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El radio is the physical electronic device. La radio is the transmission of the radio. When you are listening, you are listening to the broadcast (la radio)
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Thank you! Excellent, concise explanation. Have a lingot!
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It is the same as in Portuguese. The radio (device) is masculine, but the radio (station) is feminine. I think this is because when you say radio as feminine, the word station (which is feminine) is implicit in the context.
I think radio was short for radiofonía, which has and "a" at the end and is feminine... :-)
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my dictionary says 1) radio (masculine) = radius or radium 2) radio (feminine) = radio. Isn't that odd. Are there other words where gender varies based on meaning?
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Oh yes. Quite a few. http://spanish.about.com/od/nouns/a/double_gendered.htm
There are quite a few other words that break the masculine/feminine el/la rule. e.g. El sofa, la mano etc
Yes, true, look at my comment where I mention "la moto" as well as "la foto". Interesting how this happens!
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Definitely is interesting! But I guess it's like with English, things get shortened over time
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Why is the correct spanish sentence not: "Ella oye a la radio en la mañana"? Where "a" should serve as "to". I would think so as other sentences have reported: "veo a" or "oyen a". Thank you!
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I think this would be because oye more translates as 'listens to' more so than just 'listen'. Therefore, 'oye a' would translate as 'listen to to'.
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I'm pretty sure that oír translates to hearing (voices, sounds), and escuchar to listening to something actively (and comprehending) ... I think this sentence rather means that she hears the radio in the morning, but she's not really listening
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at least one of my dictionaries gives "oir la radio" as a common usage. It also has "Oyeme bien, no vuelvas a hacerlo" as another usage- so it means listen well.
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This confuses me because previously we were taught that "veo" requires "a/al" even though there is no translation for that in English :/ we "listen to" the radio but we don't "see to" someone. O.o
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I think the a you are thinking of actually has nothing to do with the verb, but is actually what it called a 'personal a'. It is used in sentences to indicate if a person (or sometimes animal) is the direct object or the subject of a sentence.
EX. Veo las fresas (I see the strawberries) - the 'personal a' is not needed
Veo a la mujer (I see the woman) - the 'personal a' is needed to indicate 'la mujer' as the direct object.
With oír, "Él oye a la niña"(He hears the girl) and "Él oye una flauta" (He hears the flute)
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When is "a" used to indicate the subject of the sentence?
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The quick answer is never, but its not quite that simple.
The sentence, A él le gustan las fresas", will translate into English as, He likes the strawberries*. In this case, "a" comes before our subject "He (él)", but this is only because in Spanish this sentence is structured differently. While in English "He" is the subject (He likes the strawberries), in the Spanish sentence "él" is actually the indirect object (loosely translated "The strawberries are likable to him).
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"Gustar" is a reverse construction verb. In "A él le gustan las fresas", "las fresas" is the subject and "le" is the indirect object while "a él" provides more clarification on "le" (it could also be "a ella"; in cases such as "a mi me gusta", "a mi" provides emphasis on "me"). In English, it would be the other way around with "he" as the subject and "the strawberries" as the object. Even so, I wouldn't say that "a" is used to indicate the subject of a sentence. I think it's clear once someone understands the reverse construction verb that, as in the example given, "las fresas" is the subject and "le" is the object. I think that stating something even slightly incorrect in a grammar explanation will only lead to much more confusion later on.
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Simply because "a" translates as "to" in some cases doesn't mean that this preposition is always used in the same way as "to" is in English. For example, "escucho música" means "I listen to music". My grammar reference has more detailed explanations as well as a list of what "a" is used for, but I haven't read it yet. From a quick glance at it though, it doesn't seem that "hears/listens to the radio" falls under any of the uses of "a".
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I said 'she hears the radio in the morning' and it was considered correct, but another correct translation was 'she listens' ... wouldn't that be escucha, or is oye also used to mean listen??
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i was gonna ask the same thing. there is an online radio that i know which uses "escucha"...any native speaker comments?
Radio was short for << la radiofonía >> years ago. It therefore follows the normal feminine rule because it is an an abbreviation for a noun which had an "a" at the end and is feminine... :-) Another example is << la moto >> because it comes from "la motocicleta", or << la foto >> from "la fotografía". I am told there are many more....
I thought that Manana meant tomorrow.. do it also mean the morning depending on the context?
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My answer was wrong because I wrote "...in the mornings". How would the Spanish phrase differ if it did mean in the mornings?
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You see that the sentence has (...en la mañana) This implies that it is in THE morning because of the singular 'la'. The Spanish phrase would be, "Ella oye la radio en las mañanas." You see that by adding an 's' to 'la' and 'mañana' makes it the plural, "mornings". I hope this helped.
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I wonder why Duolingo didn't accept 'She listens to the broadcast in the morning'? I chose broadcast because I saw the 'la'.
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I was dinged for saying "radio" instead of "the radio." "La radio" in the feminine refers to the broadcast medium, which is usually just called "radio" in English without an article.
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Yes, "mañana" means both tomorrow and morning. It's less confusing than you'd think. It's easy to remember, just say: mañana en la mañana = tomorrow morning. Also, mañana por la mañana.
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She listens the radio in the morning was wrong....If so then Duo should not give the option listens at all. The hints are very confusing.
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Just listen to your own sentence. Is this correct grammar of English? You are supposed to think about what you are translating. If you add a 'to' in front of 'listens' in your sentence, You would have been correct.
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Yep...thanks. Duo failed me several times attempting to add an "extra word" to a sentence so it makes sense in English. So I think I might have avoided the "to".
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Okay smart people. Can someone tell me why the reader pronounces "oye" like "oyea" at normal speed, but like "ojay" on turtle speed? I suspect the former is correct.
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I used present continuous: "She's listening the radio in the morning". Should not that be correct as well?
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No, because that would be "Ella está oyendo la radio en la mañana." It's a different verb tense. :)
