Could you edit this letter?
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JazzHeart
July 21, 2011, 03:08 PM
Me again :o
A man I met a few months ago who was teaching me salsa for alittle while gave me his e-mail, and said I'm more then welcome to practice my Spanish with him. However I have only been learning for a couple of months and not practicing too often (I really need to invest in some actual classes!) so I'm barely able to put together a sentence let alone a letter.
I'm determined to write atleast some of it in Spanish though. Would someone mind correcting this for me, and if you see any patters of something I'm doing wrong, could you point them out to me?
Thank you for putting up with me again!
¡Hola Luis!
¿Te acuerdas de mí? Soy Laura de usted Friday Night Salsa Dance Party en el YMCA. ¿Cómo está usted?
¡Te toca peca estoy adicta a la salsa! Yo han sido yenda a el miércoles la noche de Queen's University. ¿Dice fue a la el bailar los viernes, no? ¡Acaso cuando me mejor, veré allí!
Saludos,
Laura
What I am trying to say (incase I'm far off! Which is likely)
Hello Luis!
Do you remember me? I am Laura from your Friday Night Salsa Dance Party at the YMCA. How are you doing?
It is your fault I am addicted to Salsa! I have been going to Wednesday classes at Queen's University. You mentioned you go to the social dance on Fridays, right? Maybe when I get better I will see you there!
Rusty
July 21, 2011, 04:09 PM
¡Hola Luis!
¿Te acuerdas de mí? :good:
Soy Laura :good:
de usted :bad: (The opening question was written using second person, so all communication should be in that person: 'your', in 2nd-person form, is 'tu'. However, I would personally go for 'who you met in your' instead of 'from your'. 'Who you met in your' = 'que conociste en tu'.)
Friday Night Salsa Dance Party (Fiesta de Baile de Salsa los viernes por la noche)
en la YMCA. (Young Men's Christian Association = Asociación Cristiana de Jóvenes (the main noun in the acronym ACJ is feminine))
¿Cómo está usted? :bad: (Match the person used above.)
¡Te toca peca estoy adicta a la salsa! (It's your fault = Es tu culpa que)
Yo han sido yenda a ('He sido yendo a' is the literal translation, but that would be rarely used. Just use 'Voy a'. This is habitual, and still occurring.)
el miércoles la noche (You left out 'las clases'. 'Wednesday evening classes' is 'las clases nocturnas de miércoles'. You left 'evening' out of your English version.)
de Queen's University.
¿Dice fue (The opening question mark goes in front of the question only. Match the person used above. 'You said that you were going' = 'Dijiste que ibas')
a la el bailar los viernes, no? ('a la' or 'al', but not both. Since the noun 'dance' is 'el baile', it's masculine. The preposition 'a' plus the masculine definite article 'el' becomes 'al'. So, this phrase should be 'al baile los viernes, ¿no?')
¡Acaso cuando me mejor, (The opening exclamation point should be moved to only the portion that is exclamatory. Use the verb 'mejorarse'. You had this figured out, mostly. The reflexive verb is conjugated by removing the pronoun, finding the correct pronoun (based on person), placing it in front of the verb, and then conjugating for the correct person. So, this phrase should be 'Cuando me mejore'. The subjunctive mood is used to indicate 'in case', so you can leave out the word 'acaso'.)
¡te veré allí! (Here is where the opening exclamation mark goes. You left out the direct object pronoun.)Corrections given. Please ask questions about what I suggested.
CrOtALiTo
July 21, 2011, 04:09 PM
Hello my name is Luis ahahahahaha
When you want to practice with somebody, I'm willing to help you.
You practice with the text seems me correct, I will wait by someone for correcting you.
JazzHeart
July 21, 2011, 08:23 PM
CrOaLiTo, I will be sending you a message soon (or you can send me one!).
Rusty, your replies are always so helpful! Thank you!
I do have a couple of questions for you if you don't mind. Would the two names (YMCA and Friday Night Salsa Dance Party) not stay the same as they are english names?
For example, I am not sure if there is a Spanish version of Laura (but now I'm curious, is there?) however because my native language is english, I would still want to be called by the english version.
