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- "¿Usted perdió a su perro?"
94 Comments
Perro is a direct object, and the lost dog is your dog, a pet, so it takes the personal "a." If you had lost five dollars, there would not be an "a."
If was a hundred, and I lost it, there would be a personal "a" for sure. My dear poor money!
Thanks for that, I can't get my head round it, but at least I know where it comes from. Poco a poco.
You can get a lot of things explained at that site. DL does not always do a good job with grammar, IMO, so sites like that one can be lifesavers.
So if you used an "a" on losing five dollars, it would seem like you had a very personal relationship with money?
908
It isn't used with animals in general, but it is sometimes used with pets. It can even be applied to inanimate objects as a form of personification. Whether or not it is used with pets seems to vary both regionally and with regards to how the speaker feels about animals. Here are a couple of articles on the topic.
https://www.thoughtco.com/the-personal-a-preposition-3078139
https://www.thoughtco.com/when-is-the-personal-a-not-used-3079322
In most cases I can guess when an "a" is a personal a simply because the sentence makes little sense sticking a "to" there. However, this is one of those cases where my natural tendency to try "to" got a sentence that made sense. "You lost to your dog?" Naturally Duo marked me wrong, but at least it was a hilarious question.
Me too ! I thought the protagonist had been playing tennis with her dog. Animals are very clever in DL. Pigs clean kitchens, after all. Ducks speak English. And I confess, I wanted to see what DL would say...
- 442
Spanish is my mother tongue and I would NEVER use an "a" in that sentence. "Usted perdió su perro" is perfectly fine. I would use the "a", maybe, when the loss has an emotional meaning: "perdió a su madre en un accidente" (meaning she died). In the same way, if a person "perdió a su perro" I would totally understand that the dog is dead.
"have you lost your dog" seems to be equivalent, howver I know that "have you lost your dog" could be expressed by haber and past participle so I am wondering if duolingo won;t accept "have ...." for that reason. Can anyone help with the haber + pp form? I think it would be Usted ha perdido su perro"
The drop-down list says "perdió" means "lost", and since "Did you lost your dog?" is incorrect English, I put "Have you lost your dog?". I am sure there are multiple ways of saying this sentence in both Spanish and English. I'm with you on wondering why Duo won't accept this sentence, and what other ways it could be said in Spanish.
"Did you lose your dog?" is accepted. (The auxiliary verb "did" is conjugated for past and it takes present participle "lose" to mean "lost" in questions and negatives in English.) Possible answer would be "Yes, I lost my dog."
I'm giving you a Lingot simply because you have so many languages... dang.
I think DuoLingo won't accept it because this section is on past tense. So consequently, they want to teach past tense congugations. "Have you lost" is present perfect tense.
Good reasoning! and probably why it wasn't accepted. However, "have you lost your dog?" is the most natural way of translating this, so it should be accepted even if its not in the tense of the section.
I agree, and think it's probably a mistake, since in other cases they accept both possibilities. It's reported anyway.
I would agree. Strictly, in English, "You lost your dog" is a statement and 'have' is needed to make it a question. An alternative would be "Did you lose your dog?"
Your "present perfect" tense is correct paul -t but that is the point: it is a different tense from the one given and it is NOT equivalent in English or Spanish. We don't say "lost you your dog?" In English these days! Form the question thus: "did you lose your dog?" Also use did for negation : " I did not lose..."
why is "Did you lose their dog?" not one of the correct answers? "su" can also mean their, no?
In context I think that is correct. Duolingo makes it confusing. Sometimes they accept all grammatically possible answers, sometimes they won't accept a gramatically correct answer because it does not have sufficient context.
Why does it take you more than the shown Duolingo answer to understand what the Spanish statement MEANS?
Umm....the context was "usted", which is "you", so while "su" can mean their, it's not the correct answer.
- 442
Lubita, "Did you lose their dog" is a perfectly correct answer. "Your (formal)/his/her/your (plural)/their dog", they are all correct translations.
I wonder, if a man was competing with his dog in running, and then lost, can I say 'Usted perdió a su perro' meaning 'you lost to your dog'?
I know it's a bit strange but not unimaginable. Hope somebody could help me.
- 442
Hi Wei-Da, in that case we would say "perdió contra" su perro. We can say "ganarle a alguien" (less common but correct depending on context: "ganar contra alguien"), but we always say "perder contra alguien". Cheers.
I'd still say that in strict English you lost your dog is a statement, not a question. & the prefix 'Have' is a given.
- 442
Both are correct. I don't think I use the formal "you" any more than once every year or two (I'm from Uruguay)... in other regions like Colombia you can see the use of "usted" even between family members, say son and mother for example. So, it would depend on regionalisms, as a rule if you visit a Spanish speaking country you should just imitate the use of locals.
You lost his dog!?!?! Oh, he'll be soooooo mad! You are in biiiiiiiiiiig trouble!
