"No tenemos fecha."
Translation:We do not have a date.
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The problem is that the English translation is wrong. I am native Spanish speaker and perhaps I am wrong but "No tenemos fecha" must be translated as "We have no date". In Spanish the phrase means that we are going to have an appointment or we are going to do something in the future but we don't know the day.
I think that the given translations means another think "We don't have a date=No tenemos una cita". Cita can be translated as appointment or date
"We have no date" is clearer English and therefore preferable to "we do not have a date," but the latter is also acceptable, particularly if the context is supplied.
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You're right that "We do not have date" doesn't make sense. Spanish does not use the indefinite article as mush as English does. So even though it is not present in the Spanish sentence, in this instance it is required for the English translation to be grammatically correct.
Here are a couple useful links about this:
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I'm native speaker, you can answer "todavía no lo sabemos" in that question, because to answer "no tenemos la fecha todavía" isn't frequent. Sorry for my bad English, hope that helped
Your explanation of this Spanish-to-English translation is spot on. You helped me to understand the idiom of using the uncertainty of the indefinite (LA), instead of the certainty of the definite (EL). The difficulty for us English-to-Spanish learners is that, not being familiar with the colloquialism, we insert the "la" instead of the "una." Duolingo has taught us that the masculine is used to indicate a generalization. For example, Spanish-speaking people use, "Los domingos" to mean all Sundays. Does this mean that a plural article, such as "los" in "los domingos" is indefinite, but that a singular article, such as "una," in "una fecha," is also indefinite?
The direct object "fecha" (with the article unspoken but understood) is not a definite, so a "la" is not understood. Rather, "fecha" is indefinite so an "una" is understood. Your literal translation is "We don't have a time." What threw me, until you explained it, is that unwritten article (that is, the "un" or the "la") was a "la" (translated as "a" or as "one") before "fecha." Because I was using the definite "la" when I translated it, I thought the sentence was idiomatic for "I don't have an appointment."
As for the English grammar, you almost have it right. In Spanish word order, the "no" does not modify the object. So, in "No tenemos fecha, " the "no" modifies "tenemos." As a consequence, the "no" does not modify the word "date." The English translation uses the "no" as an adverb, just as the Spanish syntax does. The "no" does not switch to being an adjective (that is, switch to modifying "date," as in "no date") in the English translation.
P.S. I'm adding this later. Thank you, mitaine56 and THeNeeno, for pointing out how my writing caused confusion. Because I made the assumption that "definite and indefinite" were the same as "countable and uncountable," I put the singular articles in parentheses to indicate that I was writing about articles. What would have been better was: You helped me to understand the idiom of using the uncertainty of the indefinite (unas/unos), instead of the certainty of the definite (las/los).
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lindahill- you don't understand what is definite and undefinite. La and el, are articles and definite. un and una are articles, undefinite. la mesa / the table. this is a table which is probably near you, and there's only one table. Una mesa : is a table, possibly among others, and I want a table, no matter which one. That's why we call Un / una , undefinite. Los domingos, los is an article, definite, plural of EL domingo. Also, you're right when you say that NO doesn't modify FECHA, but you're wrong when you say that NO modifies TENEMOS. If the Spanish sentence would have been affirmative, without NO, it would be, TENEMOS FECHA, NO CHANGE WITH tenemos. I HOPE IT'S CLEAR. English isn't my native language.
I understand part of what you said about the "no," but not all. Isn't "no" a Spanish adverb? If it's an adverb, doesn't it modify "have?"
I was referring to coppernick's comment when I spoke of the "no" modifying "fecha." What he was saying is that in English you can switch the position of the "no" so that it is used as an adjective instead of being used as an adverb. Thus, when you say, "We have no date," the "no" is being used as an adjective instead of as an "adverb." In this way, "We do not have a date" = "We have no date." In other words, you negate the object instead of the verb. It's like switching the plus sign in an equation. For example, if you wanted to negate -x = y, you would multiply both sides of the equation by a negative (-1) to switch the sign and get x = -y.
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Lots of words, good job for trying to understand. But you don't understand el/la at all. Los goes with domingos because the word domingo is masculine. El and la are the same, other than gender. Definite or indefinite is not party of the difference. Duolingo has not taught you that; you made an error in your understanding. Fecha matches feminine words because it is a feminine word.
