54 Comments
Says a female voice!! It should be a male voice if it's enfermo! I wish Duo could sort these voices, it actually would help us learn if the female voice was saying enferma & the male voice was saying enfermo!
I keep tripping up on this one, since it's tough to tell that she's saying "enfermo" instead of "enferma". I report it each time.
Actually, we do not need it (and I encourage you not to use it in everyday conversations), but Duolingo wants to make sure that we are learning the pronouns along with the verbs.
I've always wondered, what do "lo" and "siento" mean when translated separately?
Long story short, "lo/la/le" is used to refer to an object (thing or person, always a noun) that somebody/something is doing something to:
●Lo siento (I'm sorry/I feel it) = Yo siento/lamento eso/lo ocurrido (I feel/regret it/that/what happened).
●La veo (I see her/I see "feminine noun") = Yo veo a esa persona/cosa (I see that female person/feminine noun).
●Le escucho = Yo escucho a esa cosa/persona/Yo le escucho a usted (I hear something or somebody whose gender is unknown/I hear "formal you").
As you may see, the meanings depend on the context and intention of the speaker, but the format "lo/la/le + verb" is the same.
222
Le isn't used for things whose gender isn't known. That would still be lo.
Le is a (gender-invariant) indirect object pronoun, so it mostly translates to "to/for him/her/it":
- Le doy la pelota. - I give the ball to him.
I believe it would be roughly translated to "I feel it/him". I also never got the hang of it, I can't really comprehend why it's used like this.
- 409
lo = you (object form of usted) siento = I feel/feel sorry for. "I feel sorry for you." (the object pronoun comes before the verb.)
- 222
That doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Following the logic that the lo is about a person, you'd also regularly come across "La siento" and "Te siento". Those aren't used, though.
Sentir also has the meaning of "to regret", so "lo siento" directly translates to "I regret it".
- 397
Because estar (estoy) is used for feelings and temporary states.
So, because the subject is unwell, it's a temporary feeling and thus estar is used.
Working out when to use ser and when to use estar can be tricky. I generally just use temporary v permanent state as a quick way of doing it.
More here: https://www.fluentu.com/blog/spanish/when-to-use-ser-vs-estar/
"ser"(to be) is used to define a permanent state(e.g. La falda es verde = The skirt is green; the skirt's color isn't a temporary state); "estar"(to be) is used to define a temporary state(e.g. Las llaves son en el escritorio = The keys are on the desk; the keys aren't always on the desk, it's just their current location(state).) If I got it right, I believe you can use ser in case you are talking about a permanent/chronical illness(I guess it would go something like "El es siempre enfermo"= He is always sick).
- 222
Él es enfermo. - He is sickly.
Él siempre está enfermo. - He is always sick.
Don't get too tangled up in the "temporary-permanent" thing. "La mujer está muerta" is as permanent as it can get.
If you have the 'write what you hear' question, then you can't miss out the pronoun, because you have to write exactly what the voice is saying. However, if it was a question asking you to translate I'm sorry, I'm sick today into spanish then you could use estoy enfermo hoy without the yo.
Not in this context. Given that the main part of the sentence is "yo estoy enfermo hoy (I'm sick today)", the meaning of "lo siento" (in this context) is "I'm sorry" most likely. But sure, you will find that "lo siento, [insert another sentence here]" may mean "excuse me" in other context.
Yes and no: As a woman you do use "enferma"; but you should use "estoy" instead of "soy". The verbs "ser" and "estar" are not the same as in English.
- 222
Yes to "enferma", no to "sienta".
The siento of "lo siento" is a verb, and is conjugated for 1st person singular. Sentir means "to feel" or in this case "to regret". So "lo siento" literally just means "I regret it".
- 222
Because you really are sick, not just feeling like it. Spanish can express "feeling sick" the same way: "Me siento enfermo."
Why do they put "Yo estoy enfermo hoy" it would be like "Hoy estoy enfermo" I'm native speaker
Hi. Is there a reason I am required to use “sick” for enfermo? I put “ill”, and this was marked as being incorrect. To me, being sick means vomiting.
- 245
Not only should she say "enferma", it actually sounds like she DID say "enferma"
I don't see the point in saying "enfermo" masculine when it's a female voice. These things should ABSOLUTELY be put into consideration for learners. No one should think its okay to use when masculine when it's not and vice versa.
- 409
You don't know the wider context. She could be reading a book. She could be a Spanish teacher saying a sentence that happens to be masculine, it could be a guy with a high voice. Lots of options.
- 222
A little. Since /f/ is a sound that you form with your lip, that mode of pronunciation might bleed over into the surrounding letters. An /n/ with lip influence sounds a lot like /m/.
For the same reason you say "impossible" in English, and not "inpossible".
- 222
If a woman is talking about herself, then yes, the adjective should take the feminine form enferma. That leaves us with two options here: one, she is not a woman (she's a robot); and/or two, she's not talking about herself, but rather reading this sentence from somewhere.
