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- "Yo deseo un hijo."
55 Comments
Okay, continuing on with my problems with the way Duolingo is teaching the verb desear, here's another example. Previously, I was marked wrong with "I desire a daughter," and was told that I should say "I'd like a daughter." So this time, I translated "yo deseo un hijo" to "I'd like a son," and was told that "I desire a son," was a correct solution!
Do you think that "I wish to have a son" is correct? (not English native speaker)
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"I wish to have a son" - Yo deseo tener un hijo "I wish a son" - Yo deseo un hijo "I want a son" - Yo quiero un hijo
The sentence "I wish to have a son" is a fine English sentence. However, there are two verbs in your sentence and only one verb in the Duo sentence. I think your sentence would translate to "Deseo tener un hijo". I'm not sure if "tener" is used here in the same way as in English but it is defiantly a 2 verb sentence. I hope this helps.
That would be correct in English, but I don't know if Duo would accept that as a translation for this particular sentence.
Yes, it is correct. "I want" is "yo quiero", but "yo deseo" exactly means "I wish". http://www.wordreference.com/es/en/translation.asp?spen=deseo. Duolingo must correct it, please.
"I wish to have a son" has the same meaning, and sounds a little better. BOTH sound a bit too formal. "I would like to have a son" sounds more natural and is the common way to say it in the U.S.
Three years later and I also feel the exercises with desear have an unusual level of inconsistency.
When you consider how close in meaning querar is, there is a need for DL to be more consistent, not less.
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there is no personal "a" because he does not yet have a son. it only applies to actual persons, pets etc. In other words, since the "son" does not yet exist there is "no" personal "a"
hope that this helps.
How would we distinguish between a child of either gender and specifically a son?
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What's the big difference between desear and esperar? Is desear more like a desire kind of want and esperar is wishful wanting/hoping?
I almost put that but assumed that if that was what it wanted it would have said "(Yo) quero un hijo" and I'm gathering from this comment section that it's more of a "desire" than a "wish" but it's good to know it accepts "want" for future reference
Why isn't it 'Yo deseo para/por un hijo'? (I still get confused with para and por, but that's a whole different problem)
Jocelyn, In this case I think "for" is already included in the translation of the verb, so you do not need a separate word for "for".
I am sure she says peseo not deseo. Does anyone ese have difficulty with the computer prenunciation?
Leslie, I often have difficulty, unless it is a word just used in the same lesson or I can guess by the context. At first I heard beseo/veseo. I couldn't make sense of these, and then I remembered "deseo" from past lessons ( I review 2or3times ). So once this came to mind, listening again I could hear the d sound. It is frustrating, but I think it is good, because it improves listening ability. In a real situation native speakers can speak very fast and run words together, leaving out some of the sounds, so I just keep moving on and also reviewing and notice my listening has improved, but it IS a challenge. : )
I want a boy? I think that is a fairly accurate translation to english.
Yes and no. Yes because i suppose it could be, but no because if you came up to me and said "i want a boy" I would think you are a kidnapper who wants a child. However, if you said "I want a baby boy" then i would be chill.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't this directly translate to: I wish a son? Shouldn't it be "Yo deseo para un hijo?"
So back to back I got "My daughter wishes for a horse" and then "I wish for a son."
I put, "I wish for a boy" and was marked wrong. A boy is a son. A girl is a daughter. I believe I'm right by this reason. This is why I'm just going to start using the gender neutral title, child.
Niño/niña = boy/girl. Hijo/hija = son/daughter.
I think that both of these can mean "child", but my point is: Duo marked you wrong because you didn't use the noun that was the direct translation of the Spanish noun it gave you. Yes, the owl is more picky than a human would be, but also yes, it was justified in counting you wrong. This program always wants the most literal (grammatically valid) translation - except in the optional idioms section which is (in my opinion) poorly constructed.
Just the other day....Duo claimed i was incorrect for putting "un" in my answer for this sentence.
Can someone tell me what is appropriate: 1. Deseo un hijo 2. deseo hijo.
Thanks
The answers given were I wish for a son, and I want a child. I wrote I want a boy. Difficult to see how this would be incorrect.
Amigos anglo parlantes, estamos en el curso de Castellano (báh, actualmente Español). Por lo tanto, quiero garantizarles algo: En Español, una cosa es querer y otra desear. Ignoro quién pronuncia tan mal el Español y no dudo que muchas traducciones no son las adecuadas. Mis saludos!!!
The translation behind the underlined word " deseo " is want, wish, desire. But how is that wishing for a son or wish for having a son is wrong?
I know this has been thoroughly hashed through already. But, unless this is an idiomatic phrase, here's a couple things that you might find useful.
1) Quiero = want or love / Deseo = desire or wish / Espero = Hope
With those things in mind, there are some phrases where we might use all of these interchangeably in English.
On that same note, with the progression of reported child exploitation, I would typically steer away for using the translation of deseo as "desire" in this particular sentence. =) But, "wish" I would consider perfectly acceptable and common in its use.
In Colombia, South America, this sentence would be considered "vulgar" to use the word deseo. This may or may not vary in other Central/South American countries and even in Spain.
