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- "She takes care of the food."
"She takes care of the food."
Translation:Ella se ocupa de la comida.
61 Comments
Because the infinitive verb "ocuparse" means "to take care of." It may help to think of it as a different verb than ocupar.
Why in this sentence is "de" required when "ella se ocupa" means "she takes care of"? Should it not be "Ella se ocupa la comida"? She takes care of the food, not, she takes care of of the food.
I think it's more accurate to say that "ella se ocupa" means "she takes care", so saying "ella se ocupa la comida" would be like "she takes care the food", i.e., wrong.
It would be nice if the English scroll-over was a bit more intuitive. I tried to see "take care of" (turns out I forgot the de - time to repeat the lesson! bah!) and it would only do each word - take, care, and of. The Spanish scroll-over is usually golden and "phrases up" better.
So my only question is since it is a reflexive verb, doesn't the subject have to both give and receive the action? How can she take care of the food and receive the "taking care of" if she takes care of the food?
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I've gleaned from earlier postings that "Ella se ocupa" could be translated as "She occupies herself", giving us the subject and (reflexive) object of the verb. That means "de la comida" is a prepositional adverb phrase, telling us how she occupies herself.
why did it present me with a word I have not learned "cuida' instead of accepting "ocupa"?
Maybe "Ella cuida la comida", but the "a" should not be used in this case (since it's only needed when the object is a person).
I'm impressed that you have a 1528 streak (as of today). You probably don't read the forums anymore, but it's good that you use your own product.
I don't think "cuidar" is the appropriate verb. "cuidar de" means "to take care of" in the sense of "tending to the needs of". For example...
"Yo no podía cuidar de mi hijo" = "I could not take care of my son".
"to take care of" has a broad meaning in English, so it could be translated by one of several Spanish verbs, depending on the context. It could mean she is in charge of organizing the food, or that she is cooking the food, or that she is making sure a hungry bear doesn't eat the food, ...
In the'hint' they give this "cuida de". But then they give the 'correct' solution: "Ella cuida la comida" So, what about that? I sent a note.
I becoming somewhat bewildered and a bit frustrated by Spanish's seemingly inconsistent and vague use of "se." Are there any hard-and-fast-rules I can use, or is it just something you have to get a feel for? :/
I agree that the multitude of uses of "se" are challenging to learn. Me,te,nos,les are a bit less confusing limiting the challenges to area 1 below. Here is a good summary of the uses of "se". It takes a lot of practicing and exposure to make this intuitive. I certainly need much practice in this area. If you know of more, please post.
http://spanish.about.com/od/pronouns/a/introduction_se.htm
- Reflexive Pronoun a. To reflect the action back on the subject b. To indicate an emotional response c. To add emphasis d. To change the meaning or nuance of the verb http://www.spanishdict.com/topics/show/85
- Passive voice
- As substitute for le or les
- Impersonal se
I'm confused. Doesn't "ocuparse" means "take care of himself/herself/itself". So putting "Ella ocuparse de la comida" would be right?. I was under the impression (not from Duolingo, other Spanish classes) that you can put the "se" before or attached to the end of the verb (ocupar).
I read "Ella ocuparse de la comida" as "She to occupy herself with the food" or "She to take care herself of the food", which don't make sense in English, and I've confirmed with a native speaker that it's wrong in Spanish. Ocuparse is not the same as se ocupa (occupies herself), but se ocupar (to occupy herself).
The verbs se ocupa and ocuparse mean exactly the same thing just said in different way. "she (herself)takes care of the food. Se of course standing in for herself. If you look up ocuparse in a good dictionary it will show se ocupa as the alternative.
"ocuparse" is the "infinitive", that is, the basic building block of the verb. ("infinitives" are the verb forms that end in "-ar', "-er", or "ir").///// "se ocupa" is the conjugation of the verb in the third person singular form (he, she, it, you). //// The infinitive (in this case "ocuparse") is the form that you will usually find listed in a dictionary, and in better dictionaries, after the listing, they will give examples using the conjugated form (for instance, present tense: me ocupo, te ocupas, se ocupa, nos ocupamos, os ocupáis, se ocupan); good dictionaries may also give examples in other tenses. (for example, future tense: me ocuparé, te ocuparás, se ocupará, nos ocuparemos, os ocuparéis, se ocuparán). When conjugating a "se" verb, you need to change the "se" to the appropriate person and put in front of the verb (usually). There are times you can attach it to the end of the infinitive.
