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- "Quiero que haya más madera."
147 Comments
1387
Came looking for this. Wasn't disappointed. Don't even have to understand all the words in the sentence
Well the voice recognition really doesnt work, I said 'quiero que...aaarghh no no got that wrong' and it said it was correct lol.
lol, yep. It could use a bunch of improvement. It's definitely better than nothing though.
- 1662
disagree. turned it off the other day. what happened? i forgot a word and it was marked correct. i then started to willingly drop words, everytime a word more and it still was marked correct. even when i said nothing it was marked correct. the voice recognition does not work proper. it needs a bit more than a bunch of improvwment.
- 2099
I have noticed that the function of the voice part has improved over the past couple months. (1/29/16 as i write this) It is at least good as a cue for us to voice the phrase.
I disagree. It's no better than nothing. I say every sentence aloud, but I turned off the voice recognition, because it's pointless.
- 740
DL does not teach the vocabulary. Go to this link. Listen to pronunciation and DL audio becomes easier to understand.
Vocabulary is not pronunciation. Vocabulary is the actual words, which is exactly what DL teaches well. What it doesn't understand well are different accents, which is why voice recognition works well for some and not for others. It has worked well for me most of the time, but I work with people who can't make DL (or, to be fair, other voice programs) voice recognition work at all.
It's only fair that voice recognition sometimes gives you credit when you known you've blown it. It offsets the equally random times that it says you're wrong when you KNOW you got it right. Todo es bien. (It's all good.)
Someone wanted a native English speaker to explain it, so as a native English speaker, "I want that there is more wood" does not seem grammatically correct to me, but "I want there to be more wood" and "I wish that there were more wood" do seem grammatically correct.
- 185
"I wish that there were more wood" = Yo quisiera que hubiera más madera.
"The other specialized use of querer in the imperfect subjunctive is the context in which it means to wish. If there is a change of subject , the imperfect subjunctive is followed by que and the imperfect subjunctive form of the second verb."
"I wish you were here = Yo quisiera que estuvieras aquí"
Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Verb Tenses
It isn't grammatically incorrect, but it is very awkward. As a native English speaker like yourself, I wouldn't say it this way. We would probably say it either way that you have suggested. I like the second translation that you have provided. It sounds more elegant, and does use of the English subjunctive. We use the subjunctive in English a lot more than we realize. :)
Actually I think may be grammatically incorrect. We actually do have subjunctive mood in English, although it hides a lot. We use it with wish but not want. Want uses these to be expressions instead of the subjunctive construction. I wish (that) there were more as opposed to I want there to be more. Trying to copy the subjunctive syntax doesn't work with want.
- 1927
Lynettemcw, although most of these posts were old, I really enjoyed the deep dive you took into the subjunctive. However, it was all a surprise to me, since I thought I heard, Quiero que allá más Madiera. LOL! No, it didn't make a sensible sentence, but I could NOT think of haya, so I was beyond getting to the true meaning at that point. Discerning the ACCENT was not on the second syllable of allá might have given me a clue, if I had a keen ear, I suppose. Anyway, thanks for your dedication to enlightenment of the finer points.
I think most people do that in foreign languages. I got confused recently in a conversation about being in Asia and I kept hearing hacia, which is pronounced almost the same in Spanish. It's sometimes hard to find the other word when the two words aren't at all similar in English.
- 1927
Yep. I thought it was amusing that I thought they were talking about a kind of wine instead of wood -- LOL.
Actually you're not far off. The wine is Madeira. It is Portuguese and uses the Portuguese word for wood.
Actually, it is "grammatically correct." It's just that many people convert the subjunctive into an indicative, and they tend not to use it because it sounds weird.
DL also tends to do that. However, it is good that here they accept a correct subjunctive. It makes it easier to understand the Spanish subjunctive.
For those who want to know more about the English subjunctive, see these:
http://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/subjunctive_mood.htm
https://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/grammar_subjunctive.html
https://webapps.towson.edu/ows/verbs.aspx
https://generallawfirm.com/index.php/might-correct-when/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv105.shtml
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/verbs.htm
Hola BLPK: Not really. It is only that there would BE more wood, not necessarily "that I have more wood". CHAU
- 22
but can't "haya' mean "I have" [subjunctive, so:] I might have, expressing the wish that I might have? OR how would you say that? quiero que I might have mas madera? = I want that I might have more wood? how would you put that in Spanish?
