42 Comments
What about "I am not going to school on Sunday". Why is that not correct? How would you say that in Spanish?
Am going is the present progressive tense. I do not go to school on Sundays is present tense. The spanish sentence is in present, and not present progressive, tense.
Enough of the present progressive vs present tense! In Spanish they are the same and the present tense is used much more often.
Because of the "on Sunday" part, I think that makes "am going" the simple future.
How do you think you would you say, in Spanish, "I am not going to school on Sunday"?
I tried it in Google Translate, and it came up with "Yo no voy a la escuela el domingo" (i.e. pretty much the sentence from this example).
Maybe there is an implied "to go" in there, as in "I am not going (to go) to school on Sunday", in which case the Spanish would be something like "No voy a ir a la escuela el Domingo".
For "am not going," the present progressive, I'd guess: No estoy yendo a la escuela el domingo.
How would you say "I don't go to school on Sunday?"
Am not going and will not go is very different than do not go.
Maybe the constructions are degenerate.
c.sarabalis. You're wrong. no estoy viendo is for the verb ver, for the verb to go it's ir and the progressive is : yendo
But c.s is wrong even with that correction I'm afraid.... Voy DOES mean I am going as well as I go and I do go (typically used for questions and negatives). The estoy yendo construction is NOT equivalent to the general use of I am going to school (eg I am going to school now that I am five, I am going to school until summer...) which is translated to Spanish by "voy". That construction, though it seems to resemble the English one, is used specifically to mean I am going to school right now, eg I can't chat on thge phone now because I am going to school [undesrtood: at this moment]
because it would be progressive tense : no estoy yendo a la escuela el domingo
I think it has something to do with process vs time period. Yours says you don't go to school on (this) sunday but you might on other sundays. Duolingo's says I don't go to on (any) sunday.
shouldn't it be "en domingo" instead of "el domingo" since it is on the day and not just "we do not go the sunday?"
Nope. In Spanish it is "el domingo," and gets translated as "on Sunday." That's just the way it is.
ok thanks .. i was about to ask " is " en domingo " wrong ? does it have to be " el domingo " ? "
that's what i thought too. taking it at face value for now that it is just 'el domingo' for days of the week :-)
I am not going to school means the same as I do not go to school. Why is this wrong?
Yes; the nearest Sunday. Not last or next, but this Sunday :) Or it can be the closest/nearest one.
It's just not what we say, especially since that can mean "in Sunday" and it just sounds weird. You can say "este domingo" (this Sunday) or "el domingo" (which is the closest Sunday and is usually translated as "on Sunday," for it creates less confusion)
Does el or los in front of a day of the week always mean on? Is este always used to say this (particular day)?
It would be pretty close a translation to "on" instead of "the." Only use "los" if you go EVERY Sunday. Like, "Voy a la escuela el domingo" means "I'm going to school on Sunday." However, "Voy a la escuela los domingos" means "I go to school on Sundays." And then este means "this;" "esta" before feminine nouns.
I wrote "I do not go to Sunday school" and I go to sunday school at my church, so thats why I put it, and got it wrong. :(
What we refer to as "Sunday school" in English is called "escuela dominical" or "catequesis" in Spanish.
I'm not totally sure, but I think the former is Protestant, and the latter Catholic.
I wrote "No voy a la escuela EN domingo. Since en can be 'on', it seems a closer translation. Is it normal to use 'el' as the word 'on' also?
rspreng answered this above and manofsnow has added even more info. The summary is that "el", not "en", is used before days of the week in Spanish. If you didn't read the comments before posting, please try to make that a habit. If you did, please try to read more carefully, or at least do a "find in page" search.
