"Do you sleep on the bed?"
Translation:¿Duermes en la cama?
105 Comments
From what I've learnt so far, 'en' would be 'sleep in' and 'sobre' would be 'sleep on'. Will need advisement.
I thought the same thing. Also in English, very very rarely do you sleep "on" the bed.
This one definitely needs fixing
Well, technically you sleep on the mattress. You cannot sleep IN the mattress. However, you can and do sleep in the bed. Especially when you consider various types of bed, e.g. four-posters... so, sleeping IN the bed is actually more correct than sleeping ON the bed, and the latter generally implies that you did not get inside the bedding. Still, saying "on" instead of "in" has become acceptable to say.
So both are correct, but IN is more correct.
but you can "sleep in bed" or "sleep on the bed" right? they are both correct, right?
In American English, at least, "sleep on the bed," would seem like you were going to lie on top of the blanket rather than under it.
If you said, "Get on the bed," it would be interpreted as something entirely different than, "Get in the bed."
"Get on the bed," would be like saying not to pull the blankets and/or sheets down but to just get on top of them.
"Get in bed," definitely means to pull the covers down and get under them and lie down. It's what you say to your kids when they are stalling and trying to put off going to sleep! LOL! "Get in bed you little beast! It's bedtime!"
(Yes, of course there are exceptions. How about we try not to be overly pedantic and try not to confuse people who aren't native English speakers for the sake of showing everyone how smart we are?)
Why did it suggest "consultas la almohada" for sleeps on when it was just "duerme" are you freaking kidding me?
This was a very difficult sentence. The hints/suggestions were more confusing than helpful to me.
¿Duermes en la cama? is okay, because the YOU in english can mean YOU, one person, or YOU, like you guys. So yeah, there is a problem here... either option is fine.
I don't understand. Did it count that wrong before? It is true that without context, this could be either duerme/duermes (you singular) or duermen (you plural). I would think that without context, the most natural assumption would be that you by default is talking to one person, but maybe that's just me.
I need some help - I did not select ¿Duermen ustedes en la cama? as a correct translation and got it wrong. To me the question of "Do you sleep on the bed?" is singular versus, Do all of you sleep on the bed? and selected only ¿Duermes en la cama? I took Duermen ustedes as the formal plural version of to sleep and it did not seem to fit the english we were asked to translate from.
In English you don't necessarily have to say “all" to make it plural, although that would definitely help alleviate confusion. Context is sometimes the only way to tell if “you" is singular or plural.
I think it feels natural to assume that you out of context is singular, but that doesn't mean “you" is always singular without “all" being explicit.
The answer they put for it is Duermen ustedes en la cama. "Duermen ustedes" is really 'you all sleep', so that wouldn't be the correct translation, since we are talking to one person, "you" to be exact. The correct answer would be "Duermes en la cama?"
My source is my sister. She is Colombian and fluent in spanish, since she was born there. The only reason why I'm on this is because I'm only fluent in spanglish (speak bad spanish) and I was born in America. From the lack of my mom not speaking spanish to me.
“You" doesn't have to have “all" stated explicitly to be plural. It requires context. I agree that it feels more natural to assume that without context, you is singular, but that doesn't mean it can't be plural.
I agree! I used "al" and was marked wrong. Seems to me that it should be accepted. Anybody else (maybe a native Spanish speaker) here able to tell us why "al" is wrong but "en la" is correct?
Because "al cama" would be a contraction of "a el cama". But obviously, "cama" is feminine, so it would have to be "a la cama".
And then, "a" means "to" etc . "Do you sleep to the bed?"
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Several people have asked why "en" and not "sobre." Would someone knowledgeable please advise. Is it simply that you typically do sleep under the covers and thus in the bed and not simply on top of it? Thanks!
The way I understand, "sobre" means about or over, and "en" means in or on. In situations like this I remember "ponla en la mesa" which means put something "on" a table versus "in", but I still use "en" because I don't want to say "put it over/about the table." Am I making any sense?
There is ambiguity between "you" and "you all". If the translation specified " do you all sleep on the bed" then there would be no problem.
In UK English, 'you' can be both singular and plural. Is it not the same in other English-speaking countries? For me, there was no ambiguity.