Hola BLPK: No, "haya" cannot mean "I have". "Haya" basically means "there is" or "there are", but to make more sense they usually will mean something like: "there would be" or "that there will be" or "that there be". Your sentence "I want that I might have more wood" (no offense, nothing personal) does not make sense in English so I do not know how to translate it to Spanish. What are you trying to say? CHAU.
It makes just as much sense to me as their sentence. I want there to be more wood vs. I wish to have more wood? Same idea exactly.
No it's not the same, it's the difference between wishing you own something and wishing it exists in the first place. "I wish there was more rain" is very different from "I wish I had more rain".
Imagine being in a coat store. They only have five coats to choose from. You say "I wish there were more coats." That doesn't mean you want all the coats they have, and more. I hope this helps!
"Haya" also means "there might be" or "there were" as in "I wish/want that there might be X" or " I wish/want there were more people here."
"Wish" or "want" trigger a subjunctive tense.
If I'm understanding well that would be "quisiera tener más madera" - "I wish I had more wood" or "Quisiera poder tener más madera" - "I wish I could have more wood."
"Quisiera" is the imperfect subjunctive form of "querer".
The imperfect subjunctive is used as a polite form of request (that is, a polite imperative.).
Wants, wish, hope, demand all trigger a subjunctive. See this on "subjunctive triggers." http://www.studyspanish.com/lessons/subj1.htm http://spanishplus.tripod.com/index.htm#TopOfP http://www.spanishdict.com/topics/show/113
Yes BLPK you have an excellent point. Perhaps this reference on how to use haya (has) as you were suggesting will be helpful to others. Just use Control-F & you'll see examples.
Yes, that it means "that I want more wood." (That I want more wood is the indicative way of saying it. English speakers tend to use the indicative in place of the subjunctive (in cases where the subjunctive is actually correct, but sounds strange). Just as in Spanish, the English subjunctive is used to express a wish or want, a suggestion, a command, or a condition that is contrary to fact. In this case it is a wish or want. English subjunctive "triggers" include: "suggest, propose", "if..., would/might", "essential, "imperative" "ask, command, demand, insist, order, recommend, suggest", "crucial, essential, important, imperative, and necessary."
See this: http://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/subjunctive_mood.htm
I think it could after looking at the suggested meanings - but I was wrong!
At least we can have some fun instead of flogging through some of these contorted explanations. It is what it is. If it sounds awkward in English, then what is the Spanish idiom? Ease up folks.
- 564
I knew what it meant in Spanish but could not think of an elegant way to say it in English...
Hola Amiga Scottann: When dealing with wood you do not have to be elegant. CHAU :-)
"I wish there was more wood", was the vibe that I got off that sentence. (Duo marks it correct, too) Slightly more elegant, and keeps the same inflection. (as I interpreted it)
although we might say "I wish there /were/ more wood", which is a weird subjunctive rule in English
To everybody of this page: I think that in Spanish, the present subjuntive (here the word 'haya') usually reinforces the meaning of the first verb 'quiero' (querer), which is a desire (in English 'to want'). I hope I have helped. Greetings. May 13, 2015.
I wish that there were more wood - Is perfectly correct modern English.
------- have your hearing checked. good hearing-aids will bring up those fricatives and sibilants you're missing now. otonic is my brand . . .
AND, there's one woman who consistently drops her final esses. i always mark that the audio has a problem .
Big 22 may 20
I want that there would be more wood.
Why is this a wrong translation of the Spanish? It seems to me to be a literal translation. Can someone help me?
According to this book: "Spanish verbs and essentials of grammar" by Ina W. Ramboz p.58 the translation of DL is not correct. Subjunctive of impersonal HABER: "HAYA" translates as: "THERE MAY BE". So, it should be: "I want that THERE MAY BE more wood".
Haber is pretty much a mutant verb, but it is not really complex. It has two, and only two, uses. It is the auxiliary verb for all perfect tenses. As such, it can be in various tenses and moods, translates consistently as the correct form of to have (but shares none of the other meanings which all belong to tener in Spanish), and is always followed directly by the past participle of the main verb.