In English I am sure we would normally say "Have you lost your dog?" rather than "You lost your dog?". They do mean the same thing don't they, so why is it wrong?
"¿Usted perdió a su perro?" is preterirte or simple past tense which would be "Did you lose your dog?" in English. "Have you lost your dog?" is perfect past, which would be "¿Han perdido a su perro?" in Spanish. While they mean essentially the same thing, Duo marked you wrong because it is trying to teach preterirte tense in this lesson, not perfect past.
Surely if the sentence was saying "You lost her dog?" you'd have to specify that 'su' refers to 'her'? I.e. "Usted perdió el perro de ella."
We need to learn all the usages of "su." I recommend you switch between them, using a different one each time you see the sentence. None are the "right one" to use here. None are wrong.
I agree sjrb! There is an obvious translation that requires no clarification and the one to assume but there are deranged people who try to put the least likely translation for some peculiar reason of their own and then tell the thread about it.
They do that because they have idea that working out alternate translations is what Duolingo is all about. And doing that is their challenge. But they are completely off base. Only understanding the Spanish sentences is of importance.
I agree that have you lost your dog is more natural in English, I would also point out that the translation at the top shouldn't work since lose is present tense in English, not past. I put You lost your dog and that worked, but it's a but awkward.
I take it you are not a native English speaker vr8? You are correct "lose" is present tense on its own but you ignore the auxiliary verb "did". This is the past tense of " do" and plays same role in the past as 'do' in the present. It is correct to say for example "I did lose my dog" as well as "I lost my dog" in some circumstances, eg for emphasis. But see my post above for how it is used for questions.
I didn't know pets get the personal a too. Also the audio for this sounded nothing like a question.
I'm sorta native to Spanish (I'm doing this bc I don't know it very well, I'm decent at it), & I thought "lost" in past tense when referring to someone directly was "perdiste", & "perdio" was for he/she?
he/she/it and you when it is ''usted'' which takes the third person ending. ''Perdiste'' is for tú. You knew all along, didn't you ?
Or you could say in full, “Did you loose your dog with Ex-lax?"
Best to have a goose. They are already loose.
Why would it be 'su' and not 'tu'? su should be he/she/they if i am not mistaken.
Because it does not have to be “tu.” If you were talking to a stranger it would never be "tu."
- 442
If you get the english sentence "you lost your dog", you can perfectly translate it for "tú". The only things to keep in mind is that "tú" (pers pron) has an accent and of course you have to use a different conjugation than with "su".
"TÚ perdiste TU perro" is correct. Then in Uruguay and Argentina (among others) we would actually say "Vos perdiste tu perro". In common use though, we would simply omit the personal pronoun and say "perdiste tu perro" which makes it a lot easier I think.
Yes, but it also can be used for your in formal situations. Usted takes the same conjugation and possessive pronoun as el/ella.
Since "a" in Spanish is "to", my translation was, "Did you lose to your dog?". I still think my translation is better than the official one, even though Duolingo does not agree :)
Unfortunately, that's not accurate English. The difference between 'lose' and 'lost' is quite tricky. 'Lost' is a past participle and also an adjective. Clearly, in this sentence it isn't being used as an adjective.
So, if it is used as past participle, it has to be used with an auxiliary verb - so we could say ""Have you lost your dog?". And 'lost' tells us that it is an action in the past.
Another form could be " Did you lose your dog" where the auxiliary verb moves to the past tense to tell us that the action happened in the past, since 'lose' on its own does not carry that meaning.
I think that it would be helpful if the speaker made the sentence sound like a question instead of a statement.
I am right, have you lost dog? is better than "you lost your dog????" how sarcastic!
You can't say that because it is the wrong tense.
Have you lost your dog? - ¿Has perdido a tu perro?
This seems petty - I used the present perfect tense 'Have you lost your dog?' and it said it was incorrect, It is still the past tense but not the past simple - 'you lost your dog?' is informal and not very good English (perhaps not Received English anyway)
The correct simple past form in English is "Did you lose your dog?" Which Duo accepts. I don't consider it petty myself, because this is the preterit tense lesson. The perfect past is taught in another lesson.
It's just "You lost your dog?" In this case, it's using the personal "a" The personal "a" essentially tells you that the object has a personal connection with the subject. Since we really don't do that in English, it can be dropped in translation.
so how would you say "you lost to your dog?" - assuming you and your dog had a race.
The translation sounds more like a comment than a question, because they don't raise their voice at the end.
Have you lost your dog? and Did you lose your dog mean the same thing. You lost your dog? is more of an accusation.
I think "you lost to your dog " makes perfect sense. You and your dog competed and he won. People love to play games with their dogs!
- 923
Shouldn't it be "perdiste tu perro?" It is preterite and iste is the correct conjugation.
su is for usted and tu is for tú https://www.dummies.com/languages/spanish/knowing-when-to-use-the-spanish-t-and-usted/
