

Nunca ibamos a una casa si los luces eran apartado porque ellos no tuve dulces. (You were talking about a house in the primary clause but abruptly switched to another subject in the secondary. Perhaps you could state who the new subject is and conjugate the verb for that person.)

If you don't understand what I'm trying to say in a sentence, just ask.

[MommySonDad]

Thanks for the reply. This helped a lot. Also, I didn't realize this forum was used for Spanish students learning English. I'll try to be more careful with my grammar from now on. Thank you for correcting me. First of all, I don't see what I did wrong in the first sentence. When I was learning more basic, common phrases, my teacher wasn't very good so I am not very good at some particular things. I am trying to say "We do many things like trick or treat and we go to the haunted houses. I know for the second error I didn't conjugate the verb but when I said "Como" I was trying to say "Like" as in such as. Could someone explain to me how I am supposed to do this? An example in a different context would be very helpful but i would be fine with an easy to understand explanation. Now for the second sentence, why did you cross out "de terminamos". I was trying to say "after we finish". Now for the fifth sentence, I don't see what was wrong with "alrededor de". I'm trying to say "the other kids ran around the streets" Also, in the eighth sentence, what was wrong with "Evitabamos" and the "Ellos" in parenthesis. I know "por que" was wrong but I don't see what was wrong with those other two. We used to avoid the black cats because they were bad luck. Finally I dont understand any of the errors in the last sentence. I know you can't do my homework for me but could you explain them in a less grammatically technical way? Sadly, a lot of these descriptions you put don't mean anything to me because I do not understand them. I sort of get the last sentences errors but not completely. Would it be okay if I said "Nunca ibamos a una casa si los luces eran apartado porque los personas no tuve dulces?" I realize I probably used the quotation marks wrong excessively. Sorry.

[Rusty]

In your first sentence, as in most of the others, you didn't begin with a verb in the present tense. You used the imperfect tense instead, which was perfect. So, you didn't say "We do many things," but "We did many things." The second verb was conjugated, but you used the present tense. Because the first verb was cast in the past tense, the second verb should also be cast in the past tense.
Saying 'like trick or treat' is proper English. Proper Spanish calls for an article prior to 'trick or treat'. That's why I said you're missing the article.

In the second sentence, I know what you were trying to say. I crossed it out because 'después', by itself, means 'afterwards'. Saying 'after we finished (past tense because your initial verb was past tense)' can be said one of two ways. The easier one is 'después de terminar'. This is a prepositional phrase, with the infinitive 'terminar' acting as a noun. So, the literal meaning is 'after finishing'. The second way to say 'after we finished' is to use a verb conjugated in the imperfect subjunctive mood, like so: 'después de que termináramos'. Since both of these phrases are slightly beyond your level of Spanish, I crossed out what you wrote so you could get by with 'afterwards'.

'Ran around the streets', in this context, is said 'corrían las calles'. That's why I crossed out the superfluous wording.

'Evitábamos' was misspelled. The word 'ellos' wasn't marked wrong. It was placed in parentheses because it isn't necessary.

In your last sentence, the first word is misspelled. The second word was the wrong word. Look up the meaning of the word 'apartado' and then look up the word for 'off'. Also, when you find the correct word, which is an adjective, it should agree in number and gender with the subject ('las luces'). Notice that I didn't mark this wrong. I also didn't mark 'eran' wrong. It is. You'll want to use the conjugated form of 'estar' instead of 'ser' once you find the correct adjective. Using 'porque las personas' is better than just saying 'ellos' because 'ellos' is a subject pronoun and you hadn't introduced us to the subject (the occupants of the house) yet. If you choose to use 'las personas' as the subject, have a look at the verb 'tuve'. This is conjugated in the preterit tense, third-person singular form. I agree that it should be conjugated in the preterit tense and in the third person, but does it agree in number with the subject you chose?

When I use words like 'indirect object pronoun' or 'direct object pronoun', I mean the 'nos' or the 'la' that you suffixed to the conjugated verb. Those pronouns belong in front of conjugated verbs (unless you're using the imperative, or command, form of the verb, in the affirmative).

Direct Object
John was writing a letter to us.
Juan escribía una carta a nosotros.

Direct Object Pronoun
John was writing it (a letter) to us.
Juan la escribía a nosotros.

Indirect Object
John was writing a letter to us.
Juan escribía una carta a nosotros.

Indirect Object Pronoun
John was writing us a letter.
Juan nos escribía una carta.