As for “no date", they were correct there too, although you were also right. I do not have banana and I have no bananas mean the same thing in English. The word order doesn't have to change the fact that no/not is negating “have".
I did make a mistake when I said that "la" is not definite. I should know better. What I wrote about is that the best translation of "los domingos" is "on Saturdays." In English, we must say or write the preposition "on." In Spanish, however, the preposition is understood without being said or written. On the other hand, native English speakers do not say "the" before "Saturdays." It's just a difference between the way native speakers use the two languages.
So when I wrote about "indefinite," I was writing about "not any particular Saturday." I was not writing about the article "la." I know slightly more about Spanish grammar terms than I did when I wrote this before. Is the idea of "uncountable" more appropriate for what I was trying to say?
Coming back to this later, I want to add that should not have used the word "must" because English speakers sometimes omit the preposition "on." See above.
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The preposition is not "understood" in Spanish. "On" in "on Sunday" makes no literal sense. An English speaker adds it only because that's what they are used to. Unless you are looking at a desk calendar ON which things are written ON the square that says Sunday, "ON Sunday" isn't literally what you mean at all. It's just a strange thing we say. Spanish speakers don't understand that they mean "on" Sunday, because that's not what they mean at all. If they thought they were saying "on Sunday" they would laugh or be confused. "How the heck does something 'touch or rest upon the top surface' of a day?" they would wonder. It's not something that makes sense unless you grew up hearing it said.
You are correct that from an English speaker's standpoint, the article "the" seems unnecessary as well. That's a "strange" thing about Spanish, although from a literal perspective it really does seem to make more sense to me to say "the Sundays" than to say "on Sundays".
I understand better now that you were speaking to the indefinite/unspecified amount of days as opposed to indefinite articles. That is not how it came across in the original post. Thank you for the clarification. I am all too familiar with saying something in a manner that does not clearly express what I actually meant.
re: the preposition "on" & English vs Spanish "no".
I often find myself explaining the "non-spoken part" of phrases to my non-native English speaking relatives and spouse (in exchange for lessons and tips on their native languages).
In a sentence like "I go to church on Sunday.", the term "on Sunday" has an unspoken but understood meaning of "on (the ocassion) of Sunday."
This is a perfectly grammatical English sentence, as one of the definitions of the word "on" is absolutely related to time. "The train was on time." That's not idiomatic. It's grammatically correct with valid semantic meaning.
Try googling "definition of on". The 8th meaning is the one that applies to time. Also notice the total number of functions of the word "on". It is a very versatile preposition in English.
Also regarding the use of the English word "no" and the Spanish word "no", we see that "word order" plays a role in the grammatical function of "no".
While negating a verb, "no" is an adverb. However, its role chances to a determiner to show the opposite or lack of something.
Try googling "definition of no".
Duolingo has introduced us to the adverbial function of the Spanish word "no" and to its functions as a noun.
In this explanation of "no" at spanish.about.com, I don't see "no" being mentioned as a determiner.
http://spanish.about.com/cs/vocabulary/qt/noqt.htm
It would probably be a good idea to keep this in mind when translating from Spanish to English.
If your translation ends up with "no" acting as a determiner, then a liberty was taken in regards to grammar.
Even though "We do not have a date.", and "We have no date.", both seem to be semantically equivalent, I tend to go with user Lago's philosophy which leans towards not adding grammar that wasn't present in the root to the target.
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LittleWing1- I'm curious why you brought up non-native speakers, although I'm not really that curious. If it was a way of sneaking in an assumption about me, I'll just let you go on and make your assumptions. They're really quite irrelevant.
I don't see anywhere that I mentioned "on" being grammatically incorrect. If I did, I misspoke. I assumed that it was the case since you corrected me, but I can't find anywhere that I said that. My guess is that it is incredibly weird to the typical current day speaker to say "on the occasion of Sunday." That sounds strange. It is where the saying comes from, but my guess is that the typical person is not thinking "on the occasion of" every time the say "on". They are just thinking "on" because that's how the sentence is structured in modern English. I think you are making a few assumptions about me and my words which are incorrect.
