72 Comments
511
I think, "She has a difficult job" would be a better translation. As a native English speaker I think it would be unusual for someone to say "She does a difficult job."
- 505
RyagonIV:
Yes, that's better than Duo's sentence, but it still sounds a bit strained. ChrisScafe's example is good.
- 342
It's just not a very precise translation. The Spanish sentence is not necessarily talking about her actual job, but about whatever work she is currently doing.
It seems as though this sentence could mean many different things in Spanish and so possibly many English translations are viable.
after reading the comment above I was wondering how would one say such a sentence. Thank you!
- 437
So in one case dificil is linked to the job in the other linked to the verb. This i hope will help in other sentences. Thank you
But interestingly, if you type in "she makes a job difficult" into SpanishDict translation it comes up "ella hace un trabajo dificil" for all three translations.
- 342
Those automatic translators are not reliable, especially for more uncommon sentences.
Instead, you should use translation databases, even though they require a bit of puzzle work.
Thank you for posting this. You'd have to take the time to study all the examples. Unfortunately, I think a lot of us lazy humans are looking for a fast answer. Too bad Duo doesn't have a brief info section for phrases where literal translation doesn't work.
- 14
..."brief info section"? Click on the light bulb icon when starting a skill! There are secret Spanish language tips there.
- 799
Very good resource. I speak with native speakers all of the time. but few that speak english. Therefore this is great to determine why I get a cross eyed look sometimes!! JAHA
- 477
I'd contend "she has a difficult job" ought to be an acceptable alternative bto the suggested (DL) response of " she does a difficult job". Anyone care to comment?
So trabajo cannot be translated as work and is counted as a faulty sentence ? Bizarre!
If you wrote “do a difficult work,” then reading this thread will clarify why that response is not accepted. If you’re a native English speaker and that phrase truly sounds natural to you, you can make your case for it.
You wouldn't even say "She does difficult work"? I can see finding "She does a difficult job" unnatural (although I personally do not), but "She does difficult work" I would have thought would be well within the range of normal across all varieties of English.
"earlier job was rejected for work"? Do you mean rejected as a translation of trabajo? Either "work" or "job" can be valid translations, and in many instances both could work, but one must be attentive to the context of the sentence.
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It rejected "she is doing a difficult job" insisting on the simple past. Reported 8 July 2018.
- 342
Unless it's important that she's in progress with that work right now, the "estar + gerundio" form wouldn't be used.
According to DL" work" is not an accepted translation for trabajo! Strange!
- 342
That's not what the sentence wants to say. It's not her job that is difficult, but the task she's currently doing.
- 342
"Ella hace difícil un trabajo" or "Ella dificulta un trabajo".
You need to remember that you can't make a noun-adjective combination in Spanish without having them connect. If you want to say "Does your friend speak English?" and you translate with "¿Habla tu amigo español?", you're suddenly at "Does your English friend speak?"
I found all these examples in the wiktionary:
. Holding a brick over your head is hard work. It takes a lot of work to write a dictionary.
. We know what we must do. Let's go to work.
. There's lots of work waiting for me at the office.
. We don't have much time. Let's get to work, piling up those sandbags.
I would say, trabajo meaning employment (Ella toene un trabajo difícil):
She has a difficult job.
I would say, trabajo meaning task: (Ella hace un trabajo difícil)
She does a difficult work or she is doing a difficult work.
I do not understand why DL does not accept work.
But I am not native neither in English nor in Spanish.
- 342
In all these examples, "work" is used without any article. It should be the same in this sentence: "She does difficult work".
Why not just say, "Ella tiene un trabajo dificil"? Use of "hacer" in this context can obviously lead to confusion.
- 342
It isn't confusing to Spanish speakers. Tener is about the job she has. Hacer is about the work she's currently doing.
- 342
How about "She does difficult work"? It's not necessarily about her actual job.
"She does a difficult job" is a perfectly acceptable sentence in English. For an example, think of a conversation about a mother with four toddlers, and one person commenting that "she is always tired". The other might respond, "Well, she does a difficult job!" I suppose "she has a difficult job" would be more common but there is nothing wrong with "she does...".
- 342
Trabajo is the noun, "a/the work", and you can see that that's what's used here by the article un in front of it.
Trabajo is also the present-tense yo conjugation of the verb trabajar and means "I work". Trabaja is the él/ella/usted conjugation and translates as "he/she/it works" or "you work".
- 342
If you make a noun-adjective construction is Spanish, thoe two words tend to stick together. So "trabajo difícil" will always be taken to mean "difficult job".
"She makes a job difficult" can be expressed as "Ella hace difícil un trabajo."
She makes a job difficult.. would be another translation of the word hace.. because hace can mean makes...so im guessing here what hace can really mean..
- 342
It's not so much about what hace means, but what "un trabajo difícil" means. Adjectives tend to stick to the nouns right before, so "un trabajo difícil" tends to only be interpreted as "a difficult job".
I believe (American English from Iowa/Nebraska/Kansas/Missouri) you can do a good job or a bad job. Also, you can have easy work or difficult work.
It is awkward to say "she does a difficult job" and to an extent, it implies that she makes her work difficult when it doesn't need to be difficult.
I find this a very awkward translation that doesn't sound correct in American English.
She has not a regular job. But she always works hard. Actually she does a super hard work at home.
Job, I understand as , "A paid position of regular employment." While "work", is a shore, a task, an activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result. So I would choose: "She does a difficult work".
- 14
No, it's not a girl, it's a job.
Job = el trabajo. https://www.spanishdict.com/translate/job
The gender remains masculine no matter who does the job.
- 1128
My problem was HEARING this sentence properly. Listen to the man speaking this sentence (not the woman above). He REALLY elides "Ella hace" to sound like "Ella se" and I struggled to translate this (without looking at the words). Anyone else have this problem, or have suggestions on how to improve my ear?
- 14
The sound is often poor. It is machine speech sourced from an outside company. So I doubt it will get better in the foreseeable future. To an extent the speech reflects real Spanish (soft d sounds, words running together, fading terminal s's). But the quality is sometimes not sufficient. We have to live with it.
- 342
Well, at least in American Spanish, the phrase "ella hace" is supposed to sound like "ellase". The letter 'h' is not pronounced, so you just have two 'a' sounds merging, and that's not pronounced any differently than a single 'a'.
'She has a hard job'..just doesn't sound right. 'She does hard work' is better.
- 106
You don't DO a difficult JOB, you DO a difficult WORK ! I can understand that the English translator, indeed HAS A DIFFICULT JOB
- 1425
Maybe in the US (I don't know), but in the UK, you certainly "do a difficult job" and don't "do a difficult work". (You might, however, "do difficult work".)
Have you never heard the command "Do your job!!!!!!? Now I can't find anything wrong with adding a modifier - difficult- in there.
