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- "¡Lo siento mucho!"
84 Comments
Reflexives confuse me. Is this actually reflexive? Isnt lo just the direct object? I thought reflexive referred to verbs one does to or for oneself, and that it happens that there are a lot more of them in Spanish than in English...like when you want to say "I am going away" you say "me voy" instead of "voy," which just means "I go".
This is not reflexive, and "lo" is a direct object pronoun, not a reflexive pronoun.
The term reflexive does imply something that is done to or for oneself. Reflexives in Spanish usually mean that, but there are some borderline cases that I would call exceptions. "Me voy", which of course comes from "irse", is one such example. It's not really that the action of going takes on any additional "to oneself" aspect, it's just an idiomatic use that changes the contextual definition of "ir" from "to go (somewhere)" to "to leave" without specifying where the subject is going.
A better example of a usual reflexive would be "cepillarse" in the sentence "Yo me cepillo los dientes."
Literally, it parses as "I brush myself the teeth." Its correct English translation would be "I brush my teeth."
because that sentence "I'm sorry a lot" in English would mean that you're "sorry often" as in you are constantly screwing up and offending someone/everyone so you're constantly having to apologize for your actions or behavior.
While the sentence given here on DL "Lo siento mucho!" is meaning that you are very sorry for THIS incident of offense or that you are profusely apologizing. A big big apology! lol.
Two completely different things. So that's why :)
"lo siento" as a phrase that means "I'm sorry" I can accept... but I'm really confused about the origins of this. Siento is the yo form of "Sentar" meaning to sit or to seat, right? So the literal translation of lo siento is "I sit him" or "i sit it". How does that become, "I am sorry"? Any ideas anyone?
270
"siento" is also the first person conjugation of the verb "SENTIR" which means:
"to feel sorry/to regret"
I think "disculpe" is the usual translation of "excuse me". It's the same in English, in certain circumstances you could use either (for example if you bump into someone in a crowd), but other times they both have distinct separate meanings and one is more appropriate than the other ("lo siento maté tu gato" sounds better than "disculpe, maté tu gato").
As you said on another thread, the testing is the teaching. Ultimately it doesn't matter whether or not DL accepts a particular answer, if in your own mind the translation makes sense then you know that this is an expression you can use when you want to say "I'm so sorry" or "I'm really sorry". If you lose a heart and end up having to take the lesson again, it just means you get another chance to practise this particular lesson. The only danger is if you try to wrongly translate individual words and start to think that "mucho" means "so". (BTW Shraeye, I'm not stalking you, it's just you've recently posted on two threads I'm following and what you've said struck a cord on each occasion :-)
270
exactly! there are many possible translations of these sentences from duolingo. In most cases duolingo cannot have all possible translations in their database.
Yes, I will put in my two cents worth, too. IMOH, too much time is spent worrying about whether one loses a heart or not. Who cares!? The more hearts one loses, the more one learns. And who cares if one says "I'm very sorry" or "I am really sorry" or "I am so sorry"? I recommend that learners just keep going through the Duo lessons and do not dwell on any one sentence. CHAU.
519
It is true, I work in computer programming, I'm sure they only put in the main ones to start with, and when people report things, if they get a lot for the same thing they will add it.
Of course many words have multiple meanings, both literal and metaphorical. That's how language works. ;) If you're "feeling blue" you're not actually touching a color. If someone's "running for office" they're not literally zooming from lobby to cubicle. If you have "a lot" of curiosity (or puppies), you don't have an empty plot of land that you've filled with curiosity (or puppies).
But really, it's not much of a stretch at all for "mucho" to indicate various types of "more than."
No. "Lo" is an object pronoun, not a subject pronoun, so the verb would change but not the "lo". "We are sorry" would be "lo sentimos."
http://www.123teachme.com/spanish_verb_conjugation/sentir
lo
does not replace yo
.
yo
is a subject pronoun and means I
.
lo
is a direct object pronoun and means it
.
siento
is the first person singular conjugation of "to feel". siento
can only mean I feel
. So lo siento
is literally it I feel
, which is different from English because in English we say I feel it
.
Yes, that is what it means.
"Lo siento" literally means "I feel it".
http://www.123teachme.com/spanish_verb_conjugation/sentir
lo
is the object pronoun it
.
Because that's not how it's used. Translating between languages is much more than just substituting words. Yes, literally, "Lo siento mucho" is "I feel it very much", but it's used to mean "I am very sorry". If someone says in English "I really feel it", you don't get the sense that they just apologized to you.
I recognize this is an idiom, but am still confused why "I feel it very much " isn't accepted. "I'm sorry" conveys empathy (as does something like "I feel your pain", if sincere. ) "I apologize " conveys more a sense of regret and perhaps responsibility. What would be the correct response (in Spanish) to the doctor's question as s/he pokes a needle in your foot, "do you feel this"?
434
I put 'I really am sorry' and it wasn't accepted. It's the same as 'I am really sorry' except perhaps with more emphasis.