119 Comments
(ustedes) me van a abandonar = You are going to leave me.
(ellos) me van a abandonar = They are going to leave me.
Gracias. "Encienda la luz". Is that correct? Remember I can't do accents :)
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Si quieres usar la forma de "usted", está correcto. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/encender Por qué no puedes hacer acentos?
Last time I changed the language on the HP laptop I use for DL, it took several days and the assistance of a friend (computer technical professional) to change it back. I will NOT do it again :)
Search for "Spanish Accents Caps Lock" on Google. It's a brilliant, tiny program which uses your shift-lock key to generate the Spanish accented characters. I use it on Win 10, not sure if it works on earlier Windows versions.
Link for the above program is:
Not if you're talking about... well, perhaps, pests in your house! So you spray all of your home with peppermint oil and eagerly wait, "These mice are now definitely going to abandon me, lo sé!" :)
DL generally accepts 'will' for the more literal 'are going to', currently.
This sentence may highlight a punctuation difference between Spanish and English.
Is it ok in Spanish to join two sentences together with a comma (,) like this?
In English, you get a grammatically unacceptable run-on sentence.
The technical answer is comma splices are not grammatically correct in Spanish either. You can look at the RAE (Real Academia Española) grammar rules regarding comma usage (http://lema.rae.es/dpd/srv/search?id=SwqUf6YOtD6TfcfDSC|V1EqcYbX4D61AWBBrd) for the specifics.
EDIT: In case the above link stops working again. Go to http://lema.rae.es and click on «Diccionario panhispánico de dudas» and search for «coma».
That said, it is exceedingly common to see comma splices in Spanish. I've asked a few native speakers about this topic before and most of them said they see nothing wrong with joining two independent clauses with a comma. So, it is definitely not stigmatized in Spanish like it is in English.
Another similar case is the vocative comma. You will rarely see it in actual written Spanish, but it is technically required.
Thanks. It looks like the page moved. I've edit the original post to update the link and also added a section with instructions on how to find it should the link become invalid again.
Martin, I'll presume that you are a native English speaker, for the moment. Wait until you try your hand at translations on DL. Written Spanish has a completely different "look-feel" from written English. It's like reading William Faulkner. You can have a long paragraph made up of phrases separated by commas. It is sort of a dilemma for me because I understand what they are trying to say, but in English it is expressed so differently. Do I just translate the way it's written with weird run-on sentences and splices or do I break it into correct English sentences?
It is true that my native language is English. I am happy to have the Spanish sentences use whatever form is acceptable in written Spanish. I feel that the English translations should be written in acceptable English. In this case, DL should either use a semicolon or break this into two sentences.
Why? This is perfectly acceptable in English. The only reason commas are stigmatized in this usage is because of 19th century prescriptivist grammarians. This is the same reason why "to BOLDly GO" is considered grammatically wrong in the opening Star Trek monologue in comparison to the alternative, and more formal but less fitting, "to GO boldLY." The former having been chosen to emphasize the way in which they went and the act. Yes, it is possible to emphasize boldly in the latter as well, but it is against the natural cadence of speech, especially considering the monologue is a spoken version of a written directive, where the reader would most-likely read it with "go" emphasized had "to go boldly" been used instead of "to boldly go." Also, when heard as a whole by trained Shakespearean actor Patrick Stewart, "to BOLDly GO where NOone has GONE beFORE." is a more pleasing of a rhythm than the alternatives and also emphasizes all parts meant to be emphasized.
This is also why the stiff "About what are you talking?" is considered more correct than the normal "What are you talking about?" But if someone uses the former in normal day-to-day conversation, they would most likely be mocking someone perceived to be just as stiff as that sentence, or, they could possibly be suffering from a stroke.
This is why linguistic descriptivism is the most accurate and user friendly way to go, it's the best way to create ease of communication as opposed to the paradoxically "correct" way. It is also why my last sentence and this duolingo sentence here are not incorrect. The comma creates a more fluid sentence. There is a stop in the reader's head, but it is markedly shorter than that created by a period or a semicolon, two marks of punctuation that each serve their own rhetorical purposes different than that of the above sentence. This is why grammar pedants are harming language, not helping it...hearts in the right place or not.
Because that would be "yo sé que ellos me van a abandonar", plus you completely left off the "lo" in the English translation.