Here in the Midwest (USA) we really don't use "you" as plural and we usually don't say "you all". Unfortunately we do tend to use "yous" and "you guys". Someone on here stated that Ustedes meant you all. That helped me greatly in understanding why and how to use verbs with it in Spanish.
I'm in the Midwest, probably more west than you, judging by your use of “yous". We do use “you" as both singular and plural here, but it feels more natural to assume “you" is singular without context. However, it is both singular and plural.
This was the first time in history that i've had more than 2 choices... I don't know how I feel about this. I'm going to go sit in a corner.
So why am I wrong if I said, " ustedes duermes en la cama"? Besides >YOU< being understood by both "ustedes" &* "duermes"
make sure it's the right conjugation of dormir- you can say "tú duermes" or "ustedes duermen"
I have a question regarding the proper verb/verbs- I wrote: "¿Haces duermes en la cama?" for "Do (you, singular) sleep..., but Duolingo did not like "Haces". Am I being redundant; is the "Do" implied in Spanish?
It's sort of implied. "Do you" is not really what you ask; it just says that the sentence is a question. "Question: You sleep on the bed?" Spanish does that with an opening question mark: "¿You sleep on the bed?" So, the part that you translate is just the "You sleep on the bed" part. Or if you want: For a question "Do" is translated as "¿".
I keep messing up on whether or not to put an S at the end of a word. How would I tell the difference?
If you're addressing someone you know, someone familiar, then you're using the grammatical second person. If you were to use the personal pronoun you would use 'tú' in Spanish, and regardless of whether you actually said that, the conjugation would normally get an -s.
[If you speak a dialect of English that still uses informal thou, then this is that same person. Just that thou gets '-th', and tú get '-s`.]
It's the "¿". "Do you" is the English way of saying "Here comes a question!" And "¿" is the Spanish way to do the same.
¿Duermes en la cama?
I thought that was right... but I guess ¿Duerme en la cama? is also right if using el, ella, ud. form
Well, with an acute accent it would be "Vos dormís", which would be the second person singular of the present indicative: "You sleep". However, I would say that "vos" is only used in the South of South America. For the rest of us it's "Tú duermes".
I think what happens is when you sleep on the bed as in the blankets it is "en" but when you sleep on the bed as in above it it is "sobre". Does that help at all or am I just pathetically trying to prove I even know a thong about Spanish?
I don't know whether you are right or wrong (we need a native for that) but it does lead to an incite - "She goes to bed" could also mean that she sleeps on the bed which is made on the floor or somewhere else with proper bedding, bed rest and pillows and all. . .
Ok can someone help I've never understood when to use no/na/en. I know what they mean but never when to use them.
I got it right with "Duerme en la cama?", but doen't that mean he/she? Why is that also correct?
"Duermes" is the conjugation for second person singular - "tú": You familiar. [Actually, "you familiar" is really "thou", but if that doesn't mean anything to you, just forget it.]
"Duerme" is the conjugation for third person singular - "él", "ella": he, she. This conjugation is also used for you formal, as a sign of respect.
So, it's "(tú) duermes" or "(usted) duerme".
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Can someone explain the use of hacer here? I included it in my answer and lost a heart. I have encountered this before and mess up every time. Why is it included in Spanish but omitted in the translation to English?
'Tú' is not the same as 'usted'. They are both used to address a person, but not the same person. 'Tú' is informal; you'd probably address your friend as 'tú'. 'Usted' is formal.; you'd probably address a mayor as 'usted'.
Of course, when you're translating from English, without context, you're free to choose either. However, with your choice also comes a difference in conjugation. Since 'tú' is second person, the verb conjugation gets an '-es': 'Duermes'. Though 'usted' ought to be second person as well, to show respect you use the third person conjugation, which only gets '-e': 'Duerme'.
[This respect thing is sometimes done in English by addressing a person by his function. E.g., one might ask the mayor: "Is the mayor willing to address our pupils?", to avoid the informality of "Hey, you: Speech!" Here, though you are addressing the mayor, you're using "is" because you address him by his function. Spanish can shorten that by using 'usted', and since that's easier, uses it more often.]
I need some help. How do you determine if an object is masculine or feminine?
You don't; you just learn them by heart. However, there are some endings that will give you a hint. The one valid for the largest group of words is: Words ending in "o" are masculine and words ending in "a" are feminine. However, this is not always true, so you still need to learn the exceptions by heart. E.g. "dia" is masculine.
