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- "¿A quién estás viendo?"
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The translation given here, "Whom are you seeing?" is not a natural expression in English. If we were to say "Who are you seeing?" it would mean "Who are you going out with?" or, "Who are you dating?" Can viendo be used in this sense? We would never use 'whom' in this way. Whom is usually preceded by 'to', or 'in', e.g. "in whom can I trust", or "to whom shall I give this". Even so, it is hardly ever used.
I might translate this sentence as: Whom (who) do you see? rather than the progressive "are you seeing". The translation given- whom are you seeing?- is grammatically correct, since whom, and not who, is used whenever the person in question is the direct object (not just the object of a preposition as in "to whom, by whom, etc). It does sound strange to my American English brain, because we tend to only use who in this instance. In any case, if it were talking about dating someone, the verb would be salir, not ver (Con quién estás saliendo?).
Thanks, elanaknt. It just brings home the fact that we cannot always translate literally from one language to another without losing some of the sense. I think the most accurate (and natural) translation of this sentence would be "Who do you see?"
I thought that the more accurate translation would be "who are you looking at?" because "estás viendo" is the present progressive.
I agree, especially with the "A..." at the beginning of the sentence, I think Who are you looking at? is a more natural translation in the absence of the context. Although Who are you seeing? in the sense 'Who are you going out with? could also be correct depending, again, on the context.
Your are right, neiht20; the verb "ver" in Spanish is not used in the context of dating. Thank you for the clarification.
Well, while I agree that "who are you seeing" can mean "who are you going out with", I think that it is something that only works in English. I don't think "¿A quién estás viendo?" would be used in the context of dating someone, the verb "salir" can sometimes be used in the context of dating. "ver" is usually used to mean literally having someone in your view, at least, that's my understanding.
I believe that phrase would still require "whom" because in answering the question the answer would be "I'm looking at him". "Him" being the "whom" or "Her"
The verb "ver" is used to talk about dating someone, too. Of course "salir" is much more used but "ver" is also correct
Really? Can you show me proof of that? I'm not saying you're wrong, I just couldn't find someone who used "ver" in that context nor could I find an article/translation that said "ver" could be used in that context, but just because I couldn't find it doesn't mean it's not true. I just want to see it for myself.
I am a native spanish speaker, and how I said "ver" is used for dating someone, too
example
"Es inevitable sentirse triste y deprimido. Si tu ex novia se esta viendo con otra persona" http://comorecuperaraminovia.org/como-recuperar-a-mi-novia-si-esta-saliendo-con-otro/
"para recuperar a un ex (si él está viendo a alguien más) es darles tiempo"
http://www.comorecuperaraunex.net/mi-ex-ya-esta-saliendo-como-puedo-recuperar-a-mi-ex/
http://forum.wordreference.com/threads/im-seeing-someone-romantic.991695/?hl=es
It is worth mentioning that verse con alguien is for colloquial usage only. The second example is just an Anglicism.
Isn't this translation what people called 'higher' or 'old/older' English?
Actually 'whom' is technically supposed to be used instead of 'who' as an object in all cases, i.e. verbs and prepositions. "Whom are you dating?" etc. is correct because 'whom' is the object of the verb 'dating,' despite its appearance at the beginning of the sentence.
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You're almost right. 'Whom' is for objects, whereas 'who' was reserved for subjects. Nowadays, 'who' has taken over the role of 'whom' with direct objects, with 'whom' only being used with prepositions, and then only in formal English.
I—an English major—would have to agree. I think the "who" "whom" confusion is one of the reasons so many people now say, "The person that....." when they should say "The person who...." Drive me nuts.
Thank you so much for getting that preposition rule in there. It is clearly the easiest way to decide when to use "whom". And that is why I am so very annoyed with DL for offering us the whom but not putting it after the preposition. Yes, I am a grammar nerd with a fondness for prepositions.
I thought it meant "Who are you watching?" which is very different from your suggested meaning. Another thing about "whom".. I once taught reading to 12 years in a school. All of them when they came across "whom" didn't recognize it. It is on its way out of at least spoken English.
I agree, Tomk123. 'Whom' is very rarely used in conversational English nowadays. I think 'Who are you watching' is a much better translation than 'Whom are you seeing', although the lack of context does make it harder to speculate.
Whom is literally the object form of the subject Who. It's not grammatically erroneous to use it here at all.
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I disagree that it is not natural. Uncommon, yes, but there are many of us who use this kind of construction with nary a second thought.
Yeah, the same people who say "nary a second thought" in public with nary a realization that everyone else around them is rolling their eyes
Actually, "whom are you seeing" is grammatically correct in English and would mean the same thing. "Whom" is just falling out of anything but formal usage.
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It's not unnatural, just archaic, or, at best, extremely formal. 'Whom' refers to direct objects when used without a preposition, so it's use here is correct.
