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- "Mi esposa no encuentra sus z…
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I really think the English translation should be: "My wife cannot find her shoes"
I'm going to agree with you, mainly because the primary translation, "My wife does not find her shoes", while accurate, is a really obscure thing to say in English. With DL's history of weird sentences this is no argument in itself, but logically your translation makes sense and would be a more common thing to hear.
Of course, the literal version of "My wife cannot find her shoes" would be "Mi esposa no puede encontrar sus zapatos", but if we look at "Mi esposa no encuentra sus zapatos" as commenting on a scene we get "My wife is not finding her shoes", which is even weirder English than the primary translation. We'd instead say "My wife cannot find her shoes."
Why not "my wife does not find their shoes" or "my wife does not find your shoes"?
The way I look at it with no other context it would be sheer madness for a native Spanish speaker to really simultaneously consider all possible interpretations. Which means one interpretation likely pops into their heads. With no other context we probably have to assume the shoes belong to either the person making the statement or his wife. And since "sus" does not expresses first person ownership(like "mis") they are likely the wife's shoes.
And furthermore, if the speaker wanted to specify that his wife could not find shoes other than her own, I would expect him to choose to say 'mi esposa no encuentra los zapatos de..____", adding in whose shoes she cannot find.
Does any one else has the word "bin" come up as the correct answer? As far as I am aware that is not the work in the english language
Yes, I get the word BIN, too, showing as a correct answer. It should be DID not find her shoes. Use the "Report a Problem" link to report it. (I've reported it twice.)
While I definitely understand your inclination to use did here as it is the more natural way we would say this sentence, it is not accurate because did is past tense and would be "no encontró". The proper translation is "My wife does not (doesn't) find her shoes. While it sounds funny on its own, think of it in context. "Every time we are about to go to a football game, conveniently, my wife doesn't find her shoes as quickly as she could."
Also, encontrarse can be used in the "to feel" sense. For example, "Even though I have tried to convince her otherwise, my wife does not find her shoes frivolous."
I used "did" as well.
The correct options were "My spouse can not find your shoes." and "My wife does not find her shoes."
Is there a legitimate reason why "did" is incorrect?
"Did" is past tense in English, whereas we are working in present tense here.
My answer was "My wife does not find her shoes." This was correct. I do not know why did not find her shoes was correct, but I will look at it.
Yes, I have seen this repeatedly in "correct answer" phrases. Oddly, the word "bin" is german for "to be", specifically, the first person "I am" is Ich bin.
That would be past tense, and uses could: "Mi esposa no pudo encontrar sus zapatos."
