sonríe and ríe

Question

I am using Rosetta Stone, and it gave me the following four sentences:

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• "La mujer le está sonriendo a su esposo."
• "El hombre se está riendo."
• "Los empleados se están riendo."
• "El niño le sonríe a la maestra de ciencias."

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Two questions:

1. In the fourth sentence, why is the word "está" not used?
2. Why is "sonríe" used in conjunction with "le" while "riendo" is used with "se"?

Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Sonreír -- to smile (reflexive.. sonreírse)

Reir -- to laugh (reflexive ... reírse)

In the fourth sentence you could very well say: "El niño le está sonriendo a la maestra de ciencias" The difference is that this action is happening as you speak. In Spanish, a progressive tense can be expressed by the simple present as well as in the present progressive.

Sonreír takes an indirect object.. Sonreírle a alguien

I hope this helps!

Answer 2

Francobollo and Rogpax gave you excellent answers. To expand a little on it, the reason "estar" is used in the first three sentences is that they are stated in the "present progressive" form, "Is smiling", "is laughing", and "are laughing". In English, this is formed by using a conjugated form of "to be" followed by the present participle (...ing form of the verb). In Spanish, it is formed by using a conjugated form of "estar" followed by the present participle (you will find some argument on that if you research it). At any rate, that is the verb form noted by an ending of "ando" or "iendo".

Although they are easy to confuse, the English continuous tense is both formed differently than in Spanish, and also is much more widely used. As Franco pointed out, in Spanish the progressive can only be used for actions that are actually occuring in the time frame. "Estoy yendo al mercado" is correct if you are in the process of going, but "estoy yendo al mercado el viernes" is not proper.

In English, both are acceptable. The present continuous (progressive) can be used for future action, as in "I'm going to the market on Friday".

The fourth sentence is in the present indicative, "The boy laughs..." This is a "simple" tense, and does not require the use of a "helper" verb.

I hope this hasn't muddied the waters too much!

Noetol, excellent explanation. Estoy yendo al mercado mañana (as opposed to on Friday) is perfectly acceptable in Spanish... I don't mean to confuse you. Just thought I'd share this with you. - francobollo, Oct 17, 2012

Thanks, Franco. I have to say I am a little confused on that, so to make thepoint clear I'll use "on Friday" in the example. - Noetol, Oct 17, 2012

I think I confused you. It is acceptable to say "Estoy yendo al mercado mañana en lugar del viernes" or el viernes en lugar del sábado. The present progressive can be used to express immediate future in Spanish. - francobollo, Oct 17, 2012

Answer 3

Good question and answer.

Put another way está sonriendo and sonríe are like is smiling a smiles. The boy is smiling at the teacher or The boy smiles at the teacher.