Indicative Practice in the Present Tense

[AutumnBreeze]

Will you guys critique my sentences?

1. Hay doscientos setenta y cinco los arboles en este parque. (There are 275 trees in this park.)

2. Mis huevos y papas tiene sabor como el pez. ( My eggs and potatoes taste like fish.)

Gah! Sorry, gotta run! Toddler running amuck . BBL with more...

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Originally Posted by AutumnBreeze

Will you guys critique my sentences?

1. Hay doscientos setenta y cinco los árboles en este parque. (There are 275 trees in this park.)

2. Mis huevos y papas tiene sabor como el pez saben a pescado. ( My eggs and potatoes taste like fish.)

Gah! Sorry, gotta run! Toddler running amuck . BBL with more...

Comments above

[AutumnBreeze]

Thanks Angelica! So, no definite article before trees in that sentence huh? I read that in general the definite article is used before a noun used in the general sense. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding what they mean by that?

More sentences:

3. La escuela tiene los mejores violinistas en la ciudad. (The school has the best violinists in the city.)

4. Mi barco es lleno de agujeros y gusanos mojado lodoso. (My boat is full of holes and wet, slimy worms.)

5. Su fruta parece madura y deliciosa. (Your fruit looks ripe and delicious.)

6. ¿Puedes conducir me a la tienda? (Can you drive me to the store?)

7. Esta taza de café es muy bueno y estas galleta son blanda y gomosa. (this cup of coffee is great and these cookies are soft and chewy.)

[irmamar]

Originally Posted by AutumnBreeze

Thanks Angelica! So, no definite article before trees in that sentence huh? I read that in general the definite article is used before a noun used in the general sense. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding what they mean by that?

More sentences:

3. La escuela tiene los mejores violinistas de la ciudad. (The school has the best violinists in the city.)

4. Mi barco es lleno de agujeros y gusanos húmedos y lodosos. (My boat is full of holes and wet, slimy worms.)

5. Su fruta parece madura y deliciosa. (Your fruit looks ripe and delicious.)

6. ¿Puedes conducirme a la tienda? (Can you drive me to the store?)

7. Esta taza de café es muy buena y estas galletas son blandas y gomosas. (this cup of coffee is great and these cookies are soft and chewy.)

When you use the pronoun behind the verb, it's written close to the verb (they're called pronombres enclíticos, if you want to search for more information).

Maybe you find a bit strange that we say "buena" instead of "bueno", because you're referring to the coffee, but as the adjective refers to the subject "taza" (this is a copulative sentence with concordance in gender and number) in this case the noun is "taza", "de café" is a noun object composed with preposition and noun. You could say also: "es una taza de buen café" or "es una taza con un café muy bueno". I hope you will see the difference.

[AutumnBreeze]

Seeing the difference . Making note of the corrections. Thanks so much!

[Nico]

Originally Posted by irmamar

When you use the pronoun behind the verb, it's written close to the verb (they're called pronombres enclíticos, if you want to search for more information).

Maybe you find a bit strange that we say "buena" instead of "bueno", because you're referring to the coffee, but as the adjective refers to the subject "taza" (this is a copulative sentence with concordance in gender and number) in this case the noun is "taza", "de café" is a noun object composed with preposition and noun. You could say also: "es una taza de buen café" or "es una taza con un café muy bueno". I hope you will see the difference.

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with this translation and correction. Unless I'm terribly mistaken, in Spanish, you cannot say, "¿Puedes conducirme a la tienda?" It has to be "¿Puedes llevarme a la tienda?"

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by Nico

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with this translation and correction. Unless I'm terribly mistaken, in Spanish, you cannot say, "¿Puedes conducirme a la tienda?" It has to be "¿Puedes llevarme a la tienda?"

I agree that llevarme is much more acceptable, but I've heard conducirme/manejarme al/a la _____.

[AutumnBreeze]

1. Mi hijo es asombroso. ¡Él es tan un tipo alocado y loco! - My son is amazing. He's such a wild and crazy guy!

2. Qué haces exterior? - What are you doing outside?

3. Soy dibujando en el suelo con gis. - I'm drawing a picture on the ground wih chalk.

4. ¿Te gusta comer palomitas mientras mirando películas de miedos en un sábado noche? - Do you like to eat popcorn while watching horror movies on a Saturday night?