Is there a use for the verb ocupa without the 'se' ? Can anyone give an example ?
Ocupar - to occupy. Ellos ocupan el edificio (They occupy the building). Yo ocupo, tú ocupas, él ocupa, etc.
For various reasons: First, the verb has to match the subject. We have a third person singular here, so it has to be ocupa not ocupar, since the latter is the infinitive form (to take care). So what you wrote basically translates to she (to) take care of the food. Second, pronouns can only be attached to either the imperative form (e.g.: damelo - give it to me) or the infinive form (e.g. darlo - to give it). So while ocuparse isn't wrong per se, it's just not conjugated correctly. I don't know what your native language is, but I've experienced that many native English speakers find conjugating verbs quite confusing because in English all verbs have only one form for every tense. The only exception is the third-person-singular-s in the simple present. Most other languages - especially slavic and romance languages - require a specific ending which directly refers to the subject. I hope this doesn't confuse. Explaining grammar through the internet is extremely hard because I can't really tell how much you know about the language already. So ask away!
Why does DuoLingo's help suggest the translation "take care of" as "ocuparse de", and does NOT suggest anything even remotely similar to the correct answer?
ocupar/ocuparse is another of those - uh, portmanteau Spanish words with a huge range of possible meanings/translations in English and associated idioms. Great list of examples from http://www.spanishdict.com/translate/ocupar
including took care of or saw to: ella es quien se ocupó de los detalles de la boda it was her that took care of o saw to the details of the wedding
well worth some study, I think
Gracias. English has many of the same, it only becomes noticeably confusing when learning another language.
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I put ella toma cuidarse de la comida and got "ella toma cuidado de la comida" is this true
I went to spanishdict.com and compared cuidar and ocuparse. While they both mean "to take care of" cuidar seems to be more along the lines of taking care of someone while ocuparse is more along the lines of taking care of a task. Native Spanish speakers, please correct me if I'm wrong.
I dont get it - Ella toma cuidado hacia la comida.- she takes care (towards) of the food. Whats wrong? The answer is "she takes up herself from/to the food". Seems unnatural to an English speaker....and a frequent Latin American traveler.
Ocuparse de is like saying "to occupy oneself with" so if someone takes care of the food, you could say they're occupying themselves with the task of providing / preparing the food for the event.
I've been speaking Spanish for a while now, and "tomar cuidado" seems so unatural. I'd be surprised if it were a valid translation for "take care".
The context of "take care of" in this sentence is "to assume responsibility for a task) so ocuparse de, as well as encargarse de, are appropriate options.
Whenever I hear cuidado on it's own it's in the context of "caution", or "be careful" so if indeed tomar cuidado is a valid expression in Spanish, it would be geared toward being careful rather than accepting responsibility for something
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I can't believe this hasn't been mentioned thus far. So many comments have come through and no one has brought up the fact that PREOCUPARSE actually means TO WORRY ABOUT. I ask, shouldn't we be using THAT word in our answer?!
It's not really the same thing. Mom asked me to make dinner. Now she worries about the food being prepared....and might yell at me for not doing it.
I'm the one that is (or should be) actually taking care of it.
I put "Ella se hace cargo cerca la comida." Anyone know what is wrong with that?
I think the "cerca" part. cerca means "near" It refers to close proximity. "Ella se hace cargo de la comida" is probably good. Although even better would be "Ella se encarga de la comida"
Surely encargar.. To take care of would be a better option.. Ocupa implies that she is occupying the food
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I thought I understood this translations and felt that "Ella se ocupa con la comida" had to be correct since earlier it was asked how to say he takes care of the children and I of course put "de" which was marked wrong and "con" should have been used. What am I missing?
my recent tests contain virtually the same vocabulary, with very little variation.