Then there is this use. The third person singular form of haber is used alone to express There is or there are in the various tenses and moods. The present tense form has mutated to hay, but all other tenses and moods remain the same. In this way we get Había or occasionally hubo for there was/there were, habrá for there will be, habría for there would be, ha habido for there has been/there have been, etc. Haber in this use definitively signals a changé of subject, so with the Initial WEIRDO verb and the clauses being joined by que, you have the classic circumstances for the subjunctive in the second clause. Although many people don't recognize the subjunctive in English because it is invisible with many verbs, one option for expressing the subjunctive in English is using an infinitive. The other option which would come up if they had used deseo would have been I wish that there were more wood That is the classic subjunctive that we always used with to wish.
Lynette - an excellent and detailed summary of the use of HABER. Much appreciated - Ron Seymour.
Hiii, it is correct
Quiero que haya más madera... is like 1.-I want more wood. 2.-I wanna have more wood.
Is like a ""Have""
And yeah i'm spanish.
Ron Seymour: the English is laboured, even though I accept that this is the correct use of the present subjunctive. I would say something like ' I want more wood ...'
Yes, it is. Your sentence would be Quiero que más madero estuviera allí. When you say something is there, you are talking about a location. In Spanish that is allí or allá and the "to be" would be some form of the verb estar. But the verb here is haber in the subjunctive. The third person singular form of haber, in the appropriate tense and mood, is used to express the idea of there is/there are in that appropriate tense and mood. But when you say There is or there are in English you are talking more about its existence than its location. Although this sentence is certainly most likely to be spoken by someone who wants more wood at a particular location, they theoretically could be talking about the world or the universe for that matter. It can be confusing because we have become accustomed to having more syntactic placement options for many words in English, but this one is easy to spot since the verb will always be different. There is no verb to be in this sentence from a Spanish perspective. They would not necessarily see it as a particularly similar sentence.
Tal vez cuando quieras que haya más madero. O quizás quieras que haya más dinero, o tiempo, o vino. Duo no puede saber qué frases que tú necesaria en tu vida. Pero esa construcción es común.
Duolingo scrapes the internet for phrases, so you can usually find them with a quick search:
Con una honestidad brutal, dijo que espera que "a fin de año se note la evolución de este trabajo". Y puntualmente es porque ya tiene en mente cuál será el disco que sucederá a su "Encantador". "Mi próxima trabajo me gustaría que esté en noviembre en la calle, «Encantador» comenzó allá por 2006 y lo edité no hace mucho. Eso sí, voy a tener un poco más de precaución con el título. La onda quizá sea la misma, con una importante cuestión acústica, pero voy a sumar dos o tres candombes, soy muy fanático de Jaime Roos, y quiero que haya más madera". --http://www.lacapital.com.ar/ed_impresa/2011/7/edicion_974/contenidos/noticia_5162.html
In essence this is a statement by a musician about a future project where, to sound more like Jaime Roos, he will be adding more of an African drum sound and more wood. What is meant by that reference to wood (blocks? marimbas?) is unclear to me since there is nothing particularly "woody" about Jaime Roos. For this we need a musician or someone with a musician's vocabulary.
- 1336
So I want (the effect of ) more wood (Instruments) ..= I want more wood. = I want to have more wood, there to be more wood, to hear more wood.. any of these should be accepted...
Good spot of the original text..helpful!
Why is Duo introducing subjunctive here without any explanation of how and why it is used? #sigh
Duo does that, I actually have grown rather fond of how they do this, it's a lot like how you encounter the subjunctive in real life...people just start using it, whether or not you've been introduced to it...and you figure it out.
=)
According to this book: "Spanish verbs and essentials of grammar" by Ina W. Ramboz p.58 the translation of DL is not correct. Subjunctive of impersonal HABER: "HAYA" translates as: "THERE MAY BE". So, it should be: "I want that THERE MAY BE more wood".
- 617
Completely lost in this section on haber I put I want to have more wood, I want there to be more wood does not sound correct in English
Haber is a tough one to translate directly to english. It will work but it wont sound quite right. Haber = have (not possesive have, but have as in the word we never say because its always in a contraction, I have done something. = I've done something. So dont confuse haber and tener even though they are spelled the same in english.
