Seguir

Seguir
 

Okay, so the basic idea behind the verb "seguir" is to continue or to proceed. I get that. And in a recent post on an unrelated thread, someone wrote "Sigue así". That's where I start to lose it. (Well, I've more than lost it ... but that's another story!)

So I wanted to check the conjugation of "seguir" in the Tomísimo dictionary, and none of the conjugations listed there start with "si---". They all start with "se---".

So, can someone please give me a mini-lecture on the use of "seguir"? Thanks!!

This is the imperative: go on!

Now I understand your question. Almost everything is wrong there. Look at this:

http://users.ipfw.edu/JEHLE/COURSES/verbs/seguir.htm

True. There's a wrong conjugation of the verb in this dictionary.

@Lou Ann: Take a look at the website suggested by irmamar, and things will be much clearer.

"Sigue así" is like saying "keep up the good work"

Okay! That helps a lot! Thanks, y'all. I wasn't sure what I was looking at there. It made a lot of sense to me that "sigue así" means something like "keep it up" (etc.) like we would say in English. And I was expecting to find it in the imperatives list.

I'll need to point David out to this thread. I hate to add to his work load....

Also ... somewhere I read that seguir is also a helping verb in some constructions. Do you have any other examples of that kind of usage? Would it always be "keep on...." Like, could I say something like "Sigue caminando en esa dirección."??

Your example is right, Lou Ann. :)


Sigue leyendo, lo más interesante está más abajo.
Keep on reading, the most interesting thing is below.

Si seguimos discutiendo, vamos a despertar a los niños.
If we keep on arguing, we'll wake the children up.


Here it's a different use of "seguir" but it's inspired by your example...
♪ Sigue el camino amarillo, vamos a ver al mago, al mágico mago de Oz. ♫
♪ Follow the yellow road, we're going to see the wizard, the magical wizard of Oz ♫
(I know it's not quite the lyrics, but that's how it was translated) ;)

That is what is called "perífrasis verbales". There are a lot of different types. "Seguir" (or "continuar") is used here as a "semi-auxiliary" verb and is followed always by the gerundive:

Sigue (o continúa) haciendo el tonto y acabarás mal.
Siguieron haciendo ruido toda la noche.
Por mucho que le digas, seguirá pensando lo mismo.
Me dijo que quería seguir bebiendo cerveza durante toda la noche.

Cool! Thanks you two! (Malila - I believe that "leyendo" is reading, not writing ... )

Irmamar - I've taken a few weeks off from Tomisimo because life got hectic ... but I'm "back" now and have much more time to spend here. I'm noticing you all over the place and look forward to interacting with you more! Welcome to Tomisimo!!

Oh! I should be reading well what I write before posting... I've had to edit many posts lately. :D
It's corrected now, thank you.

It's good you seem to have finished moving. =)

Yes! I have finished moving ... have completed my event planning for that non-profit organization ... and have enjoyed (thoroughly) my first couple of overnight guests in my new home. I am currently ignoring (procrastinating?) the many non-unpacked boxes sitting all over my house. Tomisimo is much more fun! :)

By the way, Malila - I am almost definitely going to Uruguay and Peru this summer ... and still hoping to work in Mexico City in October. I'll keep you posted!

Thanks. I think I've understood almost everything you said :)

In the few days have passed since I came here, I've noticed a change, above all in my mind (I don't think in my English yet). But now is as if I could think more in English without translating everything into Spanish. Well, I don't know a good way to explain it, but it's something like this :confused::)

That's great news! Good luck with the rest of the unpacking and I'll be eager to hear more news about that trip to Mexico. :crossfingers:

Oh, I absolutely know exactly what you mean. It's why I was very unsuccessful at learning Spanish in college (about a million years ago). I was attempting to translate every single word every single time I saw/heard them. You simply cannot work in another language that way.

This time around, I have picked up Rosetta Stone which teaches you NOT to translate. They use photographs to teach the vocabulary and grammar. Very effective - and it works very well for my visual approach to learning.

Thanks for writing to me in English ... but please feel free to force me to interact with you in Spanish when you feel like it ... my Spanish is much less than your English, but I need to work hard at it (given my upcoming travels!!)

Laepelba, that's very kind of you saying that, although I don't think my English is so good:)

I think that the best would be that Spanish speakers wrote in English and English speakers wrote in Spanish, and then everybody correct the mistakes Anyway, there are things that it's hard to write in other language. For instance, things such as an explanation about Spanish grammar or a long text, since you (I mean I :)) could be one hour writing only one post... :D

Y ahora voy a cambiar de idioma. No es la primera vez que leo por aquí lo de Rosetta Stone, ¿qué es eso?, ¿algún método para aprender idiomas? No lo había oído nunca.

Si, yo no escribio en español muchas las veces porque necesitaría (is that "would need"?) muchas horas por un correo.

Rosetta Stone is a language learning software package. If you google them, you'll easily find their website and see a list of the languages that they have software for. I believe that English is one of the languages that you can learn using Rosetta Stone. It's expensive (by my estimation), but the first level was VERY well worth the time and expense for me! :)

"Necesitaría" es correcto. ¡Muy bien! Puedes seguir escribiendo en español :)

I'll take a look (¿echaré un vistazo?) to that website. I'm a bit curious :)

Thanks for the corrections! :) Personally, I like using RS because it uses photographs and 100% of the language that you're learning and teaches you NOT to translate ... but just to start thinking in the other language.

Trataré escribir en español con más frecuencia.... ¡Gracias! :)

You write good English

hey laepelba, Paola Marino has a song called sigue adelante, have you heard it?

No! I'll have to look it up ... cool!! :)