Another e-mail already sent

Another e-mail already sent
 

I figure that if I'm going to write an e-mail to a Spanish-speaking friend, I may as well not be fake and just send it with my best (yet still poor) Spanish ... and come to you folks later for corrections in my grammar/usage. :)

Here are the sentences that I wasn't sure about from my e-mail paired with what I actually wanted to say:

1) I wrote: "Me preocupaba que uestedes los habrán enfermada a causa de mí."
I was trying to say: "I was worried that you would get sick because of me." (I had a head cold when she and her family visited me.)

2) I wrote: "¿Tenían dolores de cabeza todos de ustedes?"
I was trying to say: "You ALL had headaches!!??" (She told me that she and her whole family had headaches due to being so tired.)

Another question: I spent quite a bit of time trying to use the construction for headaches that would parallel "me duele la cabeza". I wanted to say something like "las duelen las cabezas" or "les duelen las cabezas" or "les duele la cabeza" ... or ... ??? How would that be worded using that construction if you want to ask a group ("ustedes") if they have/had a headache?

Thanks!!

:thumbsup:

Comments and corrections above.

My :twocents:

If you're asking if someone has a headache, es (un) dolor de cabeza.
If you're asking if someone has cronic headaches, son dolores de cabeza.
Using the same criteria, it doesn't matter how many people you're asking. If you want to know if they have a headache, you use the singular. If you use the plural, you're asking if they have them all the time.
¿¡Tenían todos (de ustedes) (un) dolor de cabeza!?
¿¡A todos (de ustedes) les dolía la cabeza!?

Don't use the plural (las cabezas) unless you're speaking to someone with two heads, or a group of two-headed people. :eek:

It's OK to ask a person if their legs (both of them) hurt.
¿Le duelen las piernas?
It's OK to ask more than one person if both legs of each person hurt.
¿Les duelen las piernas?

Make the subject (legs) singular if you're asking about only one leg.
¿Le duele la pierna? (single person being asked)
¿Les duele la pierna? (more than one person being asked)

Edit: Malila already answered (I was interrupted several times while composing).

Thanks to BOTH of you! Both answers, individually, were very helpful! :)

So, if I want to use "tener":
- Tengo un dolor de cabeza. (I have a headache - I shouldn't eat those foods that I'm sensitive to.)
- Tienes un dolor de cabeza. (You have a headache - but that often happens when you have a head cold.)
- Tiene un dolor de cabeza. (He has a headache - he smacked his head on the corner of the cabinet drawer, and it still hurts several hours later.)
- Tenemos un dolor de cabeza. (We have headaches - we've spent too much time in this recently painted room and the scents are bothering us all!)
- Tienen un dolor de cabeza. (Y'all have headaches - you were SO tired after your travels.)
****Would the "nosotros" and "ustedes" forms use "un" or "unos"? Since "dolor" is singular, I used "un". Right?

Using the other construction:
- Me duele la cabeza. (I have a headache.....)
- Te duele la cabeza. (You have a headache......)
- Le duele la cabeza. (He has a headache or Usted has a headache....)
- Nos duele la cabeza. (We have headaches......)
- Les duele la cabeza. (Y'all have headaches..........)

I think I have it!!!!! :)

:applause:

You have it, except for the guy who smacked his head on the corner of the cabinet drawer: "tener (un) dolor de cabeza" is generally due to an illness. When you talk about an accident it's better to say "(todavía/aún) le duele la cabeza". :)

Yay, me! Well, I was just trying to spruce up the sentences because it would have been sooooo boring without the stories ... but I figured that if I wrote the stories in Spanish, it would have created a zillion more mistakes to be corrected. LOL!! Thanks, Malila!! :)

So, in the case of an accident, would the rest of the sentence be something like this:
Aún le duele la cabeza porque se golpeó la esquina del gabinete.
???

Now.... back to the thread about aún and aun. :)

If you say "se golpeó la esquina del gabinete", you're saying that the corner of the cabinet was hit.

Short sentences are a good path to follow. :thumbsup:

Thanks - I have actually been trying to rephrase my thinking into short sentences so that I'm not complicating my life. :) Not so successful with that one, though. Haha!!

Short sentences are the best choice for expressing what you want. Just concentrate and you'll make less fewer mistakes every time.
Btw, try to do it in English and you'll see you wouldn't have said it without a preposition either. ;)

*cough* fewer mistakes. :good::D:D:D

"Just concentrate", I said. Right? :lol:

Thanks, Perikles. :rose:

You are very welcome :lol::lol::lol:

I saw that when the e-mail came to my phone. Perikles beat me to it before I got home. YES - I am concentrating as much as I can when I write. In this case it was actually the fact that I don't really understand the use of "golpear" or the pronoun in this sentence.......... (sigh.........) I'll get there eventually.............