That said, haber in spanish also means there is/are/was/were/will be. So yo quiero que haya = i want that there is.....or: I wish that there were (more wood)
Very good explanation, Ekul. I did use "I wish there were more wood" and was just glad that Duo accepted it because that's how I would always express the Spanish idea in English. Afterall, English subjunctive isn't dead yet for me. Thanks for your post.
Quiero = I want (or I wish); que = to; haya = have; más = more; madera. = wood.
Can someone explain how "que haya" becomes "there to be"?
Check it out. Spanishdict.com. Hallar, to find, to be. Halla is a conjuation of hallar. Is it possible DL got the Spanish wrong? I want to find more wood?
I want to have more wood--------- Quiero tener más madera.. (para mí)
I wish that there was more wood--- Quiero que haya más madera.. (para todos).
I want there to be more wood--- ¿¿??
HABER is also used to mean "to be" when talking about the existence of things... e.i. "Hay una torta en la cocina." (There's a cake in the kitchen.) Hay dos gatos en la sala. (There are two cats in the living room.) Using this, along with the subjunctive rules, you get "Quiero que haya más..." (I want there to be more...) Or, for an English example of the subjunctive, "I wish that you were short." "Deseo que seas bajo."
- 1071
Maybe it is grammatically correct in Spanish, but would the correct translation be, "I want more wood?"
- 73
Can someone please explain why "I want more wood to be there" is not applicable here? Is something wrong with the word order? My English is not great :(
I put "I like that there was more wood." I don't know why it was marked wrong?
Querer is to want, not to like. I want there to be more wood. English subjunctive often shows up as something like a passive construction with the verb to be
Yes.,it is incorrect. The verb Haber never means to have in the sense of to possess. It is only translated as such because it is the verb which is used to form the various perfect tenses like our verb have. It actually is the verb which is related to the Latin verb avere and therefore related to the French verb avoir and the Italian verb avere, but Spanish uses tener for the possessive to have exclusively. So most forms of the verb Haber will only exist as an auxiliary verb before a past participle. The exception is the third person singular form in the various tenses and moods. This means either There is or there are, without changing for number. The present indicative has mutated a little from ha to hay. So when you see haber alone, think there is or there are (in the appropriate tense and mood.. Your sentence would be Quiero que tenga más madera.
You are telling me that "I wish that there was more wood" is correct. Look what you are saying here: "I want there to be more wood". My translation was: "I want that there is more wood". My translation is much closer to the one above showing as correct. What is going on?
Actually, the most, standard and comparable English subjunctive statement would be I wish that there WERE more wood. That uses the little understood English subjunctive translation for haya. I don't think I want that there is more wood makes sense, but one of the common ways to skirt around the subjunctive is to use an infinitive, and I think Duo accepts this. At least they have several examples that do it. That would be I want there to be more wood.
"I wish that there were..." - in a nutshell! OK, so that would be used in written English far more frequently than in spoken English, but either way it sums this up.
Doth there exist an answer correct that maketh me NOT sound as I falleth into Doulingo from the year of our Lord 1510??? This sentence, the one about more research and the one where she wants "there to be less wine"
I don't know what 21st century English you speak, but I hear similar things all the time. The only other option would be to try the English subjunctive, but we don't use the subjunctive with the verb to want. You will get a legitimate subjunctive if you change want to wish and say I wish that there were you would have a true subjunctive. But the only way to give a non subjunctive verb a subjunctive feel then you have to make this type of artificial passive voice.
It makes sense to me. The person wants more wood. For subjunctive constructions with querer in Spanish, it is sometimes easier for English speakers to construct the sentence with wish instead of want. It is not a good translation, but in English the verb wish does cause a subjunctive to follow. I wish there were more wood. But you can't use that same construction in English with want, you have to use an alternative method of achieving the effective subjunctive without actually being subjunctive. That construction has a set formula in English. You have the English equivalent of a WEIRDO verb + either "there", a subject pronoun or named subject + verb infinitive. So you have the following wish/want pairs
I wish you would go home but I want you to go home
I wish there were fewer bills. And I want there to be fewer bills.
