I need help with my oral final!

Question

Would somebody be willing to look over and proof-read this? It is my oral final study guide. We have been given 30 questions and will be asked 5 at random. I want to make sure everything flows and is correct (it is, to the best of my knowledge).

Here is a link: Click Here To Go To Page

If you can spot any mistakes, it would be HUGELY appreciated.

Thanks! Harman

For Clarification:

These questions were provided to me by my Spanish II teacher. I formulated responses to each question, however, due to my poor knowledge of Spanish grammar, I require help. I want to make sure my responses are correctly conjugated and grammatically correct.

Thanks again!

P.S. The final for the class is on Wednesday, and each student will be asked 5 of the 30 questions, picked at random.

very good puntuation i believe everything is spelled right to the best of my knowledge - tweber08, Jun 7, 2010

Thanks for the link edit,Princess, did you look at question #26? - LateToDinner, Jun 7, 2010

Answer 1

2) ¿Por qué no hemos tenido una fiesta?

b. Porque Shelby es una chica irrespetuosa

c. Because Shelby is disrespectful.

3) ¿Cuánto dinero te han dado tus padres?

Mis padres me han dado poco dinero.

4) ¿Qué has comido esta mañana?

a. What have you ate this morning?

b. He comido cereales, y pan tostado.

c. I ate cereal and toast.

5) ¿En qué has ido a la escuela?

a. In what have you come to school?

b. He ido a la escuela en coche. El coche es un Ford Windstar.

c. I came to school in a car. The car is a Ford Windstar.

6) ¿Qué haces para recibir tu permiso de manejar?

a. What do you do to receive your driver’s license?

b. Yo pasé el examen de manejar en el Departamento de Licencias.

8) ¿Cuándo eras niño a qué jugabas en el patio de recreo?

a. When you were a child, what did you play on the playground?

b. Cuando yo era niño, -- jugaba con los columpios y las barras.

c. When I was a kid, I played with the swings and the monkey bars.

9) ¿También con quién te peleabas?

a. Also, with whom did you fight?

b. Peleaba con otros niños. Cuando era niño, me gustaba pelearme.

10) ¿Adónde ibas a la escuela primaria/elemental?

b. Yo iba a Glenridge. Glenrdige es una escuela muy buena.

c. I went to Glenrdige. Glenridge is a very good school.

Delete all those subjects from the answers! No subject pronouns are used in Spanish

I updated the link with those changes! Thanks. I spoke with my teacher today and she says that I should leave all of the pronouns in place. I showed her the comments about it on this site and she said she understands but wants them there for grading. - Harman_M, Jun 8, 2010

Answer 2

The pronouns yo, tú, nosotros, etc. are unnecessary & should be omitted (although I think your teacher would like to see or hear you use them to determine if you know which pronoun to use in a given sentence).

I also chose 3 questions at random. I put in parenthesis the things you need to omit.

5) ¿En qué has ido a la escuela?

a. In what have you come to school? -->Sounds weird, but at least you got its sense.

b. He ido a la escuela en (un) coche. El coche es un Ford Windstar. -->Remove the "un" in this case. To travel by/ride a car = Ir en coche

c. I came to school in a car. The car is a Ford Windstar.

7) ¿Qué hace el policía en varios casos?

a. What do the police do in various (several) cases?

b. El policía investiga(n) varios casos.

c. The police investigate in various cases.

-->If you say el policía, it means the policeman. La policía, on the other hand, means "the police". The translation you gave was "the police", which is plural in English, & therefore was not a correct translation since your teacher was referring to just the policeman. In any case, the verb in Spanish should be in 3rd person singular, hence investiga.

19) ¿Qué película de desastre te gusto, descríbela, por favor?

a. What disaster movie do you like? Describe it, please.

b. The Day After Tomorrow, porque la película tiene acción y drama.

c. The Day After Tomorrow because the movie has action and drama.

-->"Te gusto" was meant either as "te gustó", which is in the simple past tense, or "te gusta", present tense. Apparently you thought it to be "te gusta" based on your translation. Start your answer with "Me gusta" (I like).

