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- "Veo que él come."
104 Comments
Yeah, same here. I translated "what" instead of "that" and I was convinced that I was right. But I asked my wife - who is a native Spanish speaker - to translate (without telling her why) and she translated the sentence with "that." When I asked how to translate "what" she said it would be "Veo lo que él come."
"lo que" is a special construction that means "the thing that" (Okay, in English we would say what) and is used to introduce phrases used as nouns. "que" is a relative pronoun that can mean "that", "which" or "who". "qué" is an interrogative pronoun or "what?" used in questions, used as an interrogative adjective with nouns in questions and, finally, is used in exclamations as an adverb. The hover hints give possible meanings for a word like a dictionary would, not just for the sentence in the lesson. http://dictionary.reverso.net/spanish-english/qué http://spanish.about.com/od/pronouns/a/lo-que.htm
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En español, las cosas están redactadas de forma distinta, por ejemplo, cuando se escribe: el zapatos negro, A usted no se le ocurriría escribir el negro zapatos. Español sólo tiene una forma diferente de redacción frases que es el inglés. Pero es mucho como lengua de la muestra.
In Spanish, things are worded differently, for example, when writing: "el zapatos negro", It cannot occur to you to write "el negro zapatos". Spanish only has one form of writing sentences that is different than English. But it is much like sign language.
...and we have come across another version of "que" He seems to be missing one. "que es" means "that is " but "diferente que" is "different than ". http://dictionary.reverso.net/spanish-english/diferente%20que
"watch" would be "regarde" which can also be translated as "look at". http://dictionary.reverso.net/french-english/regarder
"watch" is a little more specific than "see". If your eyes are open, you can see all kinds of things. When you watch someone or something, you are focusing your attention on that person or thing. You might ignore other things and you are doing this over a period of time. http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/watch_1?q=watch http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/american-english/see_1?q=see http://dictionary.cambridge.org/search/american-english/?q=see However, there is an expression in English "to see that someone does something" in which you are more than just seeing but watching and making sure that the person does what they are supposed to do, especially with the person being a child. This could also apply to this sentence.
In some situations "see" can be used instead of "watch" , but "watch" cannot always be used instead of "see". You are likely to say "I watched TV last night." but you can use either to ask "Did you see the latest episode of .....?" "I saw some of it." or "I watched every minute of it. " Since the context is not clear, we cannot randomly replace "see" with "watch".
I have listened to this sentence multiple times, and I swear I can't hear them say "él" except when I am playing it on slower. That seems to be the case on many of these sentences. Is it implied or is there another way that I can detect it when it is not cleanly pronounced. "come" implies the third person, but how do you tell which?
On slow each word is pronounced separately, on fast "que" and "él" sound like one word "queél", but I definitely hear the 'l'. Perhaps you were not listening for it in the word before. Try listening to native speakers on Forvo. They have another with "què és això? in which it blends the two 'e's together also on the second page.
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Question: In English, we might use this phrase in two ways. (1) "I see (with my eyes) that he eats". Meaning yes, I can see him eating. Or (2) "I see (I make sure) that he eats". As in, I'm looking after my elderly father and make sure that he eats every day. Can it be used in Spanish in this second way?
I think you are asking about "veo" which means "I see" as "que" means "that" here. "ya entiendo" or "¡ya comprendo!" are used for "I understand".
That would be "Miro cómo come." or "Lo miro comer." To watch is "mirar" or "observar". "ver" is "to see" or "to notice", but it has been used like "mirar" at times. I don't think that duolingo will accept it because you are ignoring the whole "que" with its subordinate clause "I see that he eats." http://dictionary.reverso.net/english-spanish/I%20watch%20him%20eat
The 'l' is not included with veo and it is not a preposition but part of the word "él" which is a pronoun that means "he ". It is heard as if it were part of the word before it which is "que" which is the relative conjunction "that". "Veo que él come." is "I see that he eats." You absolutely know that "veo" means "I see ", but "come", without "él" to clarify it, could mean "she eats"(ella come), "he eats"(él come, "it eats" (an animal or monster?), or "you eat" ("Usted come" which is formal singular in Spain). So, it is best to clarify the third person singular form of the verb with a pronoun.
