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- "Minha cabeça dói tanto."
31 Comments
374
Quick note: the word 'cabeça' in Portuguese and 'cabbage' in English are related. The word 'cabbage' originally comes from the Normand word 'caboche', meaning 'head', so in a way 'head of cabbage' means 'head of head'. :-)
Good question. I was wondering the same thing. I'm guessing that "machucar" means that something hurts something else (is an active verb), whereas "doer" is a passive verb (my head isn't hurting anything). As botas machucam = The boots hurt. The boots are hurting my feet. The boots themselves don't feel any pain.
Anyway, this is just a guess. I don't know for sure.
That's pretty much it; machucar implies action - usually physical, but not necessarily so; doer implies reaction - something hurts.
You just forgot to mention the reflexive use of "machucar" (Eu me machuquei - I hurt myself [past simple]); in this case you hurt yourself, but there's still an agent-patient relationship at work (Who/What did the subject hurt?) that's entirely missing from "doer".
Olá Luis. Thank you so much for your quick and very helpful response! Obrigada!!
That's actually the English text shown when you're asked to translate into Portuguese. I suggested "hurts so" for 'doi tanto', but it wasn't accepted.
But is that correct in English though? It sounds really strange to say just "hurts so" without the "much".
Well, so maybe Duolingo isn't that bad after all? ;-) I agree that "hurts so badly" or even "so much" is better, indeed! (I was just experimenting with Duolingo to see what the system would accept.)
In the US you would never hear that expression used, but you would in a British film or book.
- 63
I'm not really sure. For me it sounds really good (and that's actually the first possible translation that came to my mind when I saw the question), but I think it's a little more informal. But in my opinion, it still sounds right and I believe it's a good translation to "minha cabeça dói tanto" (especially, if you're emphasizing it, like, with exclamation points or something like that).
Can tanto translate to "too much' or "so much"? It seems inconsistent and I lost a heart for "too much"
Well, I think it depends on the context and intonation. So it should also be accepted.
- 63
I think the best (but not only) translation for "TOO much" would be "demais." And that's because "demais" basically means something that's like waaaaayy more (satisfactory, unpleasant, painful, or anything else) than normal, you know? So after all, I think "demais" is more than "tanto," just like "too much" sound more than "so much."
Why does 'tanto' come after the noun here while it's before the noun in "I like my mother so much"? ('Eu gosto tanto da minha mãe', I think was the sentence...or was it it 'gosto tanta da'?)
Could this be written in the same way, like "It hurts so much, my head"?
So I guess all that's left to ask about is the "tanto" in 'Eu gosto tanto da minha mãe'. Why doesn't "mãe" dictate that it's 'tanta' being used?
It would be "tanta" if it was related to the word "mãe", which is feminine. In this case, "tanto" is related to the verb, then it is always in its base form (masculine, singular)
- 150
"It hurts so" or "My head hurts so." Perfectly good English. "Much" is common but not necessary.
