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- "Yo te puedo esperar."
58 Comments
Neither WordReference nor SpanishDict offer "to meet" as a translation for "esperar"
Esperar - to wait, to wait for, to hope, to expect
http://www.spanishdict.com/translate/esperar
http://www.wordreference.com/es/en/translation.asp?spen=esperar
I find wordreference to attest esperar as to meet/greet, for example, to meet the plane
http://www.wordreference.com/es/translation.asp?tranword=meet
Could be idiomatic though.
...probably?
Te puedo esperar and puedo esperarte should be equivalent.
My Spanish teacher told me that largely, the choice to attach the IO to the infinitive vs. before the verb is just a choice of style.
For some reason, given the nature of this verb, I think Te puedo esperar sounds better. Can't explain why, just a gut feeling.
2593
Roosky2013 (supra) explains that the for is contained in the verb which means "wait for". Another "for" would be redundant. I also found a more technical explanation in my new grammar book (Christmas present). It says that esperar is a special case (like buscar) - It is a transitive verb and in this sentence te is a direct object!! (In the English translation it's a prepositional phrase, though) So, no. In my opinion, you can't say, "Yo puedo esperar para ti"
2019
Could you say "I can hope/wish for you"? I can wish for you if I want....throwing a penny in fountain or I can wish for you....to go to college.....or would this be more of 'deserar'?
I do understand 'wait' sounds a lot more natural and is probably a far more common use of the word but I was just wondering with my comments above.
Por indicates some type of exchange.
Trabajo por Juan - Juan has the day off, and I am taking his place.
Para indicates an end point, something going in one direction and stopping.
Trabajo para Juan - Juan is my boss.
(Think of an organizational chart, where there is an arrow pointing from Juan to me, his employee)
Both sentences would translate to "work for" in English (in this, I like the way Spanish does it).
This is why, if you want to wait on behalf of someone, por is used. You are (In a way) exchanging your body for theirs :)
Where does this 'te' come from?! Why not, 'Puedo esperar por tù'? Where does the 'te' come in? I guess I completely missed that part or have yet to learn it... No comprendo :(
769
Esperar is better translated as 'await' - it is a transitive verb - so this sentence translates as I await you - te is the direct object pronoun - there is no need for 'for' in the Spanish translation.
833
Ok it can be a little bit off the topic, but it would be appreciated if someone enlightens me: I translated the sentence as "I can make you wait". It is marked wrong. I can understand that, after reading this page, but now I wonder that what would be the proper Spanish tranlation for the sentence "I can make you wait"