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- Topic: Spanish >
- "¿Oíste a los pájaros?"
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link to family guy version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WNrx2jq184
link to the original version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPrtFxd9u9Y
Lol. Thanks for the study break. On the original, thats a pretty good exercise warmup.
Is the "a" here a personal "a"? I thought personal "a"s were only used when referring to people, like "miro a ella" not to animals
No, "a" is used to use with anything, almost don't matter that is it. Can be an animal or a person, even an objects. I am a spanish speaker, just in case.
I believe "Have you heard the birds?" would be "¿Has oído a las pájaros?"
When you "have done" something, you need to use the verb haber, which means "to have", but to have done something, not to possess.
However, Duolingo accepts "have you seen" for the doctor question. It's not consistent.
Yep, Archonicable is right. This section deals purely with pretérito indefinido tense (tú oíste = you heard). "You have heard" = "tú has oído," which is called the pretérito perfecto tense.
Yep, it's called the present perfect tense in English. But In Spanish it's called the pretérito perfecto [de indicativo.]
https://espanol.lingolia.com/es/gramatica/tiempos/preterito-perfecto
That would be "you have (you) heard", which isn't grammatical because you can't just jam two conjugated verbs together. In addition to that, you shouldn't be using 'haber' at all in a lesson about the preterite tense.
'Oído' is a noun meaning 'hearing' or 'ear'—as in the part inside that hears, which is distinguished from 'la oreja', the skin and cartilage on the outside of your head. But it also is the past participle of 'oír', the verb for 'to hear'. Like any past participle, it functions as a verb to form the perfect tenses and also as an adjective or adverb when not partnered with 'haber'.
1951
This was very helpful information that I had not yet learned. A lingot for you, ErikBoyle!
Exactly! I saw this in many sentences....but with different verbs... One example would be "Porque usted no me dijiste esta costa" if i write it ok and the only acceptable response was "Why did you not tell me this thing" rather than "Why did you not told me this thing"...it is annoying
Pajaros = "nasty piece of work" in the drop down hints. Ok ... someone native please explain! LOL
basically its like us calling someone an idiot haha. Thats used a lot in chile...well pájaron is...which is the same thing haha
Is pajaron like casa / cason .... ie a 'big parrot' - --> idiot
the beards, they wisper to me. They wisper things of darkness, things of razors. Of things that pasted and things that are to come. They wisper... MOSTACHE
The "a" is here just because it's talking about animals right? It's a personal "a" only for people and animals right?
Note, for you literalists, and decoders (you know who you are!), just in case you missed it, this sentence translates as, "You heard the birds?" And this is actually a good illustration of the way a Spanish native thinks.
Unable to get a voice recognition despite numerous attempts at this one phrase. Is it me , my pronunciation or the combination of words that are failing me?
- 1951
I gave up on voice recognition. I speak very clearly in English; yet when I tried voice-to-text on my iPhone I spent more time correcting the mistakes than it would have taken to write the text. Therefore, I wasn't surprised when my crude Spanish was barely recognized by my device. Why? I assume that the quality of the microphone in my device, along with the imperfections in the voice recognition software technology, result in limitations in the ability of the computer to decipher my unpracticed Spanish. To fine-tune my Spanish pronunciation, I find it more effective to work with a live human native Spanish speaker, who understands my Spanish, even though my computer cannot.
I had the version where I had to listen to the speaker and write what they wrote. I wrote "Oyiste a las pajaros" and it counted it correct, only correcting me on the missing accent on "pájaros."
Does that mean "oyiste" is an acceptable spelling? Or did Duo just miss that one?
From using dueling it seems if you spell something slightly wrong it doesn't count it "wrong" but it is not an acceptable spelling.
what is clutter as opposed to a request for help? My original question? clutter? this is not a mistake but a genuine request for help , AFTER a long search for an answer
why not right: "did you hear to the birds"? What happen with the "to" here?
The addition of 'a' is specifically used in the Spanish language, but is not required in English.
The examples for oiste translate to "HEARD"-- have you heard the birds. So, if "did you hear" is correct, then that choice should be listed in the examples under oiste, shouldn't it??
'Birds'. It is a question if you put an upward inflexion at the end of the sentence when speaking it.
My grammar book says the personal "a" is used for people and for animals when they are pets or considered close friends or part of family. I'm not sure "birds" in general qualifies. I don't think this particular sentence is correct with the "a" included.