I wish the sun would come out. I want the sun to come out.
But the only difference between the Spanish in those pairs is the difference between desear and querer. The second clause would always start with que and contain a subjunctive.
That's not the same. That would be Quiero que estuviera más madero allí. When you are saying more wood is there, that the there that you point to. In that clause, madera is the subject and allí is there (the place where you want there to be more wood. But haya is simply the subjunctive of haber which is used to form some tense or mood of the expression There is or there are. This is essentially just another way of saying there exists, although in a much more limited meaning. That's why you will see both theres in some sentences like There is a store there. Hay una tienda allí. Haber is the only verb in that clause, but if you wanted to talk about WHERE, the verb required would be estar. It's also in the subjunctive because this is a subjunctive triggering sentence with
- Two clauses joined by que
2 Two different subjects
A WEIRDO verb in the first clause expressing a Wish, Emotion, Impersonal expression, Recommendation, Doubt or Ojalá.
There isn't enough wood. I want there to be more wood. I guess I have to get more.
- 744
I considered translating it very precisely to create an awkward English phrase as Duolingo often demands but decided on this occasion to simply say "I want more wood". Of course on this occasion it was not accepted as they wanted a precise translation that almost nobody would ever say.
I am also occasionally annoyed by Duo's translations, but there are often indicators that show which translations would be preferred. Except for set expressions which can be quite different, one of the important factors to consider is whether your translation would probably create the same sentence in the original language that you started with. In your case the answer is clearly no. Translating that sentence you get quiero más madero. This Spanish sentence is neither particularly awkward nor just another way of saying quiero más maduro. One of the places you are most likely to have these awkward translations is where thr Spanish sentence has the subjunctive because our use of the subjunctive has different uses and constructions than Spanish. Like many illustrations of the subjunctive and other difficult grammar differences, it is often difficult to interpret the sentence well without some additional details. But if I had a company who hauled firewood, I might say something like I want there to be more wood in the first truck before we start filling the second. Now that sentence as a whole is rather complex, but the initial part with the subjunctive is the important part to understand. You can say I want more wood in many situations, even just asking someone to hand you some from the pile. I want THERE TO BE more wood implies that there isn't enough for whatever you have in mind. That is the reason for the addition of the doubt that is the subjunctive mood. So if you have a better phrase that would create this Spanish, then certainly suggest it. But if the sentence is this one your translation must have some degree of being able to clearly translate back and forth into the two sentences. This is particularly true when you just ignore a major grammar function
- 744
As a slightly pedantic user of the subjunctive in English, I entirely agree with what you say. Your explanation will be useful to many. In this case, translating from Spanish to English, I was unsure which of various English phrasing options might be acceptable. Having come across a number of examples where the owl accepted a simpler, slightly inaccurate/imprecise English translation I unwisely just tried that rather than my initially intended "I wish that there were more wood".
Ah yes someone who really DOES know the English subjunctive. There are quite a few of us on Duo actually, though far fewer than I would have thought, at least from the problem I have seen so many people have with phrases like "If I were". To my mind the verb wish shows the English subjunctive more clearly and consistently than any other English word, and I love to use it in examples. But I suspect that Duo might also reject that answer. They generally like deseo for wish and quiero for want. There certainly is some difference between the two words. Wish is what you say when you are essentially conceding that you don't have any control over the outcome of the situation. Want doesn't assume that you DO have control, but definitely doesn't assume that you don't. Either the boss or the peon can say want. And of course, due to the rather uniquely similar use of the subjunctive with wish, this sentence would be one of the few that could demonstrate the subjunctive so easily. But recognizing the use of an English infinitive in the same clause where the Spanish use the subjunctive in a second clause is an important learning step. This is the default translation for Subjunctive statements with querer. Quiero que tengas trabajo. I want you to have a job. Quiero que brille el sol (or que el sol brille) I want the sun to shine. But these sentences get clunky more easily in English. Interestingly enough doubt is one verb that doesn't bear any mark of the subjunctive in English. I doubt he works Dudo que trabaje. I guess we consider adding the word doubt makes it indicative because you are stating your doubt as fact.
