Have I done this right?Cada año en febrero, tengo mi fiesta de cumpleaños.

Question

I'm not sure how I've done and I want to know what I could do to improve my essay

Cada año en febrero, tengo mi fiesta de cumpleaños. Es siempre en mi casa por la tarde. Más tiempos entonces no es realmente frío así que nosotros estancia adentro para la mayor parte de el fiesta. Hacemos muchos cosas preparar para la fiesta. No hacemos tanto durante la fiesta, sin embargo.

Tenemos que hacer mucho conseguir listos para la fiesta de cumpleaños. Primero hago una lista de quién quiero invitar y entonces invito les. Después de eso, tengo que limpiar la casa. También yo busco y junto la musica en una mezcla. Durante todo esto compramos comida. Por último mis padres cocinan mientras mis hermanas y yo hacen alguno duran minuto limpiando.

¡Ahora es tiempo para la fiesta! Primero esperamos el primer amigo o persona de mi familia llegar. Segundo, paso tiempo con amigos. A veces nosotros vamos a caminar y vamos a la parque. En mi casa, escuchamos la música que elegí, y paso tiempo con amigos más. Aproximadamente 5 o 6 comemos la cena. Entonces abro mis regalos. Finalmente comemos el pastel. ¡Me encanta el pastel! Es muy sabroso.

(I am trying to say "Each year in February, I have my birthday party. It is always at my house in the afternoon. More times then not it's really cold so we stay inside for most of the party. We do many things to prepare for the party. We do not do much during the party, though. We have to do a lot to get ready for the birthday party. First I do a list of who I want to invite and then I invite them. After that, I have to clean the house. Also I find and put together the music in a mix. During all this we buy food. Finally my parents cook while my sisters and I they do some they last minute cleaning. Now it is time for the party! First we wait for the first friend or person from my family to arrive. Secondly, I hang out with my friends. Sometimes we are go on a walk and go to the park. In my house, we listen to music that I chose, and hang out with friends more. At approximately 5 or 6 we eat dinner. Then I open my gifts. Finally we eat the cake. I love the cake! It's tasty.")

• adding text for further searches - Heidita Oct 28, 2009

Answer 1

This is very well done BB! Overall your essay is a good translation as an English speaking person would think. There are better ways to express these thoughts in Spanish, but it will take time to be able to form thoughts the way a Spanish speaking person thinks. (And after years of being surrounded by it, it is not yet completely natural for me either! ) As you asked I made some corrections below. I did not, however, try to change the way you wanted to say things unless it was grammatically incorrect or didn’t make sense. One think to work on is not using 'yo', 'nosotros', etc. so much since the verbs express that by themselves.

Since it seems you are serious about progressing (and not just ‘ace-ing’ an exam ), here’s a suggestion: try to figure out why a correction was needed. Then you will be less likely to make the same mistake again. I wish I could say every correction I made was perfect, but I can’t. Hopefully someone else on the forum will jump if needed.

¡Siga haciendo tan buen trabajo!

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Todos los febreros celebramos mi fiesta de cumpleaños. Está siempre en mi casa por la tarde. Casi siempre hace mucho frío de modo que nos quedamos adentro durante la mayor parte de la fiesta. Hacemos muchas cosas para prepararse para la fiesta. No hacemos tanto durante la fiesta, sin embargo.

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Tenemos que hacer mucho para estar listos para la fiesta de cumpleaños. Primero hago una lista de quien quisiera invitar y entonces les invito. Después de eso, tengo que limpiar la casa. También yo busco música y la junto en una mezcla. Durante todo esto compramos comida. Por último mis padres cocinan mientras mis hermanas y yo hacemos una limpieza de último momento.

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¡Ahora es el momento para la fiesta! Primero esperamos que llegue el primer amigo o persona de mi familia. Segundo, paso tiempo con amigos. A veces nosotros demos un paseo y nos vayamos al parque. En mi casa, escuchamos la música que elegí, y paso más tiempo con amigos. Aproximadamente a las cinco o a las seis de la tarde comemos la cena. Entonces abro mis regalos. Finalmente comemos el pastel. ¡Me encanta el pastel! Es muy sabroso.

• "hace mucho frío", "preparar la fiesta", "a quien quisiera invitar, y entonces les invito", "vamos al parque", "... seis de la tarde cenamos" - Pancracio Oct 28, 2009
• 'hace muy' oops!, 'a quién' oops! 'les invita' oops!. I've made these corrections. Thanks Pancracio! - chaparrito Oct 28, 2009
• entonce los invito - qfreed Oct 28, 2009
• Oops again! '...los invito' Direct object, indeed. Thanks gfreed! - chaparrito Oct 29, 2009

Answer 2

BB, Pancracio added a comment to my answer that gave some corrections and offered some other suggestions. Maybe these comments will also help.

Hacemos muchos cosas preparar para la fiesta.

If you are preparing the party itself, then "Hacemos muchas cosas para preparar la fiesta." However if you are preparing (yourselves) for the party, then "... para prepararse para la fiesta" or "... muchos preparativos para la fiesta."

y vamos a la parque

This has to be reflexive, and 'parque' is maculine, but I'm not sure about the verb tense.

Since you said 'A veces' I'm pretty sure this qualifies for the Subjunctive form as shown in this thread about Subjunctive usage. If so then it should be "y nos vayamos al parque". It is possible that "y nos vamos al parque" is correct.

Aproximadamente 5 o 6 comemos la cena.

In written Spanish you will almost always see numbers spelled out.

When you refer to time you are talking about the hour, 'la hora'. Therefore "a las cinco..."

Finally "comemos la cena" is grammatically correct. However, just so you know, "cenar" means "to dine, take a meal" so "...a las seis de la tarde cenamos" is another good way to say it.

I hope this helps!

• Since you used hacemos, it should be followed by "prepararnos". & I have to disagree with the use of "demos" & "nos vayamos" while describing something you do on a "regular" basis (even though "a veces" is used here.) They should be in the indicative. - Deanski Oct 28, 2009