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- "No puedo dejar de escribir."
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622
¨Dejar de¨ means ¨to stop.¨ ¨Escribir¨ means ¨to write.¨ ¨De escribir¨ is nonsensical on its own.
To judge the grammar rules of one language as nonsensical because of how it would translate into another language in some way is nonsensical in itself. Dejar de is ALWAYS followed by an infinitive. Those are the Spanish language rules. And it is a consistent translation as the ing form in English to the infinitive in Spanish is the rule in many cases, except of course the Spanish progressive tenses.
I do understand that all people learn differently. If mapping Spanish sentences onto English ones is helping you, then more power to you. My point is that the "logic" of grammar rules can be hard to find even within one language. If one is trying to make English grammar rules work in Spanish they are definitely going to have some problems.
As for a PhD, I would just love to speak Spanish like a bright High School student. I spoke English quite well before I learned any formal grammar. It is actually just from hearing spoken language that allows us to learn the grammar without learning the rules.
ComicOzzie, when you say in English "I cannot stop to write" what you are saying (right?) is "I cannot (halt) IN ORDER to write. To stop(halt) is PARAR and in order to is PARA. Since they are almost the same word, that would make for a funny Spanish sentence but that's what is grammatical correct... That said, I've never come across a Real sentence like this in Spanish. You might be able to sub POR for PARA. But in no way would "No puedo dejar de escribir" mean "I cannot stop(halt) to write" It's practically obligatory to do research outside of Duo.. Hope this was helpful! :-)
Ayana,
Your comment is helpful. "I cannot stop to write" doesn't fit spanish logic. "I don't have time to write" does.
No tengo tiempo para escribir.
Maybe Duo chose the original sentence to show confusion or ambiguity can happen.
Actually no tengo tiempo de escribir is more proper than tiempo para escribir.
Well the first thing that you have to understand is that dejar itself doesn't mean to stop, it means to let or to leave. But dejar de infinitive means to stop doing something (the action of the infinitive). So when you want to stop writing or stop working or stop dreaming then dejar de is the go to expression. But if you are physically just stopping or you are stopping your car, etc., then parar is works well. Terminar and acabar can also be translated as stop, but finish is more exact. But then there is detener and detenerse. Detener can mean to arrest (arrest is after all another English word for stop), it can mean detain, which implies a temporary stop, but you can also see it used for just plain old stop.
I found this on http://www.spanishdict.com/translate/dejar
-intransitive verb 11. (parar) dejar de hacer algo -> to stop doing something
-verb neuter Dejó de cantar -> she stopped singing No puedo dejar de fumar -> I can’t give up smoking
Probably more accurate to say any simple sentence, or any clause, is constructed that way. I can say, "¡No puedo dejar de escribir, pero necesito escribir un mil más palabras antes de puedo ir a cama!
A single sentence, with multiple conjugated verbs. It would make no sense if they were all infinitives.
227
Dejar de means to quit, the translation uses stop however everywhere I have read the phrase means quit. Am I correct.
1702
Once again the text-to-speech kills me. I listened twice and heard "dejarte escribir." Yes, I could have clicked the turtle, but it sounded so clear to me and the sentence makes sense that way! Grrrrr!
622
I think you misplaced a quotation mark. ¨Poder¨ means ¨can¨ or ¨to be able to,¨ so both can be used.
The way im understanding it is that, considering that 'dejar' means to leave, its not a direct translation to english. I read it as "I cannot leave from writing" which to me translates to essentially the same thing as i can't stop writing.
Spanish has its way of saying things that doesn't always use its general grammer rules like using 'ando' at the end for the 'ing'. I don't know if this is right or if it helps but it's the way understand it. It's all in learning the language I guess lol
Escribiendo is the present participle. It is used in the Spanish progressive tenses, which are used much less frequently than ours. Estoy escribiendo I am writing (e.g perhaps you are interrupting me. I am in the process of writing right now) It is also used in other places where the English present participe verb form is used. Escribiéndolo fue difícil. Writing it was difficult. [It is one of the forms that attaches pronouns] But it is not a gerund in the English sense. It never can be used as a noun, nor after a preposition. That is done with the infinitive in Spanish.
Maybe? Dejar + de + infinitive is the more common way to say "to stop doing something"
I quit smoking - Yo dejo de fumar.
I gave up running - Yo dejo de correr.
"Parar" for stop is more like the stopping of movement, or the stopping of an action...
http://www.spanishdict.com/translate/parar
People would probably understand what you meant but it would demonstrate that you don't speak the language very well/would sound like a total non-native speaker. :)
It would be like if someone said in English "I retreated home" when they meant "I went home" - both words convey that the person went home/sought refuge/found relief in going home" but there is definitely the right time and place to use each verb, and they are not used interchangably.
Dejar with "de" after it means to leave something behind like a habit or action. So "no puedo dejar de escribir" would mean that someone cannot leave behind writing. Think about it like that. And in english that would simply mean " I cannot stop writing" Spanish cannot be translated to English directly or it will confuse the heck out of us.
You should read the entire thread, this has been explained in several places. Spanish uses the infinitive where English uses the gerund. Exceptions are after words implying motion, such as seguir, andar, continuar, and after estar, when it makes a present progressive. The de is attached to dejar - it's dejar de with a verb following and not just dejar.
Yes parar de escribir should also be accepted. But when talking about one's stopping themselves or others from doing something, dejar de is much more common. You could never just use dejar to say stop, but dejar de infinitive means to stop the action. English has a colloquial expression in some parts of the US... To leave off doing something. I don't know if it is disappearing or I just haven't spoken to people who use it recently.
That's interesting. You are of course correct in that translation, but I understand why it was rejected. There is a slight meaning difference between saying in English I can't stop writing and I can't stop from writing. The problem is they are the same in Spanish. If they were focused on one translation they may not have thought of the other. I cannot stop writing is a more common construction.
1469
Looking at German and French equivalent expression it appears dejar and parar are interchangeable
I am not quite sure why you are bringing in German and French, but I would be glad to explain the similarities and differences between parar and dejar de. You will notice that I added the de after dejar, because dejar alone means to let or to leave. But dejar de is used in front of infinitives to mean to stop doing something. It is the equivalent of aufhören in German. Parar is normally about stopping motion or action. This makes it closer to aufhalten in German. A bus stop is call una parada de autobús, And the para in the compound words paraguas and parabrisas come from parar. The literal translation of these words would be stop waters (umbrella) and stop breezes (windshield). But the comparison with aufhören and aufhalten is not perfect. That is mostly due to the fact that dejar de has to be followed by an infinitive. So while I have to stop building today would be Tengo que dejar de construir hoy, I have to stop construction today would be Tengo que parar la construcción hoy. Both of those sentences would use aufhören in German. As for English, we have cease and halt, but even those cross meanings sometimes. You may see para a +infinitive in Spanish, but this means to stop to do something as in Pararon a comprar tortillas. They stopped to buy tortillas. This is opposed to dejaron de comprar tortillas which means they stopped buying tortillas. So the many of the similarities you find in the English don't exist in Spanish. While you may need your knowledge of other languages to understand some of what you see in Spanish, the only way to understand the differences between the two words in Spanish is to look at how they are used in Spanish.