why Nos vemos means see you later?
I looked up: ver means view or see and nos means us. But how come it is means: see you later? Where is you and what does nos mean? Muchas gracias.
10 Answers
gang, Welcome to the forum. Nos vemos literally translated means, "we see each other." Yet, it is what is called an "idiomatic expression." This means the meaning is not exactly what the words mean, but rather what common usage has converted the meaning to be. In the case of nos vemos, the common usage is, see ya, we'll see you, or simply, later. Idiomatic words and expressions exist in every language. There are books as large as dictionaries dealing with them.
In my case, I remember when translating literally, and the phrase didn't make sense, I suspected it was idiomatic, asked around, and usually found that it was. Good luck. Oh by the way, Idioms are really a lot of fun!
example
english: last night I burned the midnight oil.(english idiom which means I stayed up late) spanish: anoche me quemé las cejas(literal, last night I burned my eyebrows, translated to English, I stayed up late!)
Good Luck!
good job D. Jose
Well, in England we say ' Bye bye', this is understood to be a greeting.
Or Chau...Or See You.. or Cheerio. Or ' See you! '
Greetings are a bit standardised and you just have to accept they are a greeting.
I actually used to think ' Venga' was the goodbye phrase, you hear it so much in Spain, I thought it was the mate for 'Hola'..
Nos vemos on its own means we will see each other at another time but a good way of using the phrase is to add to it e.g. Nos vemos mañana por la mañana meaning see you tommorrow morning, Nos vemos la semana que viene, See you next week or you could say to your girl/boy friend Nos vemos in mis sueños, I will see you in my dreams but very often to say see you later you just say, Hasta luego. See you later. And by the way Nos is the pronoun for nosotros/as meaning we the plural form of Yo I.
It is expressing the idea: We will see each other (soon). So it would make more sense if it was nos veremos (future tense). But remember in Spanish the present tense is often used to express near future events, and in that context nos vemos makes perfect sense.
It's a common example of using the simple present in certain contexts to communicate the future. Here's some other examples:
Te aviso - I'll will let you know - Literally: I notify you/I tell you
Ahorita vengo - I'll be right there/I'll be there is a sec - Literally: I come right now
Ahorita regreso - I'll be right back - Literally: I return right now
Obviously for all these phrases you could use the future tense, but it's totally acceptable in the present tense.
In any event it is a no brainer to think that today's "see you later" means "I will see you later"
So, I am not sure why all this noise about it.
uh?
:^)
Thanks to all, esp. Don and Ken. Your good explanation made a lot more sense and it's easy to remember now.
Another idiomatic expression is: ¡Ya voy! = I'm coming/I'm o my way!
Que vas a hecho hoy