In the modern vernacular, 'whom' is practically dead, however, though it still hangs around in zombie form with prepositions in some varieties of formal English.
I have read the comments below, and I guess I am old-school. This sentence should be translated as "At whom are you looking?" ("Who" is not acceptable). Possibly one could say Whom are you looking at, but I think it is poor English, notwithstanding the link below.
At whom are you looking is clearly a correct answer; they accept "whom are you looking at" so they should accept the more grammatically correct version i.e. "at whom". I did report that
Having a preposition at the end of a sentence doesn't make it less grammatically correct, there is no rule against it.
DUO did accept the "whom are you looking at" version which is annoying since it is more correct and sounds better to use, "at whom are you looking," which they did not accept. Oh well....
FredHasson: If you were in the pub with the guys, and one of them was eyeing up a pretty girl, would you say to him "At whom are you looking?" I don't think so!
You are right with your example of when not to use the sentence. But, suppose you are standing on an upper balcony with a friend, looking down on a crowd below, and your friend is staring intently into the middle of the crowd. Don't you think the sentence would then be appropriate?
We may think that many of Duo's example sentences sound strange. But, there is probably a context that can be found for all of them.
Glazewg: I'm assuming you were directing your question at me, in which case I reply that we are at cross purposes here. If I was sitting an English grammar exam, I would definitely use the expression 'At whom are you looking?' But if I was with a friend, in any situation, I would never say that, as it is never used in colloquial speech. I would say "Who are you looking at?"
My question was not, "What would you say?" It was, "Don't you think the sentence would be appropriate?" What you or I might say, does not make this sentence any less appropriate, or natural. As a matter of fact, it's quite natural for many.
I agree, 'At whom ..' is proper English and a direct translation of 'A quien...; DL just missed this one.
Heard it as "aqui en estas viendo" which makes no sense, but was accepted because duo thought I forgot + added a space - "a quien estas viendo"
Certain pronouns, like quién, require the personal "a". http://spanish.about.com/cs/grammar/a/personal_a.htm
Ah, much appreciated. I had learned about the personal a (in these various comment threads) but I never realized it would/could go ahead of an interrogative pronoun at the beginning of a sentence.
Would it be correct in Spanish to add "mañana" to the end of this sentence in order to ask "who are you seeing tomorrow?" Or would it need to be "vas a ver"?
Yes, you'd have to use a different tense ("vas a ver" would probably be fine) because when you use the present progressive (estás viendo) you're referring to an action that's happening at that very moment.
in DL it normally just does not count, wether I use capital letters or not ... Only here it is marked as only "almost correct", if I write "a quién ...." Why is that?
This question corrected me from "At whom are you looking?" To "Whom are you looking at?" Which is just... prepositions.... ugh...
'Who are you seeing?' is correct English here. 'To whom' does not make sense, although it would do so with a different verb...
Is a Gerund in English a word that ends with -ing? I am a native speaker and I did not know that their was something called a Gerund until 5 minutes ago.
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A gerund is a verb ending in -ing when used as a noun. "Shopping" is a gerund when you say "I like shopping", but NOT when you say "I am shopping for groceries."
29 November 2014: I just did a quick 'Google Translate' on this and the translation came up 'Who are you watching'. I'm going to go back to the exercise and see if Duo accepts this answer.
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Google Translate is crowd sourced definitions, meaning that the translations are user-defined through majority votes.
I consider it a well-intentioned but overly optimistic failed experiment. As you can tell from the discussions here on duo, the gestalt mind understands neither English or Spanish very well, yet has no shortage of opinions about what is correct. I expect the majority of Google Translate users is drawn from this same crowd of highly opinionated beginners, since anyone with any actual ability with a language quickly realizes how bad Google Translate is, especially at basic translations like this.
Great comment! Here's a lingot. Couldn't agree more with your comments on how well the mass population understands English (or Spanish), but is ready to unload their ill informed opinions. I'm certainly no grammarian, but I would really love it if (especially Americans, like me) would actually try their best to learn proper English, rather than just accepting what the crowd around them has to say!
And, to all those WHO think "WHOM" is on the way out and shouldn't be used, all I can say is "Tch, tch, tch!" as I wave my index finger "to and fro." :)
(And, just so folks reading this "get it", my last phrase, above, is an example of how older words or phrases are still properly in use today) :)
"Whom are you seeing in the failing light of youthful memories?" Just an example!
I answered "At whom are you looking?", but was counted incorrect and shown "Whom are you looking at?" as the correct answer. Do I need to explain this?
This level stops although i gave the right answer. Is says fault while the answer given is the same as i gave. Strange !!
I was marked wrong for saying, "At whom are you looking?" I know it sounds awkward, but in English it is grammatically correct. I was taught all my life not to end a sentence with a preposition.
The more normal thing to say, grammatically correct or not, would be "Who are you looking at?"
I also think that "At whom are you looking" should be correct, and that is what I used. Besides, looking is one of the hints.
