Elementary - Thanksgiving

It's never too late to learn how to say Happy Thanksgiving in Spanish!

The question of the day is:

¿Cómo pasaron el Día de Gracias?

Yo la pase con amigos, fuimos a un restaurante y comimos delicioso. Solo que hace un año que no comía pavo, me serví un pedazo y en la noche me sentí fatal! Ya no estoy acostumbrada a la carne.

How was your Thanksgiving?

I was with friends, we went to a restaurant and have a delicious dinner. The thing is that it´s been a year without eating meat, but I wanted to have a piece of turkey, which I did. I end up having a really bad night! I am not used to meat anymore.

In my region, the day is called "Día de Acción de Gracias'' in the Spanish language television news and newspapers......

Marco?

tomar - take as consume or conquer

take time, a pill, a hill, a photo . . .

llevar - take as move from one place to another

take from my house to bring with

I was wondering..."llevo algo?" is in the present form. Literally translated it's like "I bring something?" Could you also say, "Debo llevar algo?" o "llevaría algo?" or are those phrases awkward?

Muchas gracias. Feliz Día de Acción de Gracias (un poco tarde).

Cobre

Cobre
I agree with you that tomar is to consume or take possession.   And  llevar is to take something from one place to another, but I would like to be a little more specific.

LLevar –to take/bring something away from the speaker’s position
Traer -  to  take/bring something toward the speaker.

Juan: "Puedes traerme el libro" – can you bring me the book (toward the speaker)
Maria: "Sí te lo llevo ahora" – Yes I will bring it to you now (away from the speaker)

o como un alternativo al final del dialogo

A- ¿Llevo algo?

B- ¡No necesitas traer nada!

and take has another translation too.

¿de qué tiempo se tarda?

how long does it take

@stevestr

I have a hard with the use of llevar and traer.

How would you say, " I bring my I Pod with me"?

¿traigo o llevo?

andrechartrand

I would think you would say "llevo mi iPod" becouse you are taking it away from your current location, but I am not sure.  Sorry.

stevestr

Muy buena tu explicación.

andrechartrand

En este caso las dos formas se pueden usar:

¿Traigo mi I Pod? (Tú traerás tu I Pod al lugar donde estás ahora)(¿ Traigo mi I Pod a....aquí?)

¿Llevo mi I Pod? (Tú llevarás tu I Pod al lugar a donde vas)¿ Llevo mi I Pod a ... allá?)

Por favor ¿en cuales paises se dice Día de Gracias?  En mi clase de español aprendí Día de Acción de Gracias pero ésta frase me parece demasiado complicada.

Yo comí con buen amigos -- comimos demasiado por supuesto.  Después jugamos el juego de palabras Apples to Apples y reímos muchísimos.

Mi tutor me dijo que 'Thanksgiving' se llama El Dia de Accion de Gracias tambien.  Vivo en California y ella es de Mexico.

Me comi 'Tofurky' con mi novio y los otros vegetarianos en mi familia.  El resto de mi familia piensa que es extrano y repugnante! jeje....

Estaba bromeando con mis companeros de trabajo en espanol y la llamamos tofu-pavo! 

I guess 'pavo de la soja' would be more accurate! 

Amandabrooke,

I was wondering..."llevo algo?" is in the present form. Literally translated it's like "I bring something?" Could you also say, "Debo llevar algo?" o "llevaría algo?" or are those phrases awkward?

That's a great question. English usually doesn't tolerate naked present tense verbs except in very specific contexts.  For example: I bring something = habitual action. 

Whenever I travel, I bring something to read. 

Even here, if I want to turn it into a question, I need to add a dummy "do":

When I travel, do I bring something to read?

When we hear someone say in English 'I bring something?' we know immediately that the person is a non-native speaker.

English demands a modal construction -- Do I have to bring... Am I bringing.. Should I bring...Would you like me to bring... for something that Spanish accomplishes economically with a single word: llevo.  I'm guessing that when you choose to say:

¿Debo llevar algo?

you are emphasizing the obligation: Do I have to bring something?

Personally, I get tripped up in this issue all the time; I've only recently become aware of how easy it is, in general, for us, as speakers of English, to impose our complicated modal verbal structures on Spanish.  I've come to appreciate the simple present tense in Spanish and how context and intonation can modulate its meaning.

Great post Anna.

I remember the first time a mexican friend of mine said to me que hago?  And I knew he meant what should I do but it was just the simple present.  

You'll also hear it used when something almost happened.  In English we would say I almost crashed.  A friend of mine told me once casi choco and I had to have him repeat it to understand that he was talking about something that happened to him on the way to work, something in the past.

Like you, I've gotten used to it and really like it.  Lots of situations can be made easier using the simple present.  Remember the DTAT with Sigor when he said something like...Yo no sé porque hace nueve años que estoy aquí...

Or like this...

I've been going there for a long time and never had a problem.

Yo voy allí desde hace mucho y nunca he tenido ningún problema...

Thanks, Hypersport! 

I hadn't really thought about present as past, but yeah, you're right.  And of course, we express futurity with present tense forms in Spanish all the time.

The fact is you can express yourself pretty well in a wide range of circumstances armed with the simple present.

Ah sorry, I just listened again. It's in the cowboy lesson. "Lo hago despues de terminar de ordenar las vacas." It's translated as "I will do it after" but the wouldn't that be "lo haré"? I think it's the same concept as you mentioned above. I'll post this for that lesson as well. 

Yeah, you'll hear the present for the immediate future a lot.

Lo hago después.  I’ll do it after.   Also depending on context, this could be I do it after.

Lo haré después.  I’ll do it after.

You can use either for the immediate future.