"Pardon me sir, are you busy?"
Translation:Disculpe señor, ¿está usted ocupado?
50 Comments
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Because you're using "sir," you are being formal. That is why esta is being used and not estas. I'm assuming.
As of December 2018, both 'está ocupado usted' and está usted ocupado' are accepted
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Yes, if you are talking in a casual tone to a friend or family. In this case, it is implying (with the "senor") that this is a formal setting.
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I also have this question Devora. Every other question I've seen is subject-verb not verb-subject.
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I came to ask the same question. I put "Perdón señor, ¿eres ocupado?" and was corrected to "Perdón señor, ¿es ocupado?"
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I believe this is because it is implied to be a formal statement with the usted. For example if you talk to your boss, would you say you? No, you would say boss or sir or something. This would fall under the he/she/it category which is es (though i think it should be esta). At least this is all speculation.
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It is a formal question and thus you use the formal "es". You would use "eres" for a friend.
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It's not "es" or "eres." It's "esta" because you use "estar" instead of "ser." Estar is conditional, you can be busy one minute and not busy the next. Emotions and state of being are conditional. Characteristics, such as heritage, height, weight, occupation, etc. use ser.
Yes, the height of a child will change, and a person may gain or lose weight, or change their occupation, but it's more permanent than being angry one day and happy the next.
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"Tú" is very informal. Because you are addressing the man as "señor" ("sir"), you can assume it is a formal situation, and "usted es" should be used instead.
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OK. Is there a rule about tu vs usted? Is usted in formal settings b/c I can't figure out why Duolingo so frequently uses usted, not tu.
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Yes, Usted is formal and Tù is informal. If you see Señor/Señora then you can assume that it is formal and use Usted.
Also I've noticed that as a rule of thumb tù is normally followed with a word ending in S. "Tù comes" or "Tù bebes" compared to "Usted come" or "Usted bebe".
I tried, "Perdon senor, eres ocupado?". Can anyone confirm that this grammar would tank in the Spanish speaking world? Cheers
Very little! http://www.spanishdict.com/translation http://www.spanishdict.com/translation http://www.spanishdict.com/translation when I have been in Spain and speaking with my Spanish friends via Skype the usage of the word perdon (there should be an accent over the o) seems to be used widely and is deemed sufficient! To be honest I not sure I have ever heard disculpe used much at all in Spain.
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That's what i wrote and it was marked wrong! it said correct solution afanado, what ever that means
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So the difference between tú and "usted" got me, and I know latin americans use usted in their speach. However, I would like to follow the younger generation in Spain, and they hardly ever use "usted". Good to learn both "usted" and "tú" of course, I just want to have "tú" as an option in this exercise.
Perdon is a form of excuse me though and I don't think you always have to say usted.
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"Disculpe, tu estas mal" - I thought it could be this (forgive my lack of accents), but the irony is this translates to "Excuse me, you're wrong". Well, ok then, Spanish.
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I wrote "usted es ocupado" and I got it right, but I'm still confused since people said when sir/ma'am is used, it's being formal so we gotta use esta. But I didn't and I still got it right, can somebody help to clear this up for me?
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How do I know when to use disculpe or perdon? I'm not sure why perdon was not correct...
One time you require discuple, the next you want perdon - make up your mind