Thanks for the help! I'll go and edit those questions. I noticed the me gusta error earlier but haven't changed it on the google doc yet. I'm going to go and edit it right now. - Harman_M, Jun 7, 2010

The teacher prefers we leave the pronouns in. She believes that they help you remember verb conjugation more effectively. - Harman_M, Jun 7, 2010

Denaksi wouldn't it be better to say ¿Cómo has viajado a la escuela? = how have you travelled to school en lugar de ¿En qué has ido a la escuela? - FELIZ77, Jun 7, 2010

Hi Feliz. I would say it's another way of asking it, but not necessarily better. Using "en qué" automatically implies the mode of transportation used, and it gives you an idea right away of how to answer the question, i.e. en coche, en tren, etc. - Deanski, Jun 8, 2010

Answer 3

In translating the answer because Shelby is disrespectful.

You could also say

Porque Shelby es una chica irrespetuosa (irrespetuosa/o is an adjective)

I hope that this helps

Thanks! That one seems a little bit easy to remember. I couldn't find the adjective for irrespectful in my textbook, so I went with a term I found online. Shelby is this really rude student in the class who makes frequent, loud outbursts. - Harman_M, Jun 7, 2010

Yes I understand what you say about Shelby. The word you needed to look up is actually Disrespectful in English ... not irrespectful - FELIZ77, Jun 7, 2010

Answer 4

I only looked at the first three, but I would like to know what kind of comments that you are looking for?

1) mis padres, y mis profesores...a comma is not used before the "y" in a series in Spanish. It is used before the conjunction "y" connecting two sentences, independent clauses, etc.

2) In English you do not start a sentence with because (conjunction). It makes it a sentence fragment. Not so, in Spanish, but you still need to form a complete sentence.

3) The sentence is lacking the personal "a".

¿Cuánto dinero te han dado a tus padres?

Yo no me di a mis padres dinero.

Excuse me. I incorrectly changed the sentence according to your translation which I believe to be incorrect. The original question was:

How much money have your parents given to you?

The answer should have been:

My parents have not given me money.

Mis padres no me han dado dinero.

Since I don't know where the questions came from (yours or provided) I don't know if you want comments on them nor do I know if you want grammar comments like in the 1st sentence. I'm just letting you know that you have errors.

1) ¿Con quién has hablado hoy?

a. With whom did you speak today?

b. Yo hablé con mis amigos, mis padres, y mis profesores.

c. I spoke with my friends, my parents, and my teachers.

2) ¿Por qué no hemos tenido una fiesta?

a. Why didn’t we have a party?

b. Porque Shelby es una chica muy sin nada de respeto.

c. Because Shelby is disrespectful.

3) ¿Cuánto dinero te han dado tus padres?

a. How much money have you given to your parents?

b. Yo no me di mis padres dinero.

c. I do not give my parents money.

The questions should be correct. I just want comments on whether or not the answers are acceptable. I am not very confident in my grammar/verb tense and use. - Harman_M, Jun 7, 2010

Answer 5

Sorry, what is it that you would like reviewed? I would assume the original questions were provided to you en español. Next is what looks like a machine translation into English or was translating the questions part of the requirement? Some of those need serious help, but I don't want to tackle that if it isn't what you are asking help with. Then comes what I take to be your answers and if you are going to give them orally, I think you will do just fine. As far as the the one you couldn't translate, I copied it here. I'm sure you will get a better translation soon but my guess is:

How do you get ready for school?

Harman would like a translation into English:

¿Qué hiciste para arreglarse antes de la escuela?

The questions were provided by my instructor. I want to make sure that my responses (b) are correct in terms of grammar, punctuation, verb tense, etc. - Harman_M, Jun 7, 2010

I checked with my teacher, and 26 is what you said it is. Thanks! - Harman_M, Jun 7, 2010

Answer 6

Anybody else have comments? The final is tomorrow!

Thanks for all the help so far, you guys/gals are great.