5. ¡Sí, me gusta palomitas y una película de miedo buena en un sábado noche! - Yes, I like popcorn and a good horror movie on a Saturday night!

6. Me gusta perros mejor que gatos. - I like dogs better than cats.

7. ¿Cuántos años tienen sus niños y qué son sus nombres? - How old are your children and what are their names?

8. No hemos niños alguner ahora mismo. - We don't have any children right now.

9. Cuando es llueve hago daño a mi rodilla muy malo. - When it rains my knee hurts very badly.

10. Agúa es esencial por salud buena. - Water is essential for good health.

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by AutumnBreeze

1. Mi hijo es asombroso. ¡Él es tan un tipo alocado y loco! - My son is amazing. He's such a wild and crazy guy!

2. ¿Qué haces afuera? - What are you doing outside?

3. Estoy dibujando en el suelo con tiza. - I'm drawing a picture on the ground wih chalk.

4. ¿Te gusta comer palomitas al mirar películas de horror en un sábado por la noche? - Do you like to eat popcorn while watching horror movies on a Saturday night?

5. Sí, ¡me gustan las palomitas y una buena película de horror en un sábado por la noche! - Yes, I like popcorn and a good horror movie on a Saturday night!

6. Me gustan los perros mejor que los gatos. - I like dogs better than cats.

7. ¿Cuántos años tienen sus niños y cuáles son sus nombres? - How old are your children and what are their names?

8. No tenemos hijos alguner ahora mismo. - We don't have any children right now.

9. Cuando es llueve me duele la rodilla mucho. - When it rains my knee hurts very badly.

10. El agua es esencial para la buena salud. - Water is essential for good health.

The first sentence needs changed, as well, but I've got to run.

[AutumnBreeze]

OK, thanks Rusty! I'll make the corrections .

I get the change in sentence 3 to 'estoy' since drawing is not a permanent thing, correct?

Hmmm, not sure I understand the change to 'al mirar' in sentence 4. Why is the gerund not used here? .

I'm confused about the placement of the definite article in front of certain nouns. I know it's for general placement but I'm missing something about what that means.

So for words like 'gustar', when you conjugate them the conjugation used needs to agree with the direct object?

I haven't looked too closely at the difference b/w 'para' and 'por' just yet.

Why is 'buena' used before 'salud' in sentence 10? Am I missing something about qualitative adjectives?

I hope this makes sense . My kiddo does not want me making corrections or understanding anything at all right now .

[irmamar]

Originally Posted by AutumnBreeze

OK, thanks Rusty! I'll make the corrections .

I get the change in sentence 3 to 'estoy' since drawing is not a permanent thing, correct?

Correct!

Hmmm, not sure I understand the change to 'al mirar' in sentence 4. Why is the gerund not used here? .

You could also use gerund if you said "mientras / cuando estoy viendo películas". But gerund is not commonly used in Spanish as in English. It's most used "mientras veo películas"

I'm confused about the placement of the definite article in front of certain nouns. I know it's for general placement but I'm missing something about what that means.

How could I explain that 275 are the determinant for trees? I could say "Son doscientos setenta y cinco los árboles que hay aquí, here you could use the definite article, but if you use a numeral determinant (275), you can't use the definite article because the cardinal is using its function. It's more difficult in English.

So for words like 'gustar', when you conjugate them the conjugation used needs to agree with the direct object?

In this sentence, "los perros" is not a direct object, but the subject, so the concordance verb-subject is required. In Spanish we say "la estructura profunda" (I don't know in English, sorry) of a sentence, because we can put the different elements of a sentence in a different order. To make the "estructura profunda" we put the elements in order and change some pronouns to get more explicit the sentence. So, in this one, the "estructura profunda" would be:

Los perros (subject) -me- gustan (verb) a mí (IO)

I haven't looked too closely at the difference b/w 'para' and 'por' just yet.

Maybe "por" and "para" are a bit difficult to distinguish for a foreigner speaker. I think with some exercises about it will be enough.

Why is 'buena' used before 'salud' in sentence 10? Am I missing something about qualitative adjectives?

This is the same case as above "buena" is a determinant of "salud". I'd say "para una buena salud" instead of "la buena salud", maybe it's because in my country it's said in this way.

I hope this makes sense . My kiddo does not want me making corrections or understanding anything at all right now .