No. It's not that it can mean wish. A Spanish speaker would always find the same difference between desear and querer as we do between wish and want. But when you have this type of subjunctive construction in Spanish people do sometimes want to translate it as wish. But that doesn't have any real basis in the relative meanings. It has to do with the fact using wish as a translation uses a clearer subjunctive in English. While we have to say I want there to be more wood, which is a sort of back door subjunctive, using wish you have the more standard subjunctive I wish (that) there were more wood. That is obviously more parallel a construction. But the problem with saying want just means wish here is that in Spanish desear also requires the subjunctive. So you would essentially be saying that there is no difference between the Spanish sentences Quiero que haya más madera and Deseo que haya más madera, And a Spanish speaker would not say that. The difference between wish and want has to do with power and expectation. While saying want doesn't necessarily mean that you have the power to make it happen or that you expect that it will happen, saying wish does imply it is beyond your power to provide and that the outcome is unsure. That is why wish always requires the subjunctive in English despite our not having a robust subjunctive mood. But Spanish DOES have a robust subjunctive and both sentences are subjunctive because they both have doubt about the outcome (assuming the requirements of the subjunctive sentence as here). But desear does still assume MORE doubt.
I want more wood is NOT a valid translation for this sentence. That would be a simple declarative, indicative sentence, Quiero más madero. This is a subjunctive sentence with a WEIRDO verb triggering a subjunctive in the second clause. In order for the subjunctive to be triggers by querer and other WEIRDO verbs, two additional elements must be present. The first is that there has to be two clauses joined by que. The second is that the subject of the second clause should be different. I don't know what subject a native Spanish speaker would assign to this use of haber, since I have never seen one used, but in English we say there. It is in the third person conjugation. How do I know? Because the ONLY use of haber that isn't part of a perfect tense and thus stands alone is the third person singular which corresponds to There is or there are in the various tenses and moods. Of course the present tense somehow morphed from ha into hay, but all the other forms are the same as those used in the various perfect tenses. I want there to be more wood is what this is saying. The more classic subjunctive form is too awkward here. I want that there were more wood. No native speaker is likely to ever say that. But in most of those cases this infinitive subjunctive form is used.
I don't think anyone should depend on the drop downs for any words. But they are never designed for an exercise, they are designed for the word, so they may not even have the answer you need. But certainly you may not be able to get a good one or two word substitute for any subjunctive verb. The subjunctive in English is quite different. Haya is the present subjunctive of haber. Haber has only two functions in Spanish, and they are ones that would be logically paired. In this sentence haya is the present subjunctive of the expression hay (there is/are). The third person is the only one that appears alone. The only other use of haber is as the auxiliary verb for the perfect tenses.
No. The clue is always the word "there" with any form of the verb to be. When you see there is/are, there was/were, there would be, there should be or even as here there should be. These all take some ftrnse or mood of the third person singular of the verb Haber. Only the present tense has been somehoe changed into hay. This type of infinitive construction is one of the ways we reflect the subjunctive in English. Haya is the present subjunctive of haber.
- 2237
The more literal translation is "I want that there is (hence haya) more wood" but that sound awkward in English so we say "I want there to be..."
I want there to be more wood . a rare use of the subjunctive in english . . .
Big 4 jun 20
- 323
English is a foreign language for me. i did not understood the meaning of the sentence. Can someone explain it.thank you a lot it?(ואם מישהו יוכל לתרגם אותו לעברית,זה בכלל יהיה נפלא).
There are probably quite a few native speakers who have a problem with this sentence. The English subjunctive is a little strange and so is this sentence. This is simply somebody who is working on a carpentry project or maybe building a fire. They look at the amount of wood they have on hand and they don't know if there is enough. They want there to be more wood. It isn't necessarily the same as I need more wood, since it could be that they just aren't sure. But they would feel better if there were more. Duo is trying for a present subjunctive English statement here so it is more parallel to the Spanish. But in English you very rarely would use the present subjunctive with to want. The subjunctive statement most English speakers would use would actually use a different verb and the past subjunctive. I wish there were more wood. Wish is a rather unique verb in English because it is always followed by the conditional or the subjunctive, generally the past subjunctive. But this sentence is not incorrect in English, just strange.
Generally no more than about 75 or 80 percent of the exercises are related to the units theme.
