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- "El hombre bebe agua."
262 Comments
agnusoinas- I read my comment and I see nothing, just tell me what is no sense for you, if it's about the sound V, I repeat the samething. Here's what Spanish Dict says about it : Do all Spanish speakers pronounce V as B? There is absolutely N O difference in the pronunciation of "B" vs. "V" in Spanish. The most important thing to remember about pronouncing the Spanish b and v is that in standard Spanish they are pronounced exactly alike. Although English makes a clear distinction in how the two letters are pronounced, Spanish does not.
2071
No, the "h" is silent in Spanish, except for "ch" which is pronounced like the "ch" in "church."
Bebía is past (Pretérito imperfecto)
Bebió is also past but Pretérito perfecto simple
Yes "bebía" could be "drank".
"Me decía que su hermano bebía demasiado..."
You were telling me your brother drank too much
"Él bebió tanto whisky como tú."
He drank as much whiskey as you did.
http://conjugueur.reverso.net/conjugaison-espagnol-verbe-beb%C3%ADa.html
Bebo- when speaking of youself Example- "Yo bebo agua" Bebemos- when speaking of we Example- "Nosotros bebemos agua" (you do not have to put "nosotros in, you can just use "bebemos" I put it in the sentence so you can see it is the subject is we. Bebes- informal you Example- "Tu bebes agua" (I'm not sure if you have come to this yet, but "tu" is the informal of you, as if you were speaking to a close friend, "usted" is when you are speaking to someone you don't know very well or have never met. Therefore "bebes" goes with the informal) Bebe- formal you and also any singular other person (he, she, it) Example- "Usted/El/Ella bebe agua" (I hope what I explained above shows you when to use "usted" and that you use it with "bebe". Furthermore, you never use "ella/el" which means, "she/he" with "bebes" only with "bebe") I hope this sufficiently answers your question
603
Can one use "informal" speech with everyone? - or, like in Korean, you must use formal speech with someone older or in a higher position than you.
2071
I like to drink water = Me gusta beber agua. "Me gusta" is a structure you probably haven't had yet. It's a verb that works differently than yo bebo, yo como, etc.
Because the same word with the accent and without the accent is actually two different words, with different meanings. Accents are important because sometimes it is the only difference between two same-spelling words in Spanish.
So in this case: él with the accent means "he" and el without the accent means "the" [masculine form of "the"].
So "Él hombre bebe agua" would mean "He man drinks water" which doesn't make much sense. But "El hombre bebe agua" would mean "The man drinks water" which makes a lot more sense. You could also say "Él bebe agua" ["He drinks water"] but not "El bebe agua" ["The drinks water"].
They are very similar words, but they usually are used in different ways. So you can tell them apart both by noticing if it has the accent or not, and also by where in the sentence the word is being used. Usually only one of them will make a lot more sense, which helps you tell them apart when hearing it spoken.
Hopefully that helps. It's a little tricky at first to notice the accents, but this will come up a lot. For example, "tú" with the accent means "you" but "tu" without the accent means "your". And "esté" is one of the many different conjugated forms of the verb "estar" [estoy, está, estás, esté, estés, estado ...] but "este" without the accent just means "this". And "bebe" is third person/formal of the verb meaning "to drink" ("bebo", "bebes", "bebe" ...) but "bebé" with the added accent means "baby". And obviously we don't drink babies. (It's a joke, sorry.) It all seems a little confusing at first, until you start noticing just how much meaning a little accented letter can change. Once you do become more familiar with the accented letters, it starts to become easier to tell similar words apart because the accent stops being something that feels random to memorise. It becomes more than just spelling.
Hopefully that helps someone make sense of it all.
598
Duolingo does forgive some typos, but it tends to be pretty harsh if the typo results in another word. I've fallen victim to this more times than I can count.
Tom45357,
Both are equally correct, but we need to tell Duo to add "The man is drinking water" to the database using the report button. You can see that here:
https://www.spanishdict.com/translate/el%20hombre%20bebe%20agua
https://www.deepl.com/translator#en/es/The%20man%20is%20drinking%20water
https://www.123teachme.com/spanish_verb_conjugation/beber
There is a present progressive conjugation used in conjunction with the conjugated being verb "estar" for this sentence = "El hombre está bebiendo agua." However, it is my understanding that using that phraseology is not as commonly used in Spanish. Rather, Spanish normally uses the present indicative to express both the present indicative and the present progressive indicative, unlike English.
I was just wondering since pronunciation can vary quite differently i.e. manthana y manzana, grathias y gracias. Also sometimes words can be the same, but have completely different meanings such as tortilla. Most Americans picture the flat bread used for burritos, but in Spain if you asked for a tortilla you'd get an omelette.
384
Is it ever acceptable to say He drinks the water? El bebe el agua? Articles will be the death of me. Or the death of me.
ph.YaQStL,
Verbs in Spanish must be conjugated to align with the subject, mood, tense, etc... The verb you are asking about, in its non-conjugated form, is "beber".
bebo = I drink -or- I am drinking (1st person singular present indicative)
bebes = you (familiar) drink (2nd person singular present indicative)
bebe = he/she/you drink, it drinks -or- he/she/you are drinking, it is drinking (3rd person singular present indicative)
bebé (with the accent) = baby (noun)
Please see this link to see all the possible conjugations for "beber" (to drink):
598
This sentence would be incorrect in English. "The man drinks water" or "The man is drinking water" would be the most common ways of saying this. However, you can say "The man does drink water" if you really want to emphasize that he is indeed drinking water; although, this doesn't happen often in normal conversation.