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- "Estoy completamente dedicado…
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Devoted in English is a better choice than dedicated. Dedication i s to a cause, not to a person.
If I am COMPLETELY dedicated to you wouldn't there be an argument for "soy" instead of "estoy"?
That's exactly the question I was about to write. It may be because one might say,"At this time I am completely devoted to you but that could change."
To answer my own question, and yours Ranchers, it seems that even though characteristics use "soy", states of being, even if they are permanent (as my wife would hope), use "estoy". Hence "estoy vivo" and "estoy muerto" despite nothing being more sure than the former, or more permanent than the latter.
Don't use temporary vs. permanent as a way to decide between ser and estar, because that will just drive you batty. I teach my students that estar is used mostly for location and condition, and ser for everything else. Estar is also used for certain set phrases, this being one of them: estar plus a past participle used as an adjective. "Vivo" and "muerto" from your examples, jellonz, are also past participles used in this way, and therefore follow the same rule. http://www.studyspanish.com/lessons/pastpart.htm
"Being completely devoted/dedicated" is an emotion and feeling. It could change; that is why "star" is used.
I just used ser with dedicado in the previous example and it was accepted
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N.B. the woman's voice not only SHOULD say 'dedicada', but clearly does so; yet the correct answer given for the hearing exercise is 'dedicado'
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On Duolingo, forget which voice says what, since the voices are software-generated and are randomly chosen to speak a sentence. Focus more on what's said and less on who's saying it.
While I know you're right AVAX3M, I still agree with AliT.Firef. A woman speaking in the first person singular should (in real world usage) say "dedicada" and it's a natural expectation of a listener to hear that. For me the pronunciation at full speed in this sentence is unclear, but I also hear "dedicada," perhaps based predominantly on expectation.
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I totally know and agree with that. I was only implying that "On Duolingo" things work a bit differently, and the voice-gender thing is but only one of the many issues here. Unless Duolingo decides to change that, we'll only suffer from frustrations so for the meantime why not try to adapt and overcome.
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Oh sure, but given that it also sounds like 'dedicada' there's an issue anyway, even if it's only with neutral grunts at the end of words!
Duo has a problem here. A female voice read the sentence to me, so should be "dedicada" not "dedicado" in that case, but "dedicada" was not accepted.
I sympathise. DL has both masculine and feminine voices now, so they should match voice with text. It grates on the ear when you hear that deep masculine voice say "estoy ocupada" and the like. Badly needs updating.
It has not been fixed yet. The same thing happened to me on 3/21/20 and I reported it
Another female voice here. Thank you for clarifying this because it made it worthwhile for me to wade through all of these inane comments. I'm going to go back and report that my answer should be accepted.
I do not fully understand what this lesson is about but am i right in presuming that "To be (verb) + -ando/iendo = to be (verb) + -ing" and "To be (verb) + -ado/ido = to be (verb) + -ed".
why is "estoy" used here and not "soy"? In previous examples "fue" was used to express " he was dedicated" and "fue" is "ser" not "estar" - it seems DL goes back and forth with ser/estar and these types of adjectives ( pagado/pagada, deidcado/dedicada) so do you use ser or estoy with adjectives...??
Yeah I'm confused about this too, only reason I can think of is that this is considered some sort of civil status like marriage, but that seems a bit far fetched.
"Estoy" here denotes a state of being. If you used "Soy" that would change the meaning to a characteristic. This was probably the case in the examples where jjcthorpe saw "fue" used: eg "El fue dedicado"="He was dedicated"=""He was [a] dedicated [person]" - Characteristic. Whereas "El estuvo dedicado"="He was dedicated"="He was dedicated [to something/someone]" - State of being. You can't use "Soy" in this DL sentence though because of the "a ti." This "to you" makes his dedication a state of being towards someone instead of a characteristic.
I am confused by your post here, jellonz. In English, a "state of being" is "permanent" and timeless. For this reason, I have always thought of "ser" as describing a "state of being."
If I understand you correctly, what you are saying is that "estar" should be used where I would use "ser."
Keeping in mind that "ser" is used for permanent conditions/characteristics and "estar" is used for temporary conditions/characteristics, which should I use? (I specifically used the compound "conditions/characteristics" because they are not as distinct in meaning in English as they are in Spanish.)
Input from others would be appreciated.
If you infer this meaning from "state of being" then just consider it as "state". That is the fundamental difference between "ser" and "estar" - Characteristic vs State.
Permanent vs Temporary muddies the water. I advise everybody to ignore this "rule".
Soy mecánico - I'm a mechanic. "Ser" is used because it is a description (characteristic) of me. Next week I might stop being a mechanic and become a student, so it could be temporary.
Ella está muerta - She's dead. "Estar" is used because death is a state she is in. She'll always be dead, and that's permanent.
Gracias--it took me decades to realize that temporary vs. permanent was at best misleading.
