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- "¿Tu madre te compra la ropa?"
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I would say so, IMO the best translation is "Does your mother buy your clothes?". If you omit the article, it would sound more like a question you would ask a kid who's wearing ragged clothes.
1041
Agree. DL accepts "Does your mother buy your clothes?" and that translation both clears up the kid-wearing-ragged-clothes ambiguity and makes the insult (at least in the US) more apparent.
- 1212
¿Tu madre te compra la ropa? = Does your mom buy your clothes? (she pretty much buys all your clothes)
¿Tu madre te compra ropa? = Does your mom buy you clothes? (occasionally)
Duo's sentence translates to Does your mother buy your clothes?
We sometimes use [indirect object pronoun] + [article] with possessions, just like we do with parts of the body:
- Te veo la cabeza → I see your head (lit. "I see you the head")
- Te compro ropa → I buy you clothes
- Te compro la ropa → I buy your clothes (lit. "I buy you the clothes")
Without the article, it's more like for [someone] rather than [someone]'s:
- ¿Tu madre te compra la ropa?
"Does your mother buy your clothing?"- ¿Tu madre te compra ropa?
"Does your mother buy you clothing?"
Duo's sentence translates to Does your mother buy your clothes?
Except the actual translation given for the lesson is:
Translation: Does your mother buy you clothes?
Which is a different question (the one you point out as being the translation of tu madre te compra ropa).
What about "your mother buys you clothes?" Techically does this also not suffice?
Good question! I'm guessing - but this is just a guess - that it can be interpreted both ways, and in conversation one could infer the meaning from context, intonation, and emphasis. Reading this as a standalone sentence, and without hearing how it is said, makes it very difficult to be certain of the nuances.
- 430
Jeff your question highlights this anomally. What is the point of Duo teaching us that madre means mother and mama means mom if they are both accepted with no distinction between the two.
What's the difference between the translation: "Does your mother buy you clothes?" and "Is your mother buying you clothes?" Only context?
"Does your mother buy you clothes?"
Is she in the habit of buying you clothes?
"Is your mother buying you clothes?"
Is she in the process of buying you them right now?
or
Does she plan to buy them for you?
It is not very common in Spanish to use the plural form of ropa. You won't find it in everyday speech.
Really? I cant get a correct answer for "does your MOM buy you clothes" ... ??? smh
I'm having a problem with comprar/compra, please help me. Don't know w which is correct.
"Comprar" is the infinitive "to buy".
"Compra" is the 3rd person singular "he/she/it buys".
https://www.123teachme.com/spanish_verb_conjugation/comprar
He said: 'Tu madre es te compra la ropa?' Why 'es'? It should not be there.
You are correct. The "es" should not be there. Next time something like that happens, flag it and report a problem with the audio.
- 111
"te compras" does not appear in the sentence. I think that would mean "you buy yourself" or "you are buying yourself" as in "te compras un vestido" (You are buying yourself a dress).
Yes. In Spanish, the object pronoun (direct and indirect) must come before the verb.
Yo te amo = I love you (direct object--who is loved?)
Tu madre te compra la ropa = Your mother buys you clothes (indirect object--who were the clothes bought for?)
However, "te compras" is "you buy yourself". Pay attention to the verb conjugation.
Te - "for/to you." Compra - "he/she/it/usted buys." So yes, the sentence could be translated as either "Does your mother buy you clothes?" or "Does your mother buy clothes for you?"
No. "Tu madre te compra" is literally "your mother buys (for) you".
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/26408018?comment_id=36473360
Actually, Tierene's translation is better than Duolingo's.
In Spanish, you can have a direct object and use the indirect object to indicate the possessor, especially with parts of the body: Ella me lavó el pelo (She washed my hair), but it also works in other situations, like this one.
So this sentence can be translated as: Does your mother buy the clothes for you? or Does your mother buy your clothes?
If you want to say Does your mother buy you [some] clothes?, then you would say ¿Tu madre te compra ropa? (no la there).
That's the object pronoun "you".
Does your mother buy you clothes?
¿Tu madre te compra la ropa?
The conjugation of a verb depends on the subject of the verb; that is, the person performing the action.
With comprar here, the person doing the action (buying the clothes) is "tu madre"/"your mother", not "tú"/"you". So we need the 3rd person "she buys" conjugation (which is "[ella] compra"), not the 2nd person "you buy" conjugation ("[tú] compras").
I guess that could be correct too, but we could also use the ir a future, especially if it's not a very immediate action:
¿Tu madre te va a comprar ropa?
Yes, absolutely.
When you have a verbal periphrasis (conjugated verb + impersonal form), you can use those pronouns before the conjugated verb or attached to the impersonal form (an infinitive or a gerundio).
- ¿Vas a ducharte? = ¿Te vas a duchar?
- ¿Estás usándolo? = ¿Lo estás usando?
Why would it be "your mother buys your clothes" rather than your mother buys YOU clothes"?
That's valid. If it's rejected, make sure you spelled everything right, then flag it and report "My answer should be accepted."
We can't actually see your answer when you post a comment here. Next time if you copy your answer into your comment as well we can look it over and help figure out the issue!
Inconsistency. First 'compra ropa' was accepted. Then 'compra la rope' was required. My thought was that 'ropa' is generic and 'la rope' is specific.
It would help to know exactly what your entire answer was. For example, it's "ropa", not "rope".
- 1041
ocu, sometimes if you have a typo you'll see it as correct--time after time. If you will copy and paste your answer into your post, someone in the discussion may be able to help you spot what Duo didn't like.
can we say tu madre te compra su ropa, insted of, tu madre te compra la ropa
No, you could not use su ropa, because su is formal but in the rest of your sentence you're using tu/te, which is informal.
(I am not sure if it absolutely has to be la ropa though or if it would also be okay to use tu ropa).
Generally Spanish uses a definite article instead of a possessive one when the ownership has already been established, but I've seen Duo accept tu in examples like this, so you could probably use it.
However as Felicity said, you can't use su as that's the usted article.
- 430
That is using past tense. Did your mother buy you clothes would be Tu madre te compró la ropa.
