What is the proper use "trata" or "trata de" ?
Recently I used the main translator in verifying the translation of : They are catching the flu.
The main translator returned : Se trata de contraer la gripe.
Trata seems to be acting as a form of a verb "to be" and appears to be reflexive! What am I missing here about trata? Thanks for all answers. Recuerdos. DonL.
6 Answers
The correct fornwould be están contrayendo la gripe Estar is always with present participle to form the progressive tense And Goyo is right, for that reason, I would never use electronic translators without some knowledge of the target language.
Don, the translator may be confusing "Tratar" with "Contraer." "I am catching the flu" .... "Estoy contrayendo la gripe."
Also another use of "Tratar" is when talking about dating. "I would like to date (get to know) you" ....... "Me gustaría tratarte."
The translation doesn't make sense.
tratar de... = to try to...
se trata de... = It is about ... / It is a question of ...
tratar = treat, deal with
I'm most familiar with the phrase, "Trata de decir" which means "Try to say."
It seems the machine translator has made a mistake, and that's not at all surprising!
se trata de... = It is about ... / It is a question of ...
In somewhat stilted English "It treats of ..." At any rate, the introduction of this phrase (by Google) is inappropriate. The other two translations are better (and of those, Bablefish provides the most accurate).