That was my translation, but still wrong. Not being an English native speaker, could someone pls comment if that would be correct? Cheers :-)
It's ok, but we tend to use "committed" more with abstract ideas rather than people. So we might say we are committed to a cause, or committed to a job etc. If you said you were committed to a person it would probably be understood as saying you are committed to the relationship you have with that person.
Thanks jellonz :-) - interesting, as I would have used dedicated to a cause, not a person, and yes, committed in a relationship "to" that person - or devoted to a person... so good to hear this clarified :-)
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HELP!! Duo seems to be in meltdown. It´s asking me translate into English and the answer is already there, also the other way round. I am asked to type what I hear in Spanish and it wants the answer in English. I don´t usually use the word boxes, but having to resort to these there are no words that will translate the sentence. I have reported the problems but if it takes months to correct I will never get past the module! I have now resorted to having a guess at what is required and occasionally it works, but I might not live that long.
Which module is it? I haven't seen such an issue in other lessons but would be happy to try and at least replicate the issue. I wish Duolingo allowed you to bring up and try a particular prompt. I also wish it had an index, so you can say, "I need to work on the preterite forms of 'ir'." Then it would like you to the relevant modules.
In english the adverb comes after the verb 'i am dedicated completely to you' should be acceptable
When you put it as "dedicated completely," it could make sense, but it sounds off and changes the meaning in English and sounds like "you" are the one and only thing I'm dedicated to.
Take it from a native speaker: The adverb can come either before or after the verb in English
Adverbs can be placed in several different places in an English sentence:
1) I am completely dedicated to you (emphasis on dedication). 2) I am dedicated completely to you (squinting construction, because "completely" could be describing "dedicated" or "to you"). 3) I am dedicated to you completely ("completely" describes "to you").
so in these cases --when the participle is not being used as part of the perfect--it is not only necessary to have the adjectival agreement but also one can separate the verb and participle?
De nada Emily. I should also have mentioned "Te," which is the regular object pronoun for "you." It either precedes a verb or can be attached to infinitives, gerundios, and positive imperatives. "Ti" differs because it is only used after prepositions.
And while I think of it there are a few exceptions (as always). The following prepositions are not followed by "ti" as you might expect but are actually followed by "tú":
entre - between
según - according to
incluso - including
excepto / menos / salvo - except
In these few cases Spanish differs from English and uses subject pronouns where we would use object pronouns. So, for example:
Between you and me - Entre tú y yo
Except you and her - Excepto tú y ella
One way to remember these exceptions (except for según - according to) is that they are prepositions often mistakenly followed by subject pronouns in English: Between you and I; Except he and I etc.
So are you saying, Jellonz, that Spanish prepositional pronouns (which are pronouns used as objects of Spanish prepositions) are equivalent to English subject pronouns? Is it just a handful of Spanish prepositions (as you mentioned: entre, según, include, excepto) or all of them, for example, "sobre," "en," "con," "a," etc.?
As stated in my initial comment: "Tú" is a subject pronoun; "Ti" is a prepositional object pronoun. My second comment refers only to the exceptions. So, yes, "sobre / en / a ti".
"Con" is an exception though, as when followed by the prepositional pronouns "ti / mi" it becomes "contigo / conmigo". There's also "consigo", which is used in place of "con él / ella etc." when the prep. pronoun matches the subject.
It's neither "te" nor "tú." It's "tí," which is a prepositional object pronoun.
I cannot find "dedicated" applied to "someone" in the Oxford dictionary for advanced learners. On the contrary it specifies the complement of "dedicated" as "something". On the other hand, "devoted", in the same dictionary, has a sentimental connotation that I do not identify with what our Spanish "dedicada" implies.... In Guatemala at least, you use "dedicada" in the sense of investing a lot - or all- of your time to tending to someone or to doing something. And although I notice that I used "devoted" just now with a similar meaning,, I do not feel that "completamente dedicada a ti" might be rendered by "completely dedicated to you" .......
In the same section is "El nino es muy dedicado". If this uses "estoy", why doesn't that example use "esta"?
"ESTAR" INDICATES A STATE OF AFFAIRS, SOMETHING TEMPORARY, WHILE "SER" REFERS TO SOMETHING INHERENT OR INTRINSICAL.
"ESTAR DEDICADO IMPLIES THAT SOMEONE TYPICALLY DEVOTES A LOT OF TIME AND EFFORT INTO SERVING SOMEONE, AND "SER DEDICADO" MEANS THAT SOMEONE WHOLEHEARTEDLY WORKS AND DEVOTES TIME AND EFFORT TO ACHIEVE OR TO DO SOMETHING.
I am completely dedicated to you
Estoy completamente dedicado a ti.
Sí es un buen uso de "dedicado" porque lleva un complemento que dice A qué está dedicado.
