Various Grammar Questions [se, lava, a, me]
Hey, I've been amassing these questions for a while, I figured I should post some of them.
1) Están caminando por el parque
2) Ellos caminando por el parque
[ Are 'Ellos' and 'Están' both appropriate, or is one wrong?]
3) Me estoy lavando las manos
[Is the 'Me' necessary? 'My I am washing the hands' ]
4) El hombre se está lavando la cara
[How does one use 'se'? I don't understand its place above at all]
5) Estoy visitando a mi abuela en la hospital
[Is the a necessary? 'I am visiting to my grandmother at the hospital'
6) El niño esta visitando a su abuela
[Same concern as above]
7) Tiene el pelo seco
['He/She has the hair dry']
Thank you in advance to whoever answers this post.
3 Answers
Están caminando por el parque
The verb combination here is correct as "estar" + "caminar." The conjugation as "están" tells us that two or more people are doing something, and the present progressive of "caminar" says that they are walking. If we wanted to we could also add the pronoun "ellos" at the beginning of the sentence to say "they," but it's not really necessary. "Están caminando por el parque" is a complete sentence.
Ellos caminando por el parque
In this sentence we have the pronoun "Ellos" to mean they; however, we are missing part of the construction needed for a complete sentence in the present progressive. We need "estar" + "verb" to tell us what they are doing. So, this sentence should read "Ellos están caminando por el parque."
Me estoy lavando las manos. Is the 'Me' necessary?
The verb here is "lavarse" and it's called a reflexive verb. A reflexive verb is used when the direct or indirect object of a sentence is the same as the subject. In other words, the person doing the action is doing it to himself.
You can conjugate it two ways to say "I am washing my hands." 1) Me lavo las manos; or 2) Me estoy lavando las manos.
Take a look at the lesson on Reflexive verbs and also the way that a verb such as "lavarse" is conjugated.
El hombre se está lavando la cara.
When you look at the conjugation of "lavarse" you will see that the third person is conjugated as "se lava" and the present progressive would be "se está lavando."
Estoy visitando a mi abuela en el hospital. Is the a necessary?
Yes. This is called the personal "a," which is used where the direct object of a sentence is a person. A lesson on that subject can be found here.
Tiene el pelo seco
Many times in Spanish names of parts of the body are frequently preceded by the definite article (el, la, los or las) instead of possessive adjectives (mi for "my" and tu for "your"). To say "Give me your hand" in Spanish, we would say "Dame la mano."
Take a look at this article on Mistakes to Avoid in Spanish.
Hi Sensu!
Let me see if I can make some sense of this for you.
1) Están caminando por el parque
2) Ellos caminando por el parque
[ Are 'Ellos' and 'Están' both appropriate, or is one wrong?]
Number 1 is right, correctly using the present progressive tense, which consists of some form of the verb estar, + the gerund form of the verb.
Number 2 is wrong. It has the gerund, but it's missing a form of estar. the gerund can't be used this way by itself.
See: Progressive Tenses in our Reference Section.
3) Me estoy lavando las manos
[Is the 'Me' necessary? 'My I am washing the hands' ]
Yes, the "me" is necessary, because the verb here is a Reflexive Verb. Reflexive verbs always have the reflexive pronoun attached to them somewhere. Again we have the present progressive tense, which makes the reflexive pronoun a little tricky because there is that word "estar" between the reflexive pronoun and lavar.
You always use the reflexive form of the verb "lavarse" when you are washing something on your own body. You would use regular lavar for washing the car, the walls, or if you were washing someone elses hands. 
Reflexive verbs seem scary, ridiculous, and totally unnecessary. But when you get used to them they are really easy and kind of cool.
4) El hombre se está lavando la cara
[How does one use 'se'? I don't understand its place above at all]
There are many uses of the word "se", but in this case it's our old friend, the reflexive pronoun! In fact, this sentence is exactly the same as the sentence above it. the difference here is it's third person instead of third person, and he is washing his face rather than his hands. Other than that, it's the same sentence.
5) Estoy visitando a mi abuela en la hospital
[Is the a necessary? 'I am visiting to my grandmother at the hospital'
6) El niño esta visitando a su abuela
[Same concern as above]
That tricky thing is called the "Personal A" Yes, it's necessary because the direct object of the sentences is a person. It seems weird, I know, but that's the way they say it in Spanish, so you have to get used to it. After awhile, you just say it automatically.
Tiene el pelo seco
To me that doesn't say anything more than "she has dry hair." Maybe someone else can see a finer point about that which I don't know, but for me, that's it.
I hope I helped!
Hola..
- Ellos means They so, you can't say "they walking to the park"
But you can also say "Ellos están caminando por el parque" - Me in spanish doesn't mean "my" the verb is lavarse.... In spanish that kind of things are said like that.. Well it's hard to explain , but it is said like that because I am washing my hands.. I am the one who does the work...
- The same thing.. It's reflexive.. You know the same person does something to himslef..
- When you do something to people it's needed to say a ... For example " Have you seen my brother?" = " ¿A mi hermano , lo has visto?" as you see, you need to use both a and lo over there. Well just know that you should use a..
- As I just said... with people use a
- In spanish grammar things don't work like in english. I've noticed that that's what confuses you. Don't wait that things are going to be in the same way as english. In spanish adjectives come after nouns. Hence, the article is needed. So you can't translate it like "She has the hair dry" NO WAY! "She has a dry hair." But in spanish it isn't said like that as you have seen... Good Luck! Try to understand... At the end you will...
