"I want a fun vacation."
Translation:Yo quiero unas vacaciones divertidas.
67 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
Because that's how Spanish says "vacation," just like we have some words that are always plural: (eye)glasses, pants, scissors, shenanigans.
So, is unas used because vacation is being spoken of in general rather than as a specific time? (I.e. why unas rather than las?)
iSugar - unos & unas do indeed mean "some" however in this sentence, "UNAS" means "A" as in one of something.
That something is "A" "Vacation". (unas vacaciones) because vacation is plural naturally.
It does not translate to "some vacations" in this instance, rather "a vacation". As it is somewhat an exception to the way things are normally pluralized.
Then why does it show vacacion as an alternative when you click on the English?
Bobbie467078 - Technically "vacación" or "vacaciones" would be correct. It does mean the same thing.
The issue is, the natural way to say it, & the most common way native speakers say it, is "vacaciones" as plural.
it's not that they won't understand it the other way, it's just not the normal expression. I'm sure there is some usage of the word "vacación" that would be proper. But in this particular sentence, the correct way is plural.
Nick, please give another example. One that doesnt include muliples. All of your examples include multiples in some way...2 eyes, 2 legs, 2 blades, multiple actions and so making these plural kinda makes sense...i would like to see an english comparison that better helps me understand.
58
Clothes. If you leave a shirt on the floor someone might ask you to pick up your clothes even though it's one item. Congratulations, thanks, and outskirts are some other words.
A vacation (99.765) percent of the time is also more than one day. So it is actually multiples also, just like the other examples, even thought we consider the whole period of time as one vacation. Spanish doesn't.
out of all the explanations in the comment section, I found yours making the most sense to me! "a vacation usually has multiple days"... I like it!!! thank you!
Marccii - OK... Here you are.... Plurals in English that have no singular form.
Clothes Panties Riches Jitters (anxiety) Remains (like dead body) Suds (bubbles in bath) Shenanigans
We also have words that are the SAME in both Singular & Plural form....
sheep fish deer mooses wine buffalo shrimp trout
and now I'm hungry...... I hope your happy with yourself. ;). J/K.
Hope this helps!
I think the idea is that in Spanish, it's not "a vacation", but "some vacation". So vacaciones is plural, just like we say "I need to put on some pants" meaning one article of clothing.
Because different languages work differently from each other. They could just as easily turn around and say, "Why is English spelling so inconsistent?"
I'm learning too and using spanishdict.com and Google translate, it seems to be "Este año solo tendré unas vacaciones" which, when back-translated into English can become "This year I will only have a vacation". That can be misinterpreted to mean that the speaker won't do / have anything but a vacation. Hmm.
Those are all plural because they are more than one: two eyeglasses unless you wear a monocle, one pant for each leg, two scissors joined for cutting. Why is vacations plural?
Vacation isn't translated directly. You dont say "un vacacione" because it is not "a vacation," it is just "vacation" (think "vacation time." So you wouldnt say "I need a fun vacation time" you would say "I need some fun vacation time"
Is it wrong to say "una vacación divertida"? Is it just normal to pluralize vacation in Spanish?
It is not grammatically wrong to use the singular, but it is almost never used, it will sound "wrong" and you might be corrected by natives.
Is "unas" necessary? I tried "Quiero vacaciones divertidas." It was marked wrong, but I'm not sure.
Doesn't that translate as "I want fun holidays" instead of "I want a fun holiday" though?
You shouldn't need to put "yo". If you're marked wrong for omitting "yo" then please report it.
So "unas vacaciones divertidas" means a fun vacation, and "las vacaciones divertidas" means the fun vacations. Have I at least got that right? For some reason I am having trouble thinking singular" vacation" and then writing plural "fun"
Wow, I’m really surprised that some members are having so much trouble with this. It can not be explained any better than some here have tried. It’s one of those “it is what it is” . Do I understand entirely? Of course not cause Spanish doesn’t follow the same rules as English and some things just can’t be explained in a word for word translation. Will I eventually learn to memorize this? You bet I will and I won’t let this one tiny thing get the best of me as I’m sure there are gonna be way more tricky words just like this in the upcoming lessons. I’m sure in English we have things like this that may seem strange and is confusing to other language speakers but what can we do...Sometimes we have to accept the old adage it is what it is and keep it moving. I wish you all good luck and hope to see ya at the finish line.
so is vacacion EVER used as a word or is it always vacaciones??? and it is misleading for DUO to ask for A vacation
Duo isn't misleading anyone. That is just a peculiarity of the Spanish language. What English speakers call a vacation is unas vacaciones in Spanish (a plural).
Edit: vacación does exist, but you'll likely never see or hear it.
please explain why yo quiero unas vacaciones divertidas is correct whereas yo quiero unas divertidas vacaciones is wrong
Because in Spanish most adjectives come after the noun. "Divertidas vacationes" sounds just as strange in Spanish as "I want a vacation fun" in English.
but in some other excercises when i answered with the adjectives before the noun, duo marked it as wrong :(
Does anyone know any other words like this that are always plural in Spanish?
The Spanish 'vacaciones' is one of those words that is the same for plural and singular. The article and the adjective have to match the noun, so they have to be plural. It's like our 'you' requires 'are' (because it started life as the plural 'you') even when we are talking to just one person - the singular 'you' requires 'are', not 'is'.
Feminine. You can tell by the 'unas' (plural feminine); plural masculine equivalent would be "unos".
Some words you just have to learn because they don't follow the -o/ma = masculine, -a = feminine endings convention.
Locally, near mexico, unas is not used. Voy a vacaciones. Quiero vacaciones. Etc. Guess its colloquial slang maybe
"Quiero vacaciones" might be equivalent to "I want holidays". Certainly in Australia we will say things like "What are you doing over / on the holidays?" so we use the plural term. This is normally around Christmas - New Year when most government bodies close for a just over a week and schools are on summer break.
I was always taught that one does not need to put "yo" in front of quiero, because quiero indicates that it's first person already! It is like saying "I" "I" (2x's)!!
It's more that you may leave it off, not that you must leave it off. After all, quieres can suggest third person singular but you'll still be in the dark as to whether it's 'he' or 'she' (él o ella) or or even actually polite second person singular (usted).
That would be '(he / she) would like'. 'would like' is a politer version of 'want'.
Yes, it is the same in Spanish. Languages don't align with each other perfectly (which is why it's not a matter of just learning extra vocabulary) so they might understand the difference through context of the larger conversation.
While "I want some fun vacations" is technically correct in English, it sounds unnatural and awkward. I can only imagine it as part of a context where someone might say, "I want some fun vacations, so in May I'm going for two weeks to Mexico and Puerto Rico, in August I'm going skiing for a week in New Zealand, and next year I'm going for a month to Europe." (Evidently they've been saving all their holiday leave and $$$ for this purpose. ;) )