wafflestomp
May 31, 2010, 07:07 AM
My Spanish stinks. I was watching some Spanish videos on youtube, and my head exploded. :D
You put "te" in your sentence so it translates to, "I don't understand you," right? Also, although I think I know why you used traducir, I'm not quite sure why, can you explain? My grammar is poor. Sorry.
[edit] I forgot that tu means "your," and tú is informal "you." Could I have used tú instead?
Yup, that's right.
I used traducir, because when you use the word "puedo"-- a conjugation of poder, it literally means "I am able to" not "I can" like in English, although it's the closest translation to "I can".
So, to say "I am able to I translate" which is what you had originally, would be wrong.
To use poder, you have to have a full verb infinitive after it. Just like ir a + infinitive, acabar de + infinitive, etc.
Poder Examples:
Yo puedo andar -- Literally "I am able to walk" Naturally "I can walk"
Tú no puedes conducir -- Literally "You are not able to drive" Naturally "You can't drive"
El gato no puede leer -- Literally "The cat is not able to read" Naturally "The cat can't read"
Vosotros no podéis tocar el piano -- Literally "You all are not able to play the piano" Naturally "You all can't play the piano"
Nosotros podemos ir al bosque la semana que viene -- Literally "We are all able to go to the forest next week" Naturally "We can go to the forest next week.
Ellos pueden nadar -- Literally "They are able to swim" Naturally "They can swim"
And "te" is the reflexive and indirect object pronoun for the informal tense. I suggest you read up further on it on study spanish. The way my teachers always taught me about using words like that is to read it backwards. ie:
Me duele la mano
Would literally translate word for word as "My hurt the hand" but you can understand it better as "The hand it hurts me"
"Te estoy mandando un texto" -- I am sending you a text
And you cannot use tú either cases where I corrected you (FYI: tu without the accent means "your", a possessive). The tú with the accent is a singular second person informal SUBJECT pronoun.. so you can say "Tú eres mi amigo" or "Tú estas en la cocina". The word "ti" is an OBJECT pronoun, not a subject pronoun.
We do the same thing in English (although it's the same word exactly) Here are some examples in English and then to Spanish:
"You've gone to the cinema yesterday, is that true??... Tú has ido al cine ayer, es verdad?
"They always remember you"... siempre se acuerdan de tí.
Some quick hints I found online for you:
If it's the subject of the sentence, use tú (note the accent mark) or skip the subject altogether since the verb ending indicates it.
If it's showing possession (as in your bag, your idea), use tu (note there's no accent).
If it comes after a preposition in Spanish (a, de, para, etc.), use ti.
You put "te" in your sentence so it translates to, "I don't understand you," right? Also, although I think I know why you used traducir, I'm not quite sure why, can you explain? My grammar is poor. Sorry.
[edit] I forgot that tu means "your," and tú is informal "you." Could I have used tú instead?
Yup, that's right.
I used traducir, because when you use the word "puedo"-- a conjugation of poder, it literally means "I am able to" not "I can" like in English, although it's the closest translation to "I can".
So, to say "I am able to I translate" which is what you had originally, would be wrong.
To use poder, you have to have a full verb infinitive after it. Just like ir a + infinitive, acabar de + infinitive, etc.
Poder Examples:
Yo puedo andar -- Literally "I am able to walk" Naturally "I can walk"
Tú no puedes conducir -- Literally "You are not able to drive" Naturally "You can't drive"
El gato no puede leer -- Literally "The cat is not able to read" Naturally "The cat can't read"
Vosotros no podéis tocar el piano -- Literally "You all are not able to play the piano" Naturally "You all can't play the piano"
Nosotros podemos ir al bosque la semana que viene -- Literally "We are all able to go to the forest next week" Naturally "We can go to the forest next week.
Ellos pueden nadar -- Literally "They are able to swim" Naturally "They can swim"
And "te" is the reflexive and indirect object pronoun for the informal tense. I suggest you read up further on it on study spanish. The way my teachers always taught me about using words like that is to read it backwards. ie:
Me duele la mano
Would literally translate word for word as "My hurt the hand" but you can understand it better as "The hand it hurts me"
"Te estoy mandando un texto" -- I am sending you a text
And you cannot use tú either cases where I corrected you (FYI: tu without the accent means "your", a possessive). The tú with the accent is a singular second person informal SUBJECT pronoun.. so you can say "Tú eres mi amigo" or "Tú estas en la cocina". The word "ti" is an OBJECT pronoun, not a subject pronoun.
We do the same thing in English (although it's the same word exactly) Here are some examples in English and then to Spanish:
"You've gone to the cinema yesterday, is that true??... Tú has ido al cine ayer, es verdad?
"They always remember you"... siempre se acuerdan de tí.
Some quick hints I found online for you:
If it's the subject of the sentence, use tú (note the accent mark) or skip the subject altogether since the verb ending indicates it.
If it's showing possession (as in your bag, your idea), use tu (note there's no accent).
If it comes after a preposition in Spanish (a, de, para, etc.), use ti.