"I will be happy when the kids are out of the house"

Question

I was watching TV and the phrase she said was "I will be happy when the kids are out of the house."

In Spanish, this would be..."Yo estaré contenta cuándo los niños salen la casa."

¿Sí o no?

Answer 1

I believe that "salen" has to be changed to "salgan"...

Is this right? (I still am learning as well! )

And "cuándo" to "cuando"

And I think "de" has to come after "salgan".

I would wait for an answer from a native or advanced speaker, though.

Muchas gracias!!! Is "salgan" subjunctive? I haven't studied the subjunctive tense yet. - SonrisaDelSol, Jun 6, 2011

Yes it is :) - NikkiLR, Jun 6, 2011

Ok! And you are definitely correct about the cuando. Thanks again! - SonrisaDelSol, Jun 6, 2011

Answer 2

"I will be happy when the kids are out of the house."

The context here is "when the kids have already left the house" rather than the process of leaving, so to be accurate in the translation, you can say "..... cuando los niños ya hayan salido de la casa."

Hayan salido --- hayan is subjunctive, I think, right? - SonrisaDelSol, Jun 6, 2011

Ahh... never even thought of that. Great translation. :D - NikkiLR, Jun 6, 2011

Present Perfect Subjunctive - NikkiLR, Jun 6, 2011

Here I am thinking I'm all fancy putting estar in the future tense, jajajaja.Thank you both for your help! - SonrisaDelSol, Jun 6, 2011

Answer 3

I would say that the word feliz would be better here than contenta

".....(yo) Estaré feliz cuando los niños ya hayan salido de la casa."

I could be wrong of course they could both be equally valid here.but I see fthe word feliz as being stronger and so more suitable in the context.

Corregid mi español, por favor

They are interchangeable, right? - SonrisaDelSol, Jun 6, 2011

I agree with Feliz77 - feliz is the kind of happy expressed here, while contenta is more like 'satisfied'. Kids leaving would cause a feeling of celebration, not just contentment. - pesta, Jun 6, 2011

Ok, thanks! - SonrisaDelSol, Jun 6, 2011

Paul, both words work here. While "contento" can mean "satisfied," it is also commonly used as "happy," so it´s not the same as in English. Of course, I understand you would choose "feliz." But to describe a happy person, then only "feliz" is used :- ) - 005faa61, Jun 6, 2011

Thank You very much for your explanation, Julian :) - FELIZ77, Jun 6, 2011

Answer 4

Our kids didn't move out. They just opened branch offices. We still have a lot of their junk here.

Answer 5

Seré felicísima luego que los niños se vayan de la casa.

I will be a very happy person as soon as the kids leave the house.

Answer 6

I would have picked Julian's answer as best... He is the native speaker.

I do have a little question to add on to yours if anyone wants to answer it.

I do hear in English "I will be happy when they leave". Is this not as common in Spanish? Would the best way to translate this be like JulianChivi's answer? Or can you say "cuando salgan" in place of "cuando ya hayan salido"?

Do you mean "I wil be happy when I leave"? - SonrisaDelSol, Jun 6, 2011

They** - NikkiLR, Jun 6, 2011

Ok, that's better :D I'd say...Yo estaré contento cuando salgan. - SonrisaDelSol, Jun 6, 2011

You can omit "Yo" :) - NikkiLR, Jun 6, 2011

"Estaré contento cuando salgan." :D - SonrisaDelSol, Jun 6, 2011

You are female... contenta. - Tosh, Jun 6, 2011