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- "Lo siento, yo estoy enfermo …
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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.
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Csnyder616, she sounds like she says en-fair-moi to me - impossible to tell whether to put an "o" or an "a"! BAH!
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That's because the previous vowel gets dropped when the next word starts with a vowel sound. So what is said is technically "enferm-hoy" and you have to infer the gender or conjugation from context. In this case the speaker sounds very feminine so it is reasonable to assume and write "enferma hoy."
This exercise is very poorly constructed and trips people up for no good reason. I can't think of any legit pedagogical reason for deliberately providing a misleading context for an expected answer whose correct interpretation depends entirely on context! At the very least, either a masculine or feminine answer should be accepted. Either way, something has got to change.
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Ethan, there is generally no vowel dropping in Spanish. The only reason you don't hear the vowel at the end of enfermo in this sentence is because the next word, hoy, starts with the same vowel sound, so they just merge. If it were "enferma hoy", you would hear the 'a'.
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At full speed IME there is a lot of vowel dropping and the audible difference between "enferma hoy" and "enfermo hoy" become negligible to my ears. I think part of the confusion is I'm talking about practical circumstances not any official grammar rules. I would love to hear from some native speakers about these real-world circumstances (not grammar rules), as my ears are relatively untrained in this language
I agree, especially since some language learners (like me!) try to respond rapidly to develop a natural feeling for the language. This only makes learning more difficult.
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.
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You don't need yo grammatically, but you do need it for the dictation exercise because the speaker says it.
I said, "I'm sorry, I'm not well today" and this was marked wrong 9-16-19. Estoy enojado hoy.
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.
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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.
lo = you (object form of usted) siento = I feel/feel sorry for. "I feel sorry for you." (the object pronoun comes before the verb.)
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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".
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.
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).
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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.
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.
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.
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The female voice says enfermo as well. She's not talking about herself, but apparently quoting someone else.
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.
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.
"Mal" we deduct it according to the context if you're with someone who is sick.. he can say "estoy mal" and we understand.. but, "mal" translates exactly "the devil".. "wrong".. "incorrect" o "unwell"
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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".
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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
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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".
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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.
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Estoy is the present-tense yo conjugation of the verb estar, "to be". So estoy translates as "I am", as does "yo estoy". The subject pronoun yo is optional to use.
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.
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I listened to this on the slow setting and it definitely sounds like enfermA, not enfermO.
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The comments say it all. Use someone that can pronouce the words clearly... enfermo/enferma they shouldn't sound the same!
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the voice is female, but uses the masculine version of enfermo. Answer should match the audio.
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While I feel adjectives should relate to the speaker's gender, here's a random thought. When listening to the voice at normal speed, something sounded odd - the end of the sentence sounded like "enfermoy". So I listened at slow speed (I didn't want to be marked wrong) and all was revealed - it was "enfermo hoy". Is it usual to run words together in such cases?
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Chris, yes, that's normal. You generally don't pronounce spaces (in any language, not just Spanish), and since enfermo ends with the same [o] sound that hoy begins with, they will merge together.
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Eli, you use "yo estoy" when talking about how you are and where you are. (I.e. to talk about a condition you're in and about your location.) "Yo soy" is used when you're talking about who or what you are, and what you are like (i.e. your identity and any characteristics you have).
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Kat, the female voice also says enfermo here. The apparent gender of the voice in this course has no connection to what is being said.
It does sound like the female speaker is saying enferma. I feel confused because the speaker is female and it is a masculine sentence. This should be considered in the future, esp. In a language that is so heavily influenced by gender. Also, wouldnt "yo estoy" be redundant? Why isnt it just "Lo siento, estoy enfermo"?
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Fayt, "yo estoy" is a bit much here, yes. The yo is mainly added for teaching purposes in these earlier lessons.
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Prachimish, in this sentence you're describing the current condition you're in, and for conditions you use the verb estar. "Yo soy" would be used if you talked about who or what you are and what characteristics you have.
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Moses, the apparent gender of the voice has nothing to do with the content of the sentence. The sentences are fixed and the voices are randomly assigned.
I've reported this phrase. Firstly, it's a female speaking. Secondly, I've listened to the slow version, again and again, and she clearly says ENFERMA!
actually "estoy enfermo" and "yo estoy enfermo hoy" got the same meaning, estoy is already saying i am and also estoy its in present, so if you say "estoy" you already saying that that is happening today
Same! If it is a female voice the correct answer should be the female version.
I am not confused. A feminine voice, a feminine picture, a female student, yo estoy enferma!
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The various speakers frequently pronounce the same word differently but that should be expected in the real world.
As I have a brain injury it makes hard and more challenging.
Julie K