Yes, that is true, you can leave off the "que" and the "lo" in English. The problem with his translation though is the word order. The original sentence is "Me van a abandonar, lo sé", and although I know that "I know they are going to abandon me" is very similar in meaning, Duo is a computer program and so it marks you wrong if you don't translate in the correct order, which was the point I was trying to make at the time. Annoying, but it's something you just have to deal with when using Duolingo.
It doesn't seem unusual to me at all. "I know it" here is another version of "I just know it", which is fairly commonly used in English (such as when a speaker is feeling especially frustrated about something, e.g. "he's going to screw it up, I just know it!")
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Word for word correct except I used one of their hints, "desert" which I considered better than "abandon". Not accepted.
The farther I go, the more it feels like they're writing a melodramatic fantasy novel
Yet another heartbreaking sob story, courtesy of duolingo. Who knew the little green owl has had such a tragic past?
it is van (They, you all) not vas (you),, I guess Duolingo Would accept " You all " But report it anyway. it is always better to use something that doesn't exist in both conjugations
True, but it's a useful one when learning Spanish. It's typically pronounced "y'all" down there. "You" actually used to mean "y'all" in English hundreds of years ago, while "thou" meant what the singular "you" does today. Eventually the familiar singular "thou" stopped being used because the English wanted to speak all hoity-toity and upper-class like. Ironically, this led to English being one of the few languages with no status-based V/T distinctions at all; when everyone is speaking upper-class, no-one is speaking upper-class.
"Sé" usually comes from the verb "saber" meaning "to know". It can mean "taste", but it's more commonly "to know".
Nope. It's just a commonly used informal "contraction" of "going to". Duo doesn't accept it.
Woah, I hope that's not Duo the Owl talking. If so, poor Duo, has some serious issues. Might I even say, he could be paranoid too.;) :) Paranoid & low self-esteem, is no way to go through life, kids. Aww, poor baby.
That is how I felt at birth... Hey duolingo should definetly a bizzare sentences like these!!
I remembered TBBT... when they were choosing a cinema... and they end up abandoning Sheldon..
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My answer was: I know, they are going to abandon me. And it wasn't correct because "They are going to abandon me, I know it."
You have changed the voice from active to passive, and in doing so have lost the subject of the original sentence, they. In your sentence we don't know if you are being abandoned by they, your dog, your lover, your ....
"I put they are going to leave me, I know it." and Duolingo counted it wrong - even though it said "to leave" on the hint when you hover over the word. I think leave would be more common on this type of sentence.
I don't think Duo ever accepts "y'all". They seem to avoid dialectically specific stuff.
It's word order. I know it's annoying, however, it's a computer so we have to deal with it. The "I know it (lo sé)" comes after the comma and after the phrase "me van a abandonar", and so it must be this way in the translation as well.
I agree, if putting it in front I would probably leave off the "lo" in the English translation and while it may be true that Duo sometimes takes other word orders, in my experience it's easier just sticking as close to the order that they have as possible. Of course you can mix it up in actual speaking/use of the language, but Duo tends to mark it wrong when it's out of order, so I would stick to their word order at least when using the app. You could report it, however, if you'd like.
It's because you didn't match the original sentence and changed the word order. While you kept the meaning close it's not the same because, "I know they are going to leave me"="Sé que ellos me van a abandoner".
You may have an answer, but that is not how you learn a language. Language is about communication. In this case, the way I worded the response was appropriate communication, and while it wasn't the way the session developer thought it, it was accurate and should have been one of the alternate responses.
I agree, it's frustrating how Duo does not accept answers when the meanings are close, however, it is not a human checking these responses. If you continue using Duo, you'll have to get used to either constantly reporting to try and get your answers accepted or adjust to their standards. Otherwise, you can also try finding another place to learn, because you're right in the real world it's not about exactness, it's about conveying what you want to say to others.
Cannot agree more. You could express a meaning in many ways. But Duo just need you to translate it as the way it literaturally to be.
Your choice of translation loses the emotional valence of the thought. I believe holding it in place, after a comma, shows it is a subordinate clause that reflects upon the prior idea. Putting it first, makes it sound like merely a bit of information that you possess. ( I think this is why professors of literature are particular about which translation of Dante the class will use! Also, the apt phrase of "lost in translation" is driven home in this lesson.)
No. "lo sé" is present tense. "sé" is the present tense conjugation of "saber". "I knew it"=lo sabía
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Why is leave me not accepted as the same as abandon me. In english it i accepted