His name is Iago. I agree with him in that case. I referenced that they communicated the same message, not which was the direct translation. If you've read very many of my other comments, you already know that I encourage changing as little as possible while making sense. In fact, I often say that almost verbatim.
Try googling "straw man."
Does "tenemos no fecha" also mean "we have no date" or is the expression wrong?
"Tenemos no fecha" is incorrect Spanish. The "no" must always go before the verb.
"We don't have a date" can mean either "No tenemos una cita" or "No tenemos (una) fecha".
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I'm not sure why I corrected you. Although my post is accurate, I'm pretty sure that "We don't have the date yet" and "We still don't have the date" mean pretty much the same thing. Maybe I misread the post you were replying to? Who knows. I guess technically "yet" emphasizes more "at this time" while "still" emphasizes more the idea that it's been expected before now but has not manifest itself as of YET. lol
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No, thanks! I actually like these discussions because there's a lot I take for granted about the meaning associated to particular words versus being a close enough translation. I would agree that "We still don't have a date" implies you were wanting an answer and I've been making you wait. Is there a difference in Spanish or would using 'todavía' work?
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I've been thinking about this sentence for days. I can't quite wrap my head around a good answer. It seems to me that what you wrote actually would be a good way to translate "We don't have the date yet." It would also be the way to say "We still don't have the date." You could say, "Aún no tenemos la fecha." However, the fact that a different word is used shouldn't be confused with the idea that they mean something even slightly different in Spanish. In a few cases, they are not interchangeable, but for the most part they mean exactly the same thing. What do they mean? "Still". AND "yet". lol
To my mind, "todavía would feel more like "still" in this sentence. "Aún" would feel more likely to be switched to "yet" for me in this sentence. But I'm not sure that this is universal. What is the case is that they are considered (usually) perfect synonyms, meaning they mean exactly the same thing.
Also, I don't remember who told me this, so I can't tell you where they were from... apparently in some regions, they always use "todavía " with the negating "no". I have found that at least with some Mexicans, this is not necessarily true.
I'm not sure I've accomplished anything here but obfuscation. :/
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I did interpret the Spanish that way. I immediately flashed to someone planning a wedding but couldn't get a date to book it on. I know cita is appointment but is it also used for date in the dating world?
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In English we say "We don't have a date" exactly for that though. (Saying we have an appointment or event but don't know which day it is on yet) The word date means appointment or meeting but it also means 'the date' as in the specific day. For example we say "Today's date is September 28th"
We could also say "We don't have a date yet," "We haven't set a date," "We haven't picked/decided a date," or "We don't know the date".
So for the English "We don't have a date" (as in we haven't picked the day) "No tenemos fecha" is correct.
For the English "We don't have a date" (we are not planning on meeting up/getting together) "No tenemos una cita" would be correct.
I don't like "We have no date." While it may be technically correct, I think "We don't have a date," sounds better. I've heard people say "We don't have a date yet" when they are talking about needing to pick a day to do something, but not having come up with a date everyone agrees on yet. Without context though "date" could be construed as a romantic date.
Curious if "cita" for a romantic date is the same? In English we use the word date as both an appointment, a reference to a particular day, and a romantic date. Would like to know how it works in Spanish if anyone can clarify.
Cita can be used for both, you can have a "cita" with your dentist or with somebody special with romantic purposes. I would say that the context for this sentence would be not in the romantic purpose but in a situation where you expect something to happen depending on either the person you talk to or a 3rd one and they cannot tell you when it will happen.
Another point is the meaning of date. In English you say " today's date", but it's Spanish equivalent is "la fecha de hoy". In "I have a date with a lovely girl" it would be translated as " Tengo una cita con una chica fantástica". In "I have an appointment with the doctor" it would be translated as "tengo una cita con el médico" . My understanding of that sentence is more about the time frame than about the appointment itself,i.e. It is implicit that there is an appointment but there is no date for it.
Regarding the discussion about "una", the sentence still has it's meaning without, as said before. A little detail can be that "una" is omitted if talking about a time frame. So If I ask you when is the house being renovated you might answer with that sentence. But we are going very deep into contexts now. I just hope it helps!