Im more concerned as to why the suggested translation gave something so far off of what we have been learning in this section
The exercise called for "on" the bed not "in" the bed. In English you seldom say on the bed.
I tried ¿Tú duermes encima de la cama? and it said I was wrong. "Encima de" is a preposition which means on top, on top of, or on. Encima de has many "textbook" definitions. What do you guys think?
Considering that they really meant "in the bed", "encima de" is a bit too much "on top". It's more "over", not touching, not a part of.
So did I, originally. But apparently, that's cámara, at it applies only to specific types of chambers.
Did I do something wrong? It told me I was wrong for saying Tu, which means you and I even put the accent mark. It said I should have done Usted, the formal you term. Why does it matter in this case. There was nothing implying that it was speaking to a formal person. Can anyone explain this?
It's not just a matter of "tú" or "usted": They are also conjugated differently.It's "tú duermes" or "usted duerme". I expect that if you were to try "tú duerme", Duolingo might tell you you should have used "usted" with that.
Yes, "en" would be "in". But that's a detail that doesn't translate well between languages. There are always cases where the word for "in" in one language doesn't translate to the word for "in" in the other language, and vv.. "I sleep on the couch." translates to Duermo en el sofá." "Do you sleep on the couch?" - "¿Duermes en el sofá?"
Now, in the question here, they used "bed" rather than "couch". That's a bit dodgy, because a bed is apparently considered taking up room in English, rather than just (floor) space, thus you sleep "in" the bed, rather than "on" it, But ignore that part, and accept that they intended to ask the same thing as above: "Do you sleep on/in the bed?" - "¿Duermes en la cama?"
Well, if you sleep in a hammock hanging over your bed, then you could indeed sleep encima - over - your bed. But without hammock it probably doesn't work that way.
isn't this verb reflexive? Wouldn't there be a "te" before the verb instead of tu?
It's also reflexive, but then it means something like "Falling asleep". Unless you want to stress that you fall asleep on the bed, but wake up on the floor, you probably don't need the reflexive form here.
The print in my computer does not distinguish between a dot over the i and the accent, so when just one of them appears I don't Know which one of them it is. sorry.
On the bed means on top of the blankets. In bed means under the blankets. "They sleep on beds" however means we are talking about the sleeping habits of a group of people (just to add another nuance).
What's the difference between te vs tu? What's wrong with "tu duermes en la cama"?
"Tú" is the subject pronoun you (similar to I or he). "Tu" is the possessive adjective your (similar to mine or his). "Te" is the object pronoun you (similar to me or him).
Apart from capitalisation and punctuation I don't think anything is wrong with "tu duermes en la cama". Why do you ask?
I put "tu duerme en la cama" & it marked me wrong. It said i should've used "su" instead of "tu" can someone please explain to me the difference? I thought "su" is meant in third person like I'm talking about someone else, like "she/he"
Correction, it said i should've used "se" instead of "tu". But why is "tu" incorrect?
"¿Tu duerme en la cama?" is "Your sleeps in the bed?" You'd need the form with the accent here: "Tú" ("you"). That's the informal form of you, but it is conjugated differently as well: "¿Tú duermes en la cama?"; or for short: "¿Duermes en la cama?"
It so happens that dormir can also be used reflexively: dormirse. (fall asleep). Hence, Duolingo doesn't immediately protest when you're using a pronoun different from "tú", but first checks whether there's a way that a different pronoun would fit. It sees you're using "duerme", which is the form to use with "usted". So, it says: Well, you can have a an extra pronoun there, but rather than "tu" it should be the object pronoun that goes with usted: "se". (Then had you tried "¿Se duerme en la cama?", it would probably have noticed that now the translation was wrong: "Do you(formal) fall asleep on the bed?")
The translation offered is incorrect. I put "La cama" initially but the drop down selection stated el.
If the drop down selection states "el", then the drop down selection is the incorrect part: Cama is feminine: La cama.
It isn't "se duerme", unless you want to say "You fall asleep". And if you do, it's only "se duerme" when it's clear that you're using formal address. That is: You are using "usted", but can only leave that out if that's clear, as the same words could also be talking about él, or ella. (he or she). Otherwise, you couldn't leave out "usted".
I don't see how it could ever be "tu duermes", but "tú duermes" would be fine for "you sleep".
