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- "Do you sleep on the bed?"
"Do you sleep on the bed?"
Translation:¿Duermes en la cama?
105 Comments
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.
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?)
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.
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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?"
2590
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!
122
So why am I wrong if I said, " ustedes duermes en la cama"? Besides >YOU< being understood by both "ustedes" &* "duermes"
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 "¿".
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`.]
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It's the "¿". "Do you" is the English way of saying "Here comes a question!" And "¿" is the Spanish way to do the same.
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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".
"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".
1203
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.]
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.
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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.
41
So did I, originally. But apparently, that's cámara, at it applies only to specific types of chambers.
41
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.
41
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?"
41
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.
41
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.
360
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.
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"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?
41
"¿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?")
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If the drop down selection states "el", then the drop down selection is the incorrect part: Cama is feminine: La cama.
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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".