To be honest, I believe we are focusing sometimes too much on finding context for sentences. I believe Duolingo uses sometimes sentences for you to find patterns that might not really have a specific meaning. At least in German you get some odd bits, but the idea is not to focus on the meaning, but on the patterns. If so perhaps the easiest is to change the sentence to "no tenemos agua" - "We have no water"
However I must also say that, in my experience at least, it is not used for the latter in every day language. Perhaps somebody else can say otherwise but, in my experience, it is very common to say "He quedado con ...", which I would translate as "I will meet ...". I am fully aware that in English this can be used "I will meet my mother for whatever". In Spanish too. It will be the context telling you what is what.
dthreatz is right. It works. Here a few examples: No tenemos solución, No tenemos luz. "fecha" is used in the same fashion. If it is of any help, as native speaker, I would say that the difference between "no tenemos una fecha" y "no tenemos fecha" is that the second is slightly more negative
No, "Tú no comes fechas" (You don't eat dates) unless you're prone to gnaw on your calendar! However, "Quizás tú comes la fruta que es llamado un 'dátil'" (Perhaps you eat the fruit that is called a 'date').
As swingophelia pointed out, because the Spanish word for appointment is "cita," the best English translation of "fecha" is the word "date." In English, however, the words "date" and "appointment" can be synonyms if the overall context has to do with business and not with pleasure. As lasbury clarifies farther down, fecha = calendar date.
"appointment" = cita, which is not the word in the Spanish sentence.
Just to be clear is this a date like an appointment, a date like an planned expected time ( our wedding date is november second), or a romantic date or all three?
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It doesn't have a date, we don't have a date, why aren't both correct? It's basically no have date so it's opened to interpenetration, right? I must be special.
"La fecha" is a calendar date. "It doesn't have a date" (such as an undated letter) = "No tiene (una) fecha." We don't have a date" (such as a date when a meeting is to take place) = "No tenemos (una) fecha" - the sentence under discussion. Although you are correct in assuming that there is much that is open to interpretation because Duo has no context, changing the subject pronoun is not one of those issues. It is important that you realize the "he/she/it/(formal) you" always take a different verb form than "we," as do the other subject pronouns. Please consult the verb conjugation charts in Duo or another resource.
No, "la cita" is a romantic date, "la fecha" is a calendar date. Read the previous posts!
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The website SpanishDict gives "ya tengo fecha para el dentista" translated as "I have an appointment at the dentist".
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SpanishDict tries hard to translate as it would most likely to be said in English. As you can see from their translation of the word date, they seem to agree with the concensus here about the difference between fecha and cita.
http://www.spanishdict.com/translate/date
I suspect, Especially with the ya in your sentence that it might well be translated as I already have a date set for the dentist, but it is unlikely to be said like that in English without the word appointment
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I am assuming that you are talking about the Spanish not a problem with a building block translation exercise. You will probably find subject pronouns more on Duo then you will. in real life situations because of the potential ambiguity without situational context. Subject pronouns are most commonly omitted unless there is ambiguity or the speaker wants to emphasize the person. In the present tense the verb endings are distinctive for yo, tú, and nosotros so these will almost always be omitted. Third person tenses have more potential options, but even here the flow of a real conversation will often make them also unnecessary. But you do have to be careful because there are more cases in Spanish where the subject follows the verb and if you assume the subject pronoun is omitted you may misunderstand the sentence.
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"We haven't set a date" sounds like a much more proper phrase to translate this to. It's not a literal translation, but gets the idea across with an actual phrase that people use. "We do not have a date" makes no sense without context, and even then is a phrase I've never heard, and would never use.
Quite correct -- I think the problem is that Duolingo is a computer program without the discernment a human teacher would have. I have been marked wrong several times by giving an English answer that was correct, but not what the program was looking for. This seems to bother a lot of people, but I take it in stride. I actually think I'm getting more than I'm paying for. ;-)
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We don't have a date but we are getting married. Or we are planning a district meeting but don't have the date. It refers to scheduling an event which requires resources in place.
This feels awkward to me. Shouldn't a more logical option be "No tenemos una fecha" for this translation?
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I'm not a representative of DL, just another learner, but I wanted to reply to your question.
Spanish does not use the indefinite article as mush as English does. So even though it is not present in the Spanish sentence, it often is required for the English translation to be grammatically correct.
Here are a couple useful links about this: