Elementary - Itchy

Hi elementaries!

La pregunta del día es: ¿Te pican mucho los mosquitos?

A mi no, creo que tengo sangre pesada y no azul como la realeza.

Question of the day: Do mosquitos bite you a lot?

Not me, I think I have "heavy blood" (in spanish it means that you have a complicated personality, not of "sangre liviana" meaning light blooded, a simple personality, more chilled and relaxed) and not blue blood as royalty.

Hola todos --

I'm a little confused by the phrase <Pues te aguantas>.  It's translated as though it's an informal command, but that's not the correct form for an informal command, is it?  Is this sort of a colloquial way of giving a command that I'm just not yet familiar with?

Gracias!

Hi alma, "pues te aguantas" is tough to translate.  It is in the regular present tense; we wouldn't do it that way in English. A very literal translation might be "well, you deal with it yourself."  The point is that there's no remedy, and there's no sympathy either.

Ennis del Mar might say, "If you can't fix it, you got to stand it."  at the 1:48 mark.

Lili, I gotta tell you, that English accent attempt wasn't bad!  Stiff upper lip...lol, good job!

Thanks!!  I can imagine that for native English speaker a Mexican trying to make an English accent is not pretty! thanks for comment! I would love to speak British! It sound so posh, smart and British!

No temenos muchos mosquitos en Inglaterra, pero cuando sea estoy en el extranero me pican mucho.

Liliana, there's really only a select few regions that speak so elequently, much of england is not as pretty :P

Cutthatcity

Jejeje I know I watch to many movies! I remember I used to watch the Nanny and I always thought that Miles (the butler) was British, I just realized he is American! hahaha

so is this use of vosotros the only alternative of being polite to the mosquitos? i.e. you tutear the family pet not because its a close friend but because using usted would be patently absurd ?

the best defense against mosquitos is a friend who always gets bitten. I vaguely remember my mother painting me with a solution of soda bic when we lived in singapore though im pretty sure it didnt stop me scratching.  additionally i seem to recall hearing that one should paint the bites with clear nail varnish but i may have dreamt that.

apparently not

Thanks JP. 

I'm thinking that a translation of the phrase that doesn't fall back on the command might be, "... well then you just deal with it."  At least that translation might help me understand where to use the present tense in place of the command in similar situations (or, more likely, to understand the form when native speakers employ it).

Hola todos! In Puerto Rico, right before the sun goes down, the mosquitos come out in force! And so do the bats! They eat a lot of the mosquitos but not all & I usually end up with a few bites. The natives laugh and say the mosquitos like the "new blood".

When I remember I use "OFF" before they can get me...

Si, mosquitos me pican mucho! 

As for preventing bites, it's said that if you eat lots of Vegemite or Marmite (high in vitamin B) then it is supposed to act as a deterrent.

Si alguna vez no tienen repelente, se pueden echar un poco de cerveza o tequila y los mosquitos no se acercan! Hueles a trago pero por lo menos no terminas picado!

MM

Normalmente los mosquitos no me pican. Pero los "black flies" (¿comó se dice en español? ¿mosquitos negros?) sí me persiguen y me pican. Son una pesadilla. Afortunadamente no hay muchos de ellos en Alemania.

Mosquitos usually don't bite me. But "black flies" sure follow and bite me. They are a nightmare. Fortunately there are not many of them in Germany.

Los mosquitoes y las moscas negras me pican mucho. Si estoy en un grupo, un mosquito alrededor me encontrara y me picara. Ellos rocian algo (supuestamente ambientalmente amistoso) en centros urbanos de Quebec grandes; pero vivo en el campo. Esto es el otono ahora, entonces no veremos a mosquitos hasta el proximo verano.

Mosquitoes and black flies bite me a lot. If I am in a group, the one mosquito around will bite me. They spray something in large urban centers (supposedly environmentally friendly), but I live in the countryside. It is autumn now, so we will not see mosquitoes until next summer. (Note, I am a newcomer and I have not found how to add the accents yet - I used an instant translator so please let me know if I have got something wrong. The translator used the word "morder" instead of "picar".

suz333, welcome to SpanishPod!  Any second now, one of the many sherrifs of the sPod community will link you to some accent mark instructions.  As for your instant translator, "morder" is a good word for bite from a teeth-bearing animal, like if a dog or a person bit you, but with insects we use "picar,"  (to sting). 

suz333, if you would like to know how to write the accent marks click here :)

¡Que odiosos los mosquitos! Me pican mucho.  La primavera pasada vivía en Shanghai y encontré un líquido misterioso que funciona como repelente y remedio.  No sé como se dice en chino, pero la botella es verde y huele casi como perfume.