The indirect object pronoun that you used in the second sentence is 'nos'. It needs to precede the verb, like in the example I gave above (and the verb needs to be cast in the correct tense and for the correct person).
The direct object pronoun that you used in the seventh sentence was 'la'. It also needs to precede the verb, like in the example I gave above (and the verb needs to be cast in the correct tense and for the correct person - the same tense and person you'll use to fix the first verb that wasn't conjugated).

Good questions. If you have others, please ask.

When you think you've corrected everything, please post your sentences again so we can have another look.

[MommySonDad]

Thanks for the fast reply. It was quite helpful. Now I think I have most everything right but there's a couple things I'm still not sure about. One thing is in the first sentence.

"Hacíamos muchas cosas como truco o trato y ibamos a las casas embrujadas"

This is my revised version of the sentence. I'm still a little confused about what you mean by the missing article after como. When looking at the fourth definition for como on this website, http://www.spanishdict.com/translate/like it seems that it is used exactly the same as I used it. I don't see anything wrong with the way I used it. I'm sure there is something wrong but I just don't see it.

Also, I don't believe it is otra niños in the fifth sentence. niños is ovbiously masculine. Why was the last o in otro marked by you?

Here's the revised version.



Hacíamos muchas cosas como truco o trato y ibamos a las casas embrujadas

Abrían sus puertas y nos dan dulces para comer después

Leíamos las palabras en las lápidas cada año.

Llenabamos nuestras fundas de almohadas con los dulces de nuestros vecinos.

Otro niños corrían las calles porque era muy entusiasmado

Willy Wonka hace dulces para personas compran para dar a los niños a las halloween

Empezamos nuestra búsqueda a las siete y media y terminamos a las ocho y media

Evitabamos los gatos negros porque ellos eran suerte mal.

Nunca ibamos a una casa si los luces estabamos apagadas porque las
personas no tuvieron dulces

Again thanks a lot. Not only for helping me with this assignment but with Spanish in general. I'm sure I'll get something out of this. Again, thank you.

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by MommySonDad

Thanks for the fast reply. It was quite helpful. Now I think I have most everything right but there's a couple things I'm still not sure about. One thing is in the first sentence.

"Hacíamos muchas cosas como truco o trato y ibamos a las casas embrujadas"

This is my revised version of the sentence. I'm still a little confused about what you mean by the missing article after como. When looking at the fourth definition for como on this website, http://www.spanishdict.com/translate/like it seems that it is used exactly the same as I used it. I don't see anything wrong with the way I used it. I'm sure there is something wrong but I just don't see it.
(There's nothing wrong with how you used 'como'. The words that follow it need to introduced with an article. This isn't a requirement in English, but it is a requirement in Spanish.)

Also, I don't believe it is otra niños in the fifth sentence. niños is ovbiously masculine. Why was the last o in otro marked by you?
('Niños' is masculine AND plural. The reason I marked the final part of 'otro' is because it doesn't agree in number with the noun it modifies.)

...

Again, thank you.

De nada.

Hacíamos muchas cosas como () truco o trato y ibamos a las casas embrujadas(punctuation)
(Where is the stressed syllable in the verb? When 'y' precedes a word that begins with the vowel sound 'i', it is written 'e' instead.)

Abrían sus puertas y nos dan dulces para comer después(punctuation)
(Good job with the placement of the indirect object pronoun 'nos'! The verb I marked needs to be in the same tense as the verb that starts the sentence. That verb is in the imperfect tense. Your second verb is cast in the present tense.)

Leíamos las palabras en las lápidas cada año.

Llenabamos nuestras fundas de almohada(s) (omit the 's') con los dulces de nuestros vecinos.

Otro() niños corrían las calles porque era() muy entusiasmado()(punctuation)
(Parentheses appear where a letter is missing. To fix these errors, you need to match both person AND number when dealing with subject/verb agreement and noun/adjective agreement)

Willy Wonka hace dulces para (missing article) personas (missing conjunction) (missing direct object pronoun) compran para dar a los niños a las halloween(punctuation)
("for the persons that buy them) ('on Halloween', not 'to the')

Empezamos nuestra búsqueda a las siete y media y terminamos a las ocho y media(punctuation)

Evitabamos los gatos negros porque ellos eran suerte mal. (The last two words need to be reversed, like you had them. The problem lies in noun/adjective agreement.) (Writing 'ellos' is superfluous; it's obvious who the subject is.)

Nunca ibamos a una casa si los luces estabamos apagadas porque las
personas no tuvieron dulces(punctuation) (Where's the stressed syllable of the first verb? The second verb is cast in the wrong person.)