"Ella está un poco cansada y quiere dormir."
Translation:She is a little tired and wants to sleep.
68 Comments
Yes, but that would make the word "sleep" a noun instead of a verb. In the sentence it's a verb, so you have to use "to" to make the English word also a verb.
593
@JeffgoDai
@RyagonIV
Also to interested readers:
Many of the Duolingo students who come here to read this forum web page have not yet learned that Spanish infinitives are used as nouns. If you are not yet educated in this area, take a look at the following article.
https://www.thoughtco.com/using-infinitives-as-nouns-3079231
Spanish grammar lesson:
Spanish Infinitives used as the object of a verb:
When is a "verb" not a verb? A verb may be defined as the action word of the sentence. To determine whether a word is really functioning as a verb or not, consider its role in the sentence. How is the Spanish word, dormir, used in the following sentence?
Me gusta dormir.
― Sleeping is pleasing to me.
― I like sleeping.
Dormir is being used as a noun! How is the word, dormir, used in the following Spanish sentence?
She is a little tired and wants sleep. Translation: ― Ella está un poco cansada y quiere dormir.
Dormir is being used as a noun! Dormir is the object of the verb. The verb in the second clause of the sentence is quiere. In Spanish, when a "verb" functions as a noun, the infinitive is often used.
the sleep
― el sueño
― el dormirquote:
Por ejemplo, se dijo, "El dormir es como el morir," pero nadie cree que esta expresión popular es verdad.
unquote
(The web link to this quote is provided again at the end of this post.)
In addition to using the infinitive form, a verb can sometimes be transformed into a noun by following the steps outlined below:
1.- Consider the root verb or infinitive tense.
2.- Eliminate the -ar, -er, or -ir ending.
3.- Add "-amiento" or "-imiento".
4. -Add a masculine article.
Example:
root verb: alojar (to lodge or to billet)
aloj-
alojamiento = lodging
el alojamiento = the lodging
- 336
I am not sure how you're extracting that translation out of the article you linked. The only similar thing I can find in there does use the English to-infinitive form:
As the object of a verb: Yo preferiría salir. (I would prefer to leave.)
I mean, "wanting to sleep" and "wanting sleep" basically mean the same (unless you have a sleep-stealing device), but they still use different word classes. And, at least for learning purposes, they should be kept parallel.
- 593
@RyagonIV
quote:
"I am not sure how you're extracting that translation out of the article you linked...."
My reply:
You misunderstood me. I did not extract a translation out of any article. Perhaps if I reveal to you who I am, you will believe me.
I am Batman!
And now, by the authority vested in me by the State of Gotham, with this Batarang, I hereby christen the following translation as a "Bat translation". This Bat translation, shown below, is thus entitled to all the rights, privileges and honors thereunto pertaining to linguistic discourse.
The issue is how do we translate the following English sentence into Spanish.
"She is a little tired and wants sleep."
Bat translation:
― Ella está un poco cansada y quiere dormir.
- 17
Is 'el sueño' 'the sleep', 'the dream', or both? Could you say 'Ella está un poco cansada y quiere el sueño'?
- 336
Sueño means "dream", primarily, but gets used in many construction that translate is as "sleep" or similar. Like "tener sueño" - "to be sleepy" or "durante el sueño" - "during sleep".
"Querer el sueño" doesn't have such an idiomatic meaning and would only mean "to want the dream".
- 336
No, that wouldn't really mean anything. Like, it would still be "wants dream".
I agree with Jose296058, "to" is not required in English. That would be up to the person saying the sentence but there would be no right or wrong in this situation. The answer should be excepted either way.
I put : "She is a little tired and wants sleep", and it didn't accept it. Am I really wrong?
- 336
Yes, kind of. Semantically it's the same, but you used the noun "sleep" here. Dormir is a verb.
To get sleep is a little different, it's like the difference between taking a showet and having a shower, but putting the word "get" might make it rather demanding and you would also have to change the spanish sentence.
- 17
More like the difference between 'wants a shower' and 'wants to get a shower'... They both practically mean the same thing-at least in english. You could say both, in english, but you would have to add the extra words 'to get'. This is probably the same, in spanish, with the requirement that you add 'obtener'. As in 'Ella está un poco cansada y quiere obtener dormir'.
**If there are any native spanish speakers out there, please tell me if I'm wrong.
- 336
Dormir is a verb, "to sleep", and verbs don't work very well with obtener. If you want to directly match the English phrase "to get some sleep", you could say "obtener algún sueño", but it sounds a bit odd. "Sleep" isn't used as a noun as often as in English.