You explained everything in such great detail so I feel awful for asking, but I'm still missing when I'm using 2nd person and when I am not. I thought the only difference is "usted" being formal and "tú" being informal? Or is that what you mean that I should be addressing him in an informal way?
Rusty
July 21, 2011, 09:12 PM
Laura can be pronounced the way you say it in English, or you can use the Spanish pronunciation of the name, since it is also a Spanish name.
You can leave things untranslated in your email if you wish. However, I wanted to show you that almost everything has a translation. In a more formal letter, untranslated material would usually be written in italics so the reader knows it's foreign.
The subject pronoun tú is the only subject pronoun allowed in the second person singular construction.
In Spanish, usted is considered a third-person pronoun. This is because the conjugated verb ending is the same for usted, él and ella. It has nothing to do with 'addressed' versus 'referenced', as is the distinction in English.
You started your email by informally addressing the man you met (te acuerdas is a 2nd-person construction), so I pointed out that you changed that when you asked "¿Cómo está usted?" This is a third-person construction. You would normally choose one form of address for a person (second- or third-person) and stick with it throughout the conversation.
wrholt
July 21, 2011, 11:19 PM
You explained everything in such great detail so I feel awful for asking, but I'm still missing when I'm using 2nd person and when I am not. I thought the only difference is "usted" being formal and "tú" being informal? Or is that what you mean that I should be addressing him in an informal way?
In your letter you kept switching between using 'tú' forms and using 'usted' forms to refer to your friend. You should use only one of them throughout your entire letter.
JazzHeart
July 22, 2011, 08:16 AM
Thank you Rusty and wrholt! I really have a lot of work to do in my conjugating!
I rewrote the letter using both tú and usted forms, because I so clearly need the practice! I plan to address him using usted for now, since I'm still not sure which would be most appropriate.
Did I make any mistakes in these (Err.. Let me rephrase. How many mistakes did I make?)?
¡Hola Luis!
¿Te acuerdas de mí?
Soy Laura que conociste en tu Friday Night Salsa Dance Party en la YMCA.
¿Cómo está tu? ¡Es tu culpa que estoy adicta a la salsa!
Voy a las clases nocturnas de miércoles de Queen's University.
Dijiste que ibas al baile los viernes, ¿no? Cuando me mejore ite veré allí.
¡Hola Luis!
¿Te acuerda de mí?
Soy Laura que conoce en usted Friday Night Salsa Dance Party en la YMCA.
¿Cómo está usted? ¡Es usted culpa que estoy adicta a la salsa!
Voy a las clases nocturnas de miércoles de Queen's University.
Dijo que iba al baile los viernes, ¿no? Cuando me mejore ite veré allí.
Rusty
July 22, 2011, 09:10 AM
¡Hola Luis!
¿Te acuerdas de mí?
Soy Laura que conociste en tu Friday Night Salsa Dance Party en la YMCA.
¿Cómo estás (tú)? ¡Es tu culpa que estoy adicta a la salsa!
Voy a las clases nocturnas de miércoles de Queen's University.
Dijiste que ibas al baile los viernes, ¿no? Cuando me mejore ite veré allí!
¡Hola Luis!
¿Se acuerda de mí?
Soy Laura que conoció en su Friday Night Salsa Dance Party en la YMCA.
¿Cómo está (usted)? ¡Es su culpa que estoy adicta a la salsa!
Voy a las clases nocturnas de miércoles de Queen's University.
Dijo que iba al baile los viernes, ¿no? Cuando me mejore ile veré allí.
Corrections given. Pretty good job.
You just forgot to conjugate for the right person up top and the right tense in the bottom version. The pronouns must also be in 3rd-person forms in the usted version.
You're dealing with more than one kind of pronoun.
You may want to switch from the subjunctive mood (mejore) to the indicative mood if you think you'll be good enough to see Luis soon. ;)
JazzHeart
July 22, 2011, 09:26 AM
Mucho gracias por tu ayudas!
Rusty
July 22, 2011, 09:44 AM
¡Muchas gracias por tu ayudas!¡No hay de qué!
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