How do you say... - Page 2

Oh, my bad. I sometimes get querer and gustar mixed up, probably because they both mean to desire or appreciate something.

Anyway. . . Yeah, I know about gustar.

My main question is with "por lo menos un poco" meaning "at least a little" in the same way that we would use the phrase in English.

Okay, how do you say:

1. "What do you mean?" I assume there's a verb here that I'm not aware of.

2. "I think so" or "I don't think so." Is it just "Pienso" and "No pienso"? That doesn't seem quite right. . .

3. "It will be be different," with "it" referring to a future circumstance. For instance, "I know the last time wasn't much fun, but next time it will be different." Do you just say, "Será diferente"?


As always, thanks for the help.

The verb "to mean" has two common translation equivalents in Spanish; "significar" and "querer decir". Sometimes they are NOT interchangeable.

What do you mean? = ¿Qué quieres decir (con eso)?

The adverb "so" adds meaning that isn't present in "pienso" or "no pienso". The word "so" has no exact equivalent in Spanish. It has several possible translations, but usually only one or two of them is appropriate in any given context. Furthermore, there is more than one possible translation of "I think so", and the best choice is context-dependent, too. A few possibilities include:

Creo que sí. = I think/believe so (statement of belief)
Creo que no. = I don't think/believe so (statement of belief)
Pienso que sí. = I think so (statement of opinion)
Pienso que no. = I don't think so (statement of opinion)
¡Claro que sí! = I should think so! = Of course! (strong agreement)
¡Claro que no! = I should think not! = Of course not! (either strong agreement of the negative, or a strong denial)

Yes.

Ah, that's very helpful. Thank you.

You said that "significar" and "querer decir" are not always interchangeable. Can you elaborate on that?

"Querer decir" has two possible meanings:

1. The two-word idiom "querer decir" = "to mean". Usually this meaning is equivalent to "significar".

2. An example of the general pattern "querer [infinitive]" = "to want [to X]", so that "querer decir" sometimes means "to want to say". This meaning is not equivalent to "significar".

Okay, so ¿Qué quieres decir? literally translates into "What do you want to say?" but its meaning is interpreted as an equivalent of the English, "What do you mean?"

Correct?

Yes, in the sense that when I ask "what do you mean", I'm really asking for additional explanation of some type in order to better understand what someone is trying to communicate. On the other hand, "¿Qué significas?" cannot mean "what do you want to say", it can only mean "how/in what way are you significant/important".

In other words, when the subject of "querer decir" or "significar" is an expression or a word, you are asking for a translation or a definition. But when the subject of "querer decir" is a person, it can only mean "to want to say" or some variation on that idea, and "significar" cannot have that meaning when its subject is a person.

It depends on the context, SPX.

Imagine there's a meeting where people are discussing something. A guy raises his hand. Someone says "¿Qué quieres decir?"

In this case the sentence means "what do you want to say?".

It wouldn't make any sense to ask a guy that hasn't spoken before, "what do you mean?". Right?

The sentence "¿Qué quieres decir?" and all the others using this expression have both meanings: "to mean" and "to want to say".

Only context will tell you which is which.. :)

Oh, okay. Thanks. So it can be used both literally and as an idiomatic expression.

Just ran across this:

"Juan es una buena persona."

Why is it not. . .

"Juan es una persona buena?"

Shouldn't the adjective always come after the noun?

Not always... adjectives like "bueno", "nuevo", "viejo", "malo" ("mal" when placed before a masculine noun in singular), "grande" ("gran", when placed before the noun) are often placed before the noun because of reasons of euphony and emphasis.

Maybe you will find this thread useful. :)

Hmm, I see.

I will keep that in mind.

How do you say "heard of", as in:

Have you heard of (person, place, or thing). . .?

Conjugate haber oído, and follow the verb with the preposition de.

¿Has oído de ...? = Have you (fam.) heard of ...?

Ah, okay. Thanks.

So, "Have you heard of Dexter?" (the TV show, that is)

would be. . .

¿Has oído de Dexter?

That works, but it may prove more useful to refine the question.
The question you used contains a compound verb structure that consists of the verb 'haber' and a past participle. It also contained a preposition.

Since Dexter is a TV show, I would ask, "Have you seen Dexter (on TV)?" The same compound verb structure is used (haber + past participle); just substitute the past participle for 'seen'. Adding 'en la tele' would make the question more specific.
Does that make sense?

Yep, that makes sense, thanks.

¿Has sabido de....." is the usual way :)

"In fact"?

For instance, "In fact, I play golf every week". . .

I've found both "de hecho" and "por cierto." Are these interchangeable?

Only if you find "in fact" and "by the way" can be interchangeable. :thinking:

Te ves muy bien, de hecho, te ves mucho mejor que el año pasado. -> I'm stressing the fact that you look better now.
You look good, in fact, you look much better than you did last year.

Te ves muy bien. Por cierto, te ves mucho mejor que el año pasado. -> It occurs to me that you look better than last year.
You look good. By the way, you look much better than you did last year.