E-mail

[Hiikaru]

In an email to a friend, you are telling him/her what all is going on at your house. Write 5 sentences in Spanish using the present progressive to describe what is happening. (For example: What are you doing? What is your mother doing?)

Hola, Devan.

Nosotros en la casa. Yo estoy comiendo huegos. Mi madre esta liendo el libro. Mi hermanita, Bug, esta estudiendo Ingles. Amby y Nika estan jugamos videojuegos. Mi padre esta dibujando.

Es tipo de aburrido. Que pasa en Arizona?

[irmamar]

Originally Posted by Hiikaru

In an email to a friend, you are telling him/her what all is going on at your house. Write 5 sentences in Spanish using the present progressive to describe what is happening. (For example: What are you doing? What is your mother doing?)

Hola, Devan.

Nosotros en la casa. Yo estoy comiendo huegos. Mi madre esta liendo el libro. Mi hermanita, Bug, esta estudiendo Ingles. Amby y Nika estan jugamos videojuegos. Mi padre esta dibujando.

Es tipo de aburrido. Que pasa en Arizona?

The Spanish gerund is formed like this:

- verbs ending in -ar: -ando
amar - amando

- verbs ending in -er, -ir: -iendo:
temer - tem-iendo
partir - part-iendo

When the suffix -iendo follows a vowel (or even at the beginning of a word, the first "i" changes into "y"):
ir > "iendo" > yendo
caer > "ca-iendo" > cayendo

Leer .....
Estudiar....
Jugar...

Really there's only one suffix, that is "-ndo". Verbs ending in -ar, save the "a" (am-a-ndo); verbs ending in -er/ir transform "e" (for the second conjugation) and "i" (for the third) into a diphthong: ie (tem-ie-ndo, part-ie-ndo).

Now you just have to apply the rules.

¿Y qué comes, higos o huevos?

[pjt33]

estoy
estás
está
estamos
estáis
están

[irmamar]

No le he corregido los acentos porque creo que no puede escribirlos, ya que no ha puesto ninguno.

[Hiikaru]

Hola, Devan.

Nosotros en la casa. Yo estoy comiendo huevos. Mi madre está leído el libro. Mi hermanita, Bug, está estudiando inglés. Amby y Nika están jugando videojuegos. Mi padre está dibujando.

Es tipo de aburrido. Que pasa en Arizona?

Gracias, PJ y Irmamar. Es razón ahora?

¿Y qué comes, higos o huevos?

Estoy comiendo huevos. No me gusta higos. =P

[irmamar]

Originally Posted by Hiikaru

Hola, Devan.

Nosotros en la casa. Yo estoy comiendo huevos. Mi madre está leído el libro. Mi hermanita, Bug, está estudiando inglés. Amby y Nika están jugando videojuegos. Mi padre está dibujando.

Es tipo de aburrido. Que pasa en Arizona? (esto no lo entiendo)

Gracias, PJ y Irmamar. Es razón ahora? ¿Está bien ahora?

Estoy comiendo huevos. No me gustan los higos. =P

Gerundio de leer:
Le-er + -ndo > le + i + -ndo
i > ie
ie > ye (si hay una vocal)
Le-er + -ndo = ?

Gerundio de proveer:
prove-er + -ndo > prove + i + -ndo
i > ie: prove + ie + -ndo
ie > ye (porque hay una vocal prove-ie-ndo
De donde: proveyendo.

Ahora tú dime el de leer

De paso: jugar con los videojuegos o jugar a los videojuegos. Y a "nosotros ? en la casa" le falta un verbo .

[Hiikaru]

"Que pasa en Arizona?" en íngles es "What's up in Arizona?" (Arizona the state)
I'm not sure if you can say something like that in Spanish.

Leer gerudo... "leyendo"? Paginas web hablando "leyendo".
http://www.spanishcourses.info/Spani...ate_594_EN.asp

Hola, Devan.

Nosotros estamos(?) en la casa. Yo estoy comiendo huevos. Mi madre está leyendo el libro. Mi hermanita, Bug, está estudiando inglés. Amby y Nika están jugando videojuegos. Mi padre está dibujando.

Es tipo de aburrido. Que pasa (en Arizona)?

O... "Que pasa con tu?"

[Rusty]

it's kind of boring = it's a little boring = es un poco aburrido

Use contigo instead of con tú.