You are right that there could be a different sentence "I see him eat." which would be "Lo veo comer.", but the sentence on this page could mean that a parent is making sure that his child eats "I see that he eats." which would not work with the different version.
This sentence really demostrates the way spanish speakers pronounce back to back vowels with a blending method. Such as "que e'l" sounds very much like "kel" when pronouced in this sentence. I think that is the most difficult aspect of learning to understand spoken spanish, and explains why so many people state that "I can read spanish better than I can speak it or understand it when spoken".
You might say it with something after eats. Perhaps you are at a friend's house and you're talking about their son and you say something like "I see that he eats his vegetables, how'd you manage to get him to do that?" That seems fairly natural to me. Sometimes you just have to remember that we're learning the building blocks now, and that soon it'll start seeming right. :)
I was wondering about that, too, allintolearning. But I veered away from that meaning in an earlier post I made because I'm wondering if that meaning is a bit idiomatic and not expressed the same way in Spanish because what you're really saying is that you see to it that he eats -- you ensure that he eats. Is the expression, "Veo que él come," an expression that can reach beyond the literal?
BTW, I see you have learned quite a few languages, allintolearning, and your level in Spanish is quite impressive and double that of mine, but it never hurts to question, so I hope you are not offended by it. I've enjoyed and benefited from many of your posts and hope to see many more from you.
Also, if a native Spanish speaker has an opinion on this, we'd love to have you share it with us.
Literally "the thing (or it) that", but in English we would use "what", "that which" or "whatever". Check out this dictionary site as there are a lot of expressions that use it: http://dictionary.reverso.net/spanish-english/lo%20que
"Watch" requires a direct object. "I watch the television." In English you cannot say 'I watch that he eats.' You cannot say 'I look that he eats.' either because"look" requires "at" plus a noun or pronoun used as an object of the preposition at. For this sentence you need to use the verb "see" or "notice".
It sounds as if it were part of the word before "que él", so listen to the word before carefully. There is no "quel" in Spanish and the 'e' sounds a bit longer and the verb "come" comes after it and one of the subjects of "come" is "él". So that is how you figure it out. Developing an ear for Spanish possibilities will come with time. Don't give up!
I believe this has been answered at least once or twice before, but to answer your question directly you would say/write:
¡Ve lo que come!
"See what he eats," requires the use of the imperative mood, which is quite a few branches up the tree. Duolingo doesn't usually test you on what you haven't learned yet.
For more on "lo que," see this post by caiser. If that doesn't clear it up for you, scroll through this thread. Several other posts are related to your question. HTH.
Well, according to WordReference, "watch" is a very close synonym of "see" and both are considered English equivalents, but would we say, in English, "We watch that he eats"? No, we wouldn't. For a good post on the differences between "watch" and "see," read this post by allintolearning. HTH.
The word "su" is a possessive adjective that means "his," "hers," or "yours" (formal, singular). "Él" is a subject pronoun. It means "he." "Ella" is another subject pronoun. It means "she."
I pasted a chart of subject pronouns below:
To learn more about possessive adjectives in Spanish, you can visit the "Tips and notes" for "Possessives." The link to it is below:
HTH
It looks as if you have moved on to German, but if you should ever return to Spanish, please see this post for an answer to your question.
BTW, ¡Enhorabuena! It appears you have made it past the second checkpoint in Spanish. Not everybody gets that far with it.
It looks as if you're taking a break from Spanish (here at duolingo anyway), but if you should return, and we hope that you do, I want to let you know that kristoffermyrnas and perhaps others as well have already asked this question. Caiser's post answers it quite well, I believe, but if not, you can search through this thread to see if another one makes more sense to you. HTH.
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Oh crap! Just another one who didn't know or remember about the accent. It's Que = that and Que' = what. Muchas gracias.