What if a word is a conjugation of multiple verbs?

Question

The dictionary interpreted "suele" as the subjunctive form of "solar" instead of the third person singular form of "soler"... is there any way to deal with this?

Answer 1

¡Hola!, Garaden:

Here is another possible reply to your question:

Solar as a verb seems to mean “to floor (a room), to pave, or, to sole shoes”

Soler as a verb seems to mean “to be used to”. For a better understanding of this verb, enter it into our dictionary function.

Since the verbs have such widely different meanings, then it is probable (so as to be almost absolute) that you will understand from the context in which the words are used, which of the verbs is being called upon and conjugated.

This same problem is dealt with in the preterite (past perfect) tenses of the verbs “ser” (to be) and “ir” (to go) where as between the two verbs they have identical preterite conjugations. But, it always seems to be OK because how the verbs are used in a sentence and what is the subject or object of the sentence (the context, so to speak) washes away any confusion about which verb and which kind of action is being referred to.

Qfreed has taken it that you were wondering about a computer logic issue as in how can a computer error error be dealt with. I have taken it that you were wondering how to deal with the problem of one word having two different meanings. If I misunderstood, I hope you wont be offended by my misinterpretation.

Recuerdos/Regards,

Moe

No problem :) I was indeed referring to the technical parameters, but thanks for replying anyway. - garaden, OCT 10, 2009

Answer 2

By the way,

third person, singular [ present, indicative] form of "soler".

There is a verb solar. It is stem changing o-ue verb. So the present subjunctive form would be suele.

Therefore, suele can be the 3rd person, singular, present indicative of soler or the 3rd person, singular present subjunctive of solar. Which it actually is would have to be determined by context which should be easy as they have no meanings in common.

I assume that your question is can the dictionary be made to reflect that this conjugated form can belong to two verbs rather than just picking one or the other?

The answer lies in the pogramming formula that the dictionary uses for determining which verb infinitive is associated with a conjugated form. It would probably involve running the subroutine more than once to determine if there was more than one verb option. I doubt that it is worth the trouble for the amount of occrences of when this happens.

I'm suprised that it even tried to tell you which verb that a conjugated form belonged to. What does it do with all of the verb tenses where the 1st person, singular and the 3rd person, singular are the same?

It just defaults to the first person, as in the subjunctive of solar. It crossed my mind that this might not be a widespread issue, but what about the preterite forms of ir and ser? Translating "Fuimos" brings up "ir" but not "ser". - garaden, OCT 10, 2009

I also admit that ser isn't often used in the preterite in common usage if I'm not mistaken, but preterite is usually taught before imperfect, so it's still an issue. - garaden, OCT 10, 2009