[Hiikaru]

Originally Posted by Rusty

it's kind of boring = it's a little boring = es un poco aburrido

Okay, gracias.

When can you use "kind of" in Spanish? It's in the dictionary I'm using, but it doesn't seem to fit into many places.

Hola, Devan.

Nosotros estamos(?) en la casa. Yo estoy comiendo huevos. Mi madre está leyendo el libro. Mi hermanita, Bug, está estudiando inglés. Amby y Nika están jugando videojuegos. Mi padre está dibujando.

Es un poco aburrido. Que pasa contigo?

[Rusty]

I just showed you how to use it. The words kind of, in the phrase you used, are idiomatic, meaning to some extent. I chose a simpler meaning and provided the translation.
The other word you tried to use is a noun, and doesn't match the meaning of the idiom, so that is why it wasn't understood by irmamar.

[Hiikaru]

Originally Posted by Rusty

I just showed you how to use it. The words kind of, in the phrase you used, are idiomatic, meaning to some extent. I chose a simpler meaning and provided the translation.

So they're both okay, but "a little boring" is simpler and maybe sounds better to a native Spanish speaker?

Originally Posted by Rusty

The other word you tried to use is a noun, and doesn't match the meaning of the idiom, so that is why it wasn't understood by irmamar.

Oh, I see.

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by Hiikaru

So they're both okay, but "a little boring" is simpler and maybe sounds better to a native Spanish speaker?

I believe you're missing the point. The phrase kind of boring is an idiomatic expression. You have to first know what it means, then you can translate it into Spanish. I reduced the expression to a simpler form (it was a little boring) and translated that into Spanish so it could be understood.

To use kind as a noun, you could say:
it's a kind of tree = es un tipo de árbol

[Hiikaru]

Originally Posted by Rusty

I believe you're missing the point. The phrase kind of boring is an idiomatic expression. You have to first know what it means, then you can translate it into Spanish. I reduced the expression to a simpler form (it was a little boring) and translated that into Spanish so it could be understood.

To use kind as a noun, you could say:
it's a kind of tree = es un tipo de árbol

Okay... so "kind of" isn't really the same in Spanish as you could use it in English. Depending on context, you could infer that it's only "kind of" a tree in English, which would make it also "kind of" something else, but the other way is that it's a type of tree, ie, a Joshua tree, or an acorn tree... And that's what it is in Spanish.

A "type of bored"... Maybe types of bored could be bored but content, or bored out of your mind, or bored and too sleepy to do anything about it.

¿Está bien ahora?

[Rusty]

Umm. There's a way to express all the meanings of 'kind of' in Spanish, but you first have to know which meaning is being conveyed. Then you can find the correct translation for it. There is no one-size-fits-all translation for most words. That's why there's usually more than one word listed in an English/Spanish dictionary. That is also THE problem - how do you know WHICH of the myriad is the RIGHT word for what you're trying to say? You don't. Not without examples/guidance.

For example, if you want to say 'I can see' in Spanish, but you don't know how to say 'can', does your dictionary list lata? This certainly means 'can', but it's a noun. It can't be used as a verb. I hope your dictionary lists it as a noun.
Does your dictionary list enlatar? This is a verb, but it means 'to can' (as in preserving fruit, etc. in a jar/can). If you have a very good dictionary, it will give brief descriptions about each verb. Does your dictionary list poder? If so, it'll say something about 'ability'. That's the correct verb for the sentence I proposed above, if the ability to see is what I meant - 'I have the ability to see'. Unfortunately, I didn't mean the ability. We'll have to keep looking.
For giggles, let's change the sentence to 'Can you swim?' We can certainly use poder if we're asking if someone has the ability to swim (like if they're physically capable of the activity). But that isn't the right verb to use if we're asking if they know how to swim. For that we have to use saber. Does your dictionary list that verb as a translation of 'can'? It should.
Now, back to my original sentence. I meant that I perceive something. In that case, the English word 'can' is NOT translated at all. The verb ver can be used to convey perception, so the correct translation, after all is said and done, is simply 'Veo.'

Sorry for going on like that, but I wanted to make sure that you're thinking real hard about the meaning of the words first and then trying to find suitable translations. Taking the first word in the dictionary is usually the wrong thing to do.