The cool air feels good ...in Spanish?

Question

How would I say that something feels good? For example:

• The cool air feels good (to me).

• Exercising feels good (to me)

The ideas I've come up with are:

• El aire fresco me da una buena sensación.

• El aire fresco es bueno (but this doesn’t say how it feels to me).

• A mi me siento bien el aire fresco.

• Hago ejercicio porque me da una buena sensación.

• Hacer ejercicio me siento bien.

• Hacer ejercicio me parece bueno.

I’ve looked at some dictionaries, and the dictionary here gives an example of “it feels good,” but it’s difficult to understand how this would be used in a sentence (SpanishDict says: it feels strange/good > es extraño/agradable).

Should I just be content with “A mi me gusta el aire fresco” and stop trying to directly translate my feelings from English to Spanish?

Answer 1

• El aire fresco me da una buena sensación.

The grammar is fine, but doesn't sound natural.

• El aire fresco es bueno (but this doesn’t say how it feels to me).

Exactly.

• A mí me sienta bien el aire fresco.

That "a mí" is not necessary here.

• Hago ejercicio porque me da una buena sensación.

Strange.

• Hacer ejercicio me sienta bien.

This one is pretty close, but it also stresses that it is good for your health.

• Hacer ejercicio me parece bueno.

This means "Exercise is good (in my opinion)".

You can say:

Qué agradable el viento fresco.

El viento fresco es agradable (or "me resulta")

Me gusta/agrada/encanta el aire fresco

Hacer deporte me hace sentirme bien.

Notice that mistake you made above in "me siento". This is what the sentence looks like when you don't use an infinitive clause:

Una cosa me sienta bien

It is used like a typical "gustar" verb", where the subject is what pleases you. Replace the noun phrase "una cosa" with an infinitive clause, and this is what you get:

Hacer deporte me sienta bien.

Answer 2

I found this meaning for the English noun feel (1.a) (sensación) that might provide a pattern: The English is "I love the feel of the wind on my face." And the translation from my Gran Diccionario Oxford is: "Me encanta sentir el viento en la cara."

I found a lot of other usages for the English "feel", too, of course, but that one seemed to fit best.

So how about "Me encanta el aire fresco en la cara" (or at your back, perhaps.) Me encanta is not exactly the same, I suppose, for the native speaker as would be "Me gusta".

...oh yes, how about "I appreciate", try looking up appreciate. That is also what you are expressing with "The cool air feels good." ...hmm..I just looked it up...maybe you can skip appreciate. I did not find any good sentences with it for this use.

Answer 3

Thanks, Janice. I like "Me encanta sentir...." for the cool breeze.

I think "encantar" may be a bit strong to describe my feelings toward exercise. Exercising may feel good but I certainly don't love it.

Answer 4

Maybe you have to change what you want to say altogether to translate intstead: "Exercise makes me feel good." That is different from saying that exercise feels good! Of course, sometimes it does! But maybe again it is always just making you feel good and cannot at all be expressed in the same way as for the breeze.

I do think that even though we use similar words and even a similar construction in English, we are actually saying different things.

Maybe you´ll need a whole other word, neither encantar nor gustar. On the other hand, maybe Spanish also expresses that other kind of "it feels good" with these words, too.

I'm not much help...I had better go exercise.

• I guess I'll go with "encantar" and "gustar" for now. Thanks again! - --Mariana-- 24 de Ago, 2009

Answer 5

Thank you, Lazarus.

I think "¡Qué agradable el viento fresco!" and "Hacer ejercicio me sienta bien" are the closest to what I'm trying to say.

Janet mentioned "me encanta el aire fresco," and I like that one, too.

Answer 6

I am certain Spanish doesn't have a verb which translates "to feel good". I believe the translation involving the word feel would depend on the context of the question. Janice has already given one example relating to your question but look at these two "feels"

I feel like an apple - me apetece una manzana

It feels like rain - parece que va a llover

Two different verbs translating "feel"

How about "the feelgood factor" - la sensación de bienestar.

• Thanks, Eddy, I guess that's what I was looking for: a verb that means "to feel ggod." - --Mariana-- 24 de Ago, 2009