Me gustaría ayuda con un poco de correspondencia.

Question

Hola a todos.

Leo una correo de una amiga de correspondencía, pero porque no usa mucha punctuacíon (casi nada, a decir verdad) eso, combinado con mi vocabulario pequeño, a veces me da problemas de entender.

I´d like to type two short passages and get some help understanding, if possible. Yes, I know more punctuation would be ideal, but I´m giving it to you raw and unfiltered.

1)

¨Y es de el ingles la verdad para nada se me da pero si seria bueno que lo estudiara mas¨

What does the ¨se me da¨ part mean here?

2)

¨No pude y pues ya no ire la verdad no se cuando lo haga¨

I think ¨no pude¨ is ¨I failed to¨, and ¨no se cuando lo haga¨ is ¨I don´t know when I could do it¨ but I can´t follow the middle at all. What is ¨ya no ire la verdad¨ ?

Thanks for indulging both the original author and myself.

regards. Roger

Answer 1

I understand "se me da" in this context to mean "I'm not good at English at all" As for the second, I understand it to be así: "I tried and failed and now I won't go. The truth is that I don't know when I/he/she will do it."

Yes, good effort. - annierats, Mar 20, 2013

Thanks Mike. - rogspax, Mar 20, 2013

You're welcome Rog, and Thanks Annie. - BigMike, Mar 20, 2013

Answer 2

I understand "se me da" in this context to mean...

Thanks Mike. Makes sense, context wise, but I´m being thick, and still don´t understand how ¨se me da¨ is used in general -- i.e. I wouldn´t recognize it in another context or be able to use it myself.

Second part makes sense now too. I didn´t know the future tense (haven´t formally had that yet) of Ir, but I suppose this is ´iré´ missing an accent, which is apparently her style of writing (argh!) Thanks. You helped a bunch there.

You too Annie. Thanks. It was hard for me to know where to chop the ´sentence´ since it ran on well before and after what I included here This one has been a real puzzle.

The funny thing is, Monday night, our professor was having us do a drill trying to understand meanings, and possible meanings, of sentences with no punctuation or capitalization, to drive home the importance. I was sitting there thinking, ¨Man, if you really want to challenge these kids, they should be given what I´m trying to understand right now.¨ The textbook had nothing on my letter. -- smiling --

Thanks you two!

Thank you. You've come a very long way since you joined. I have a long memory of at least a year. - annierats, Mar 20, 2013

Answer 3

I can't, and to tell you the truth, I don't know when I could do it.

Just a guess on part of it.

Answer 4

Without more context these sort of text messages are hard:

No pude y pues ya no ire la verdad no se cuando lo haga could be, as Big mike says, or, if a d has dropped off, it could be' diré' .

Thanks Annie. - rogspax, Mar 20, 2013

Answer 5

Look at the example sentences for "darse." One is basically what I was getting at: darse. Look for the one that mentions mathematics.