They had eaten when the snake "bit them."

Question

I translated a sentence as follows: Habían comido cuando la serpiente les picaron [They had eaten when the snake bit them. I cannot get a translator to agree with me, however. What am I doing wrong? Gracias.

Answer 1

I would use ya habían to emphasize "already eaten" and for a snake bite we use morder rather than picar because as KiwiGirl said, a snake bites with teeth rather than stinging.

And we have a choice of víbora/culebra/sepiente depending on region.

I agree but ............ already was not in the English sentence. - ian-hill, Jul 5, 2013

True, but, the Spanish seem to use ¨ya¨ explicitly in places where ¨already¨ might be left unsaid in English, so I think Julian´s addition of ¨ya¨ is good. Sense is more important than literal. - rogspax, Jul 6, 2013

I agree with Rogspax The word ya =already is implied in the meaning although not explicitly mentioned in the English! :) - FELIZ77, Jul 6, 2013

Answer 2

cuando la serpiente les picaron

Well for one thing, how many snakes were there? 1?

And how many people have you conjugated picar for? sing or plural?

Also I believe, given that snake fangs are pretty much teeth, that snakes morder instead of picar.

I was thinking 1 snake, and multiple people bitten. I saw that in SpanishDic that picar was used for snakes. Maybe both are? - RolloMartins, Jul 5, 2013

I also think ' picar' for all bites of animals whodon't have big teeth.. - annierats, Jul 5, 2013

@ Ricardo ok so for 1 snake you need to st 'it' sing. bit, your version says 'they' bit ;) - Kiwi-Girl, Jul 6, 2013

@ Annie although picar can be translated as bite because we say that mozzies etc bite it really means sting. ;) - Kiwi-Girl, Jul 6, 2013

In my Oxford Spanish Dictionary they give the verb 'morder' for dog or snake bites . Picar woulld be used for bees, waps. jellyfish etc..., animals that sting rather than use teeth! - FELIZ77, Jul 6, 2013

Answer 3

I am not a native speaker but maybe :

Habían comido cuando la serpiente los mordió.

Answer 4

Ya habían comido cuando la serpiente los mordió

Answer 5

Habían comido cuando los picó/mordió la serpiente. = They were eating when the snake bit them.

Habían comido cuando les picó/mordió(when the agent doing the action is already understood). Learn more about Leismo....

Answer 6

Habían comido cuando les picó/mordió(when the agent doing the action is already understood). Learn more about Leismo.... Papo Paz

Just for those grammar geeks out there ...

I wondered about this myself but was thinking that perhaps this wasn't leismo but rather a case of the indirect object (a body part instead of the human as a whole) being implicitly understood rather than stated.

Lo mordió. It bit him.

Le mordió (el brazo). It but him (on the arm)

I ran the theory past SD's old (as in 'previous' not in years) resident grammarian and he confirmