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Could someone please check this simple translation for me?

Could someone please check this simple translation for me?

1
vote

I found this pretty simple text on the web and tried translating it. I would appreciate it if anyone could take a look for mistakes smile


Hola. Estoy estudiante en una escuela en Mexico. Hay veinte estudiantes en mi clase. Mi maestra es mi tía Sarita. Tengo un escritorio. En mi escritorio hay dos libros, las plumas, el papel, un cuaderno y una regla.

Estudiamos mucho. Cada lunes, martes, miércoles, jueves y viernes estudiamos inglés. No estudiamos español porque hablamos español en la casa. (Are languages in Spanish with or without capital letters?)

Tengo tres hermanos y dos hermanas. Mi padre trabaja en una granja. En la granja hay muchos animalos.

Mi familia y yo cantan mucho y cada sábado mi madre toca el piano y bailamos. Cada domingo escuchamos a la radio y cantamos. ("mi madre toca el piano y bailamos" would it be better to put "nosotros bailamos" in here?)


The original English version:

Hi. I am a student in a school in Mexico. There are twenty students in my class. My teacher is my Aunt Sarita. I have a desk. In my desk there are books, pens, paper, a notebook, and a ruler.

We study a lot. Every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we study English. We don’t study Spanish because we speak Spanish at home.

I have three brothers and two sisters. My father works on a farm. On the farm there are lots of animals.

My family and I sing a lot and every Saturday my mother plays the piano and we dance. Every Sunday we listen to the radio and we sing.

Hope I don't give you all to much work grin

5418 views
updated Feb 26, 2010
posted by Alrisaera

4 Answers

4
votes

Hi Alrisaera

Hola. Soy estudiante en una escuela de México. Hay veinte estudiantes en mi clase. Mi maestra es mi tía Sarita. Tengo un escritorio. En mi escritorio hay dos libros, lapiceras, papel, un cuaderno y una regla.

Estudiamos mucho. Lunes, martes, miércoles, jueves y viernes estudiamos inglés. No estudiamos español porque lo hablamos en la casa. Tengo tres hermanos y dos hermanas. Mi padre trabaja en una granja. En la granja hay muchos animales. Mi familia y yo cantamos mucho y cada sábado mi madre toca el piano y bailamos. Los domingos escuchamos la radio y cantamos.


·(Are languages in Spanish with or without capital letters?) ·Without.

("mi madre toca el piano y bailamos" would it be better to put "nosotros bailamos" in here?) - You can often drop pronouns in Spanish because the verb has inflections.


I think you made an awesome translation for a beginner!

updated Feb 26, 2010
edited by mediterrunio
posted by mediterrunio
what about pens? - Kidakakash101, Feb 24, 2010
it could be bolígrafos also - mediterrunio, Feb 24, 2010
1
vote

If you check the english part:

My teacher is my Aunt Sarita. I have a desk. In my desk there are books, pens, paper, a notebook, and a ruler.

"En mi escritorio hay libros, bolígrafos, papel, un cuaderno y una regla"

The text says that there is only 1 notebook and 1 ruler (I don't know why you chose two books xD).

So it is simple, if you need to define the number of things, you use the article. If you are talking in general not giving the information of the number of the items, you don't need article.

updated Feb 24, 2010
posted by Zizoun
Euhm... I have no clue why I used "dos" haha, but thanks for explaining the articles ;) - Alrisaera, Feb 24, 2010
0
votes

Thank you for taking a look mediterrunio. grin

There's 1 thingy that I don't understand:

En mi escritorio hay dos libros, lapiceras, papel, un cuaderno y una regla

I see that you let out the articles in here. It made me wonder why you take it away from lapiceras and papel, but not from the others. Although it does sound better without them, I've always thought they were necessary.

updated Feb 26, 2010
edited by Alrisaera
posted by Alrisaera
there are some rules for keeping or dropping articles. I anwered a thread on that a couple of days ago. I´ll lkok for the link - mediterrunio, Feb 26, 2010
0
votes

A pen is boligrafo and animals are animales other than that perfect spanish!

updated Feb 24, 2010
edited by Kidakakash101
posted by Kidakakash101
boligrafo is only ballpoint pen. Pluma o lapicera is a pen in general Pluma is more related to fountain pen or quill pen - juluque, Feb 24, 2010
I agree with julunque... "pluma" means "feather"; however, when referring to a writing utensil, it means "quill pen" BUT, you can use either "bolígrafos" or "plumas" - MeEncantanCarasSonrisas, Feb 24, 2010