- 17
If sleep, as a noun, isn't used often in spanish as it is in english, is the verb infinitive used most? Did you find this information online or are you fluent?
- 336
Well, the verb is used, mostly, unless you really need to refer to "a sleep". Like, when you talk about "getting some sleep" in English, you normally just say "dormir un poco" in Spanish.
I'm not quite fluent, but I think I have enough experience with researching what I need to know. The Reverso translation database is pretty golden if you want to know how frequently a certain phrase is used.
I'm pretty sure the use of "little" in this sentence is not good english. I don't know if there's a rule to that effect, but I've never seen it used that way. You would use "little" in front of a noun, e.g., "she is a little devil", "she is a little girl" and "bit" in front of an adjective: "she is a bit tired", "she is a bit angry". Or even, "she is a little bit tired".
Must be a regional thing, I say "little" in front of adjectives all the time.
In the USA the word "little" is very common. The use of "bit" in place of "little" does sound a bit British but both words should be excepted. We love our British, Canadian, and Australian allies.
I am Australian and "a little tired" sounds perfectly normal... So.. Go figure.. :shrug:
- 336
So you're saying that in your region, "little" is only used as an adjective, but not as an adverb. But the use of "little" as an adverb is quite common and it's grammatically okay.
Um, technically calling her Ella instead of she is still allowed. "Ella is a little tired and wants to sleep" translated would be the same thing. LET ELLA HAVE EMOTIONS.
Might be cause it considers that "Ella" can be a name. Than it will still have sense.
- 593
Interpretation of the post by EugeneTiffany:
He was indirectly making a point by deliberately making an (impractical) suggestion that everyone can notice is impractical. He was suggesting to catrinmerritt that if catrinmerritt is planning to change one Spanish word (ella) into an English word, then catrinmerritt might as well do the same thing on a larger scale.
The reply by EugeneTiffany is suggesting that catrinmerritt might want to consider bringing thousands and thousands and thousands of Spanish words into the English language. After the addition of all these new vocabulary words, catrinmerritt could call this "English" (or we could call this "Today's New English" or some other name).
What's the difference between wishing to sleep and wanting to sleep? To me they are the same.
- 593
@Roxana11701
These are synonymous terms. Therefore you should consult a dictionary. I suggest you consult more than one dictionary.
https://wikidiff.com/
Examples: — ejemplos:
wish list (n)
— lista de deseos
noun, feminine
death wish (n)
— deseo de muerte
noun, masculine
express wish (n)
— voluntad expresa
noun, feminine
- 17
Wishing to sleep and wanting to sleep sounds like a British vs. American expression of the same idea.
- 336
You might have missed the 's' in "wants", but otherwise your sentence is fine.
- 336
If you modify an adjective with "a little", you have to place that phrase in front of the adjective. With verbs, you place it behind:
- She sleeps a little. - good
- She is tired a little. - not good
She is tired a little and wants to sleep. What is wrong with this translation?
- 336
If you modify an adjective in English, the modifying adverb has to go in front: "She is a little tired", not "She is tired a little".
- 336
"A little" works as an adverb here. We're saying that she is tired, but to a low degree.
- 336
What exactly are you confused about? It's pretty straightforward:
Ella - está - un - poco - cansada - y - quiere - dormir
She - is - a - little - tired - and - wants - to sleep
- Está is used instead of es because we're talking about a feeling she has.
- Está and quiere are 3rd-person singular conjugations, used because "he/she/it" does something.
- Dormir is the infinitive form used after a conjugated verb in the same clause.
- The feminine form cansada is used to describe the female person.
- Poco is an adverb, describing cansada, so it appears in a non-gendered form.
When I hovered over 'poco', it gave me the translation of 'un poco', being 'somewhat' (?). I now know 'poco' itself means little, but because it gave me 'somewhat' (and I usually use the first translation it offers) I used 'somewhat'. It was a wrong answer. Why did it give me this translation?
- 336
The hover hints are Duolingo's guess as to what a specific word or a specific word combination means. But that guess is based on all the sentences in this course, so it might not be applicable for every sentence.
I'm not sure where "somewhat" comes from, though. I haven't seen it actively used in any sentence on here, and, at least for me, it's a bit a stronger word than "un poco".
- 17
You would have to use cansada because 'Ella' is 'She' and you would have to use the female ending of 'tired'. Cansado would only work with male 'El' or 'He'. There has to be something else incorrect in your sentence.
