"Además de explorando los bosques de Alaska..."

Question

Can someone proof read this paragraph? I wrote the english version underneath.

Thank you!

Además de explorando los bosques de Alaska, conocí muchas personas interesantes. En un viaje en ferry desde Seward a Juno, conocí a un niño y una niña que se desplazaban desde la casa de su madre a la casa de su padre. Ellos criaban en Alaska y porque vivían en dos ciudades, cada día tenían que aguantaran con las dificultades de ir a dos escuelas y hacer amigos en ambos.

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In addition to exploring the woods of Alaska, I met many interesting people. On a ferry ride from Seward to Juno I met a boy and girl that were traveling from their mom's house to their dad's house. They grew up in Alaska and because they lived in two cities, every day hey had to put up with the difficulties of of going to two schools and making friends in both.

Answer 1

You cannot use the gerundio in that context. Use the infinitive Además de explorar....

cónocí a muchas personas

a un niño y a una niña

cada todos los días (not sure why, but the natives here don't like each day meaning every day in Spanish)

tenían que aguantar=tener que + infinitive is the periphrasis

That helped a lot. Thank you! - anisestar, Sep 23, 2010

You should never accept the first answer unless it has been voted up. I am not a native. - 0074b507, Sep 23, 2010

ok i'll remember that - anisestar, Sep 23, 2010

Well it's not that natives don't like "cada día", it's just that we don't use it so liberally as you use "every day" in English. It's sort of our "every single day". - bill1111, Sep 23, 2010

Also, "conocí a muchas personas" is probably more correct, grammar wise, than "conocí muchas personas", but the latter is used just as often in practice. - bill1111, Sep 23, 2010

Thank you Billspor. What is actually used is always helpful information. - 0074b507, Sep 23, 2010

Answer 2

"Además de explorar los bosques de Alaska, conocí a mucha gente interesante. En un viaje en ferry desde Seward a Juno, conocí a un niño y a una niña que se desplazaban desde la casa de su madre a la de su padre. Se habían criado en Alaska, y como vivían en dos ciudades distintas, tenían que aguantar a diario las dificultades de ir a dos escuelas y hacer amigos en ambas."

You have to keep in mind that "criar" means "to breed" in Spanish, not "grow up", it's "criarse" that means that.

Also, while "se criaron" would be ok too, it seems like you are implying that it happened a long time ago if you use that tense, even though they are still kids now, so the past perfect works better in my opinion to connect that with the following part. If you were talking about adults, and the following sentence didn't mention their childhood you could use "se criaron" instead.

As for replacing "porque" with "como", I don't have a good answer for that, but I'd say that if you can replace "because" with "since", the correct translation is "como" instead of "porque". In this case you could say "since they lived in two cities" instead of "because they lived in two cities".

Answer 3

Ellos se criaron en Alaska ya que vivian en dos ciudades. Tuvieron que adaptarse a ir a dos diferentes escuelas y hacer amigos en ambas.