Pronouns exercise 5-3

[laepelba]

This was a translation exercise with a whole paragraph to be translated.

I only have a couple of questions, so I won't copy the whole paragraph.

1) English: Some people say this when they are frustrated or when they have to take a class at the university that they don't want to take.
The book's translation: Algunas personas dicen esto cuando están frustradas o cuando tienen que tomar una clase en la universidad que no quieren tomar.
My question: I wrote "Algunos dicen esto...." It sounds more natural to me. (Listen to me, as if I know anything about what sounds "natural".... ) Would this also be correct? Then "frustradas" would become "frustrados", etc....

2) English: This is often an attitude for life.
The book's translation: Esto es a menudo una actitud para la vida.
My question: I wrote "A menudo esta es una actitud para la vida." Is this also correct? I like the word order better with "a menudo" at the beginning of the sentence. Again, I'm not sure why. It just feels right....

Thank you in advance for any help you can give me!!

[aleCcowaN]

We're moving fast from basics to subtleties

1) When you say "yo pienso ... " and you won't use other explicit "yo" in the whole paragraph, well, there's a way to say that the subject has changed -certainly the person, also probably what you are talking about-. The same way "algunas personas ..." seems to be necessary to me: it's new information ("algunos" might suggest that is a known or proven fact). Watch an infomercial in Spanish and you'll hear lots of "algunos", "ésas" and "éstos".

2) "A menudo ésta es" assumes it is some kind of attitude and nothing that is not an attitude. "Esto a menudo es" assumes nothing. It all depends on what you are going to say next.

By the way, I'm not sure "for life" is there "para la vida". "Para la vida" is "regarding everything in life"; "de por vida" is permanent, and "respecto a la vida" a philosophy for living.

[chileno]

Some people = Algunas personas

Some = algunos

There are those ...

All mean the same to me. And certainly none of those suggest not even remotely, unless the context dictates different, that these people are known in any way. Again, unless context dictates so.