laura

~X~

"in order for him, to have been able, to have bought it, he would have had to have had more money."

para que él hubiera podido, haber comprarlo, habria tenido que, haber tenido más dinero

is my best effort to date. does it work in spanish? i would stand 0 chance of understanding were it not written down.

I went with "hubiera" because of the para que.. but i guess you could avoid the subjunctive with another infinitive and start with
"para que él haber podido haber comprarlo"
"haber sido poder haber comprarlo" doesnt seem quite right to me (too many to bes)

then again you could just say
le faltaba dinero para comprarlo

Sometimes it strikes me that the compound tense system must have come to us from a completely different language to the preterit-imperfect system. Does anyone know?

Anbarfa

The difference between “es que olvidé pagar la cuenta” and “es que yo olvidé pagar la cuenta” is easy.  Then mean pretty much the same thing.  The “yo” in the second sentence is redundant and is probable used to emphasis that it was “I” who forgot to pay the bill.

The differences between olvlidar and olvidarse is more complicated.  There are a lot of verbs with two forms, one ending with “se” where the one ending in “se” is not really reflective.  My favorite grammar book  A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish” has a section dedicated to these verbs.  The text below, in blue, came from this book, section 26.7.26:

“Olvidar/olvidarse ( de) / olvidársele algo a uno

The verb means ‘to forget’, and there are four possibilities: Olvidar algo, olvidarse algo, olvidarse  de algo,   olvidársele algo a alguien’

(a)   When deliberate forgetting is implied, the first form is rather formal and is usually replaced in coloquial styles by olvidarse de: ‘no puedo olvidarla/no puedo olvidarme de ella’  ‘I can’t forget her’.

(b)  For absent-minded forgetting olvidar and olvidárse le can be used, the former again being rather formal: he olvidado mi agenda/ se le olvidada todo menos ella ‘he forgot his other commitments, he forgot everything except her’. In the latter construction the thing forgotten is the subject of the verb: se me olvidaron las fores ‘I forgot the flowers’ (latterly ‘the flowers forgot themselves “on” me’)

(c)   Olvidarse algo (without the de) is colloquial and is censured by some grammarians, including Manuel Seco.  Foreigners should probably say me olvidado de ella or la he olvidado and not me la he olvidado.  It can, however, be used colloquially for the accidental forgetting of objects: me he olvidado el libro/ se me olvidó el libro ‘I’ve forgotten the book’ (but, since this is absent-minded forgetting, not me he olvidado del libro). Olvidarse algo is also common in Latin America.

El estudiante que le gustan las matemáticas es muy listo. 

In this case we have a restrictive clause (not set off by commons). The word "que" asks as the relative pronoun whom, which is the direct object of gustar. 

Whenever que is used as a direct object within the relative clause, I don't believe you use the personal a, simply que.

However, if you wanted to use quien, you would use the personal a. 

El estudiante a quien le gustan las matemáticas es muy listo.  

I'd say they have a ways to go yet, but it is an interesting start.

gracias kikuyu

CASO CERRADO

To use comerse, whatever it is that is being eaten has to be quantified.  And you still have the option to just use comer if you want.

If it's not quantified you don't have the choice, you have to use comer. 

Rearrange the sentence to say something like

"If I have to do it, then I will do it" ~ "Si tengo que hacerlo, entonces lo haré"    ..Maybe?

There are dozens of ways we in English use the verb "to get" (i.e., "to get a new one" is different from "to get a job," which is different from "to get drunk," which is different from "to get served," ... etc.)

In fact, the verb "to get" was one of the litinus tests for dictionaries that I used to tell my students.  If a Spanish-English dictionary doesn't have at least a page on different options for "to get," you should drop it like a hot rock!

One thing that helped me a ton and continues to do so is reading books.  It's like you do it enough and the construction and grammar just starts imbedding in your brain.  Starts to feel the same as English even though it's different.

I'm sure you've already experienced that sensation where you've just completed a page or more of a book and you realize, wow, I don't remember when I last had a thought in English!  That's a great sign that it's sinking in.  I remeber the first time I realized that, I was reading a childrens book, that was awesome!

This is where you develop the same instincts that you have in English, even without being able to speak often.

Todavia no soy jedi :-(

many thanks for your help.

Let me preface this by saying I have not finished reading the book yet.
The City of Beasts is a book written for teenage readers in the U.S. market. (there are some lines of how good various Venezuelans speak very good English but all of the book is in Spanish)
It seems to be about the growth of a California boy who has 15 years of age. That grows when he was sent on an adventure in the Amazon with his grandmother explorer / author. There is danger, high adventure, vampires, affection, death, nudity, secret initiations, conspiracy, and the shades of the supernatural a little for everyone I guess.

Esta es mi primera novela en español y aunque no puedo tipo de descremada a lo largo y obtener una idea de lo que está pasando, decidí volver atrás y empezar por el principio y moler a mi camino, sin embargo, tomando notas de todas las nuevas palabras que aparecieron y tratando de entender los.

This is my first novel in Spanish and though I can kind of skim along and get a feel for what is going on, I decided to go back, start at the beginning and grind my way though, noting all new words as they appeared and trying to understand.

Tengo el libro de bolsillo y una copia de los libros en cinta.
He estado haciendo del moler para las palabras nuevas en una copia desde Internet que me pega en mi procesador de textos.

La copia me tenge desde Internet ha cambiado el nombre de Cold a Coid, algunos cambios de formato, faltan unas pocas frases comunes y diversas preposiciones sustituido cuando el significado es prácticamente el mismo.


I have the paperback copy and a books on tape copy as well.
I have been doing my grinding on a copy off the web which I pasted into my word processor.

The web copy had the name changed from Cold to Coid, a few formatting changes, a few missing phrases and various common prepositions substituted when the meaning was nearly the same.

Gracias  Es nuevo para mi usar el imprfecto para expresar duda.

Good call thanks.

Donperigo cutthatcity

The permanent / temporary thing with estar/ser is a simplification.  I do believe that being dead is thought of as a state of being like being sick or tired.  I think that that is the reason that estar is used with muerta.

now maybe we can get a native to pick it apart.

wrestle it down and pin it to the mat.