Siento haber venido mientras estás trabajando
Seems like a weird use of siento. Gracias.
4 Answers
It means, I'm sorry for having come whilst you were working.
I'm sorry I can't explain the grammatical use, perhaps others will. I think it should be : siento por haber....
It might be less cumbersome to say: I'm sorry for coming......
It is a very common use of "sentir". This verb means to experience sensations or impressions, particularly (but not exclusively) when they are not pleasant. In the above sentence, the verb expresses an experience of shame, sorrow or any other unpleasant feeling regarding an issue. That's how we apologize in Spanish. In English we feel sorry about something, but in Spanish we kind of "feel that something" directly (meaning that we experience the sorrow due to that something). The way we express the idea is quite different in both languages, so word by word translations don't help here.
Sentir algo - To be sorry about something (tit. to feel sth.,) -algo is the direct object
Lo siento - I'm sorry about it (lit. I feel it) - "lo" the direct object (d.o.)
And going back to the idea that infinitives (and not gerundios) behave like nouns in Spanish, the direct object, which normally is a noun (eg. algo) or a pronoun (eg. lo), can be replaced with an infinitive or a phrase with an infinitive if its subject is the same as that of "sentir"; otherwise you need a clause with "que" and subjunctive:
Siento haber venido - I'm sorry I've come (lit. I feel having come) "haber venido" is the d.o.
Siento que hayas venido - I'm sorry you've come (lit. I feel that you've come) "que hayas venido" is the d.o.
And just before you wonder whether "I feel that you've come" means something else, in Spanish we have two moods:
Siento que has venido - I feel that you have come (ie. my senses tell me you're here)
Using indicative you are declaring what your senses tell you. Using subjunctive you are not declaring such thing, but expressing about your feelings about it.
Siento que tienes miedo - I sense you're scared
Siento que tengas miedo - I'm sorry you are scared
When you hear "Siento que..." you know that the person is about to tell you about his or her impressions or sensations. If they are expressed in indicative, this person is not just experiencing something, but also giving information based on your opinions or guesses, which is what indicative does, so you are saying two independent things: 1) what you think or guess about the reality (eg. you are scared) 2) you are experiencing those thoughts. But if it is subjunctive, you are not saying anything about what you think about reality, but mentioning it only to complete your original sentence, which is all about how you feel. Now the fact mentioned in subjunctive is on the background, totally subordinated to the only thing that matters: your feelings.
In any case, you don't use "sentir" with "por" like in English, because a sentence like "Lo siento por haber venido" means "I am sorry about it because I have come", and "Siento por haber venido" would be "I can sense because I have come".
Sentir in this case means to be sorry not to want, if this confuses you can use lamentar . When the subjects doesn't change you use the infinitive instead of conjugated verb in the subjunctive. Lo siento means I am sorry when you want to add reason why you feel sorry you just use sentir by itself.
I don't know why but I understand it like sorry to have come while you were working.