I hope it will be helpful.

[AutumnBreeze]

Yes, this is very helpful irmamar, thank you!

Yeah, I meant subject, not direct object, sorry! Was a wee bit distracted there, to say the least .

I'm going to come back and look at these explanations more after I put my son to sleep for the night .

[irmamar]

Originally Posted by AutumnBreeze

Yes, this is very helpful irmamar, thank you!

Yeah, I meant subject, not direct object, sorry! Was a wee bit distracted there, to say the least .

I'm going to come back and look at these explanations more after I put my son to sleep for the night .

I suppose this is because "the dogs" would be a DO in English, and "I" would be the subject. But languages change even the structure of a sentence:

I like the dogs
Los perros me gustan

Good night for your son

[chileno]

Originally Posted by irmamar

I suppose this is because "the dogs" would be a DO in English, and "I" would be the subject. But languages change even the structure of a sentence:

I like the dogs
Los perros me gustan

Good night for your son

Los perros me gustan
I like dogs. Suena mejor.

Good night to your son

Lo mismo para esta.

[AutumnBreeze]

Originally Posted by irmamar

I suppose this is because "the dogs" would be a DO in English, and "I" would be the subject. But languages change even the structure of a sentence:

I like the dogs
Los perros me gustan

Good night for your son

You know what I'm finding funny? I haven't even been studying Spanish that long and I've been using Spanish words in my head when I'm writing or speaking English. My head kind of goes back and forth with the grammar and vocab, and I've noticed that I almost unconsciously try to come up with the Spanish equivalent for what I'm trying to say at the same time. It's weird! I can't exactly explain it lol.

I'm also pretty excited about the fact that things I know how to say correctly in Spanish I say to my son so we can practice together, and he'll answer me in Spanish or English, which I find very cool.

Dang, that was a tangent. Uh, I'm prone to those ....

[chileno]

Originally Posted by AutumnBreeze

You know what I'm finding funny? I haven't even been studying Spanish that long and I've been using Spanish words in my head when I'm writing or speaking English. My head kind of goes back and forth with the grammar and vocab, and I've noticed that I almost unconsciously try to come up with the Spanish equivalent for what I'm trying to say at the same time. It's weird! I can't exactly explain it lol.

I'm also pretty excited about the fact that things I know how to say correctly in Spanish I say to my son so we can practice together, and he'll answer me in Spanish or English, which I find very cool.

Dang, that was a tangent. Uh, I'm prone to those ....

But is it a nice tangent...

I can totally relate to that, as I am sure others in the forums. Even though I hear people saying all the time that different people learn in different ways, all this makes me think all the time that that is an erroneous idea...

[CrOtALiTo]

Originally Posted by Rusty

I agree that llevarme is much more acceptable, but I've heard conducirme/manejarme al/a la _____.

Rusty, I can be agree with you, but anyway exist other way to speak the words that you written in your post, the sentences Conducirme and manejarme are totally distinct in itself build. Although you can interpret the words as (to take). This words are not so accurate in the use with To take, therefore, I can recommending you that if you need to use the word conducirme and manejarme you better use the word llevarme instead of conducirme or manejarme, I tell you this because I consider that the word llevarme is more correct than the others ones.

If you have some commentary about my opinion, you are free to tell me.

[cmon]

Originally Posted by AutumnBreeze

Hmmm, not sure I understand the change to 'al mirar' in sentence 4. Why is the gerund not used here? .

Found this in grammar book.

The infinitive after al

"The infinitive is used after the contraction al to indicate an action that took place at the same time as another action or as an immediate consequence of the other action. English uses upon plus the gerund."

I think that would apply to your sentence, but not positive.

[AutumnBreeze]

Originally Posted by cmon

Found this in grammar book.

The infinitive after al

"The infinitive is used after the contraction al to indicate an action that took place at the same time as another action or as an immediate consequence of the other action. English uses upon plus the gerund."

I think that would apply to your sentence, but not positive.

Thanks cmon! Ok, I get what they're saying here, though I don't know if that works in this particular situation. Maybe if I said something like:

"Upon waking, the dog stretches and takes a drink of water."

then that rule applies?

Eh, my brain's fuzzin' out though so I'm going to .

[irmamar]

Wouldn't you use "on"?

Al llegar los vi
On arriving I saw them