"Never let anyone make you believe..."

Question

Hola todos,

One of my favorite sayings is:

"Never let anyone make you believe that you don't deserve what you want"

I have tried to translate this to Spanish, using what I know in conjunction with the translators on this website, and I have came up with:

"Nunca deje alguien hágale creer que usted no merece que usted quiere."

I wanted advice concerning my translation, whether it properly portrays the meaning.

My concern is that with all of the 'you's', it is a little hard to follow in English, so I wasn't quite sure if my translation matches the English version.

Muchas Gracias a todos!

Answer 1

It isn't so wrong, but let's check some things...

First of all: let. There's a different way of expression when using this verb and another one. If in English you'd say "let someone do something" in Spanish you'd probably say "dejar a alguien hacer algo" or "dejar que alguien haga algo" (better this one for this sentence, and we'll change "alguien" to "nadie" as it's a negative sentence). So then, "never let anyone make" could be "nunca deje (that's formal; you could say "dejes", which is more common in sayings) que nadie haga"

Then: make you believe. If "someone makes you believe", literally would be "alguien hace a ti creer", which well-said would be "alguien te hace creer", or, as it will need to be in subjuctive "alguien te haga creer".

And to deserve what you want. What need to be translated as lo que: merecer lo que quiere (formal) or merecer lo que quieres (informal).

So then, I think it should be something like Nunca deje que nadie le haga creer que no merece lo que desea (formal) or Nunca dejes que nadie te haga creer que no mereces lo que deseas. I changed "querer" for "desear" as it sounds more "poetic" and I think it's more commonly used in sayings and removed "usted" as it is unnecessary.

Wow - thank you for the very thorough explanation!! I really struggled with this one, thanks for helping!! - 001a2987, Sep 4, 2010

very very nice - margaretbl, Sep 4, 2010

Answer 2

Well, I must admit I'm not sure about the exact rule for the subjuctive, but I think it should be the indicative mood instead of the subjuctive one because of make you believe. As what I know, a general rule (not very exact, I know) it that the indicative mood is used for things I'm certain about, things I know that can't be other way (soy rubia I know because I can see my hair) and the subjuctive one is used for things I'm not sure about (puede que llueva: it might rain, but I'm not 100% sure it will).

In this case, I think that if someone te hace creer (someone makes you believe) is making you sure about it, I mean, if you let them make you believe that you don't deserve something, you'll be (wrongly) certain that you don't deserve it (if you still have doubts about what you deserve or not, that means that person didn't convince you, so they didn't "make you believe" yet). That's why I think it should go in the indicative mood, but as I say, I'm not sure about the exact rules, and I might be wrong (puede que esté equivocada in subjuctive because I'm not sure about my mistake hehe)

Answer 3

I have a question about this post...

Would it not be "Nunca dejes que nadie te haga creer que no merezcas lo que deseas?

I'm wondering if merecer in this caso should be subjunctive... ?? I don't have any real grammatical support for this I just read it and took note in my head that I probably would've said "merezcas" in this case.

I mean even if it would be subjunctive I would say it's acceptable either way unless you have some sort of explanation why it definitely wouldn't/shouldn't be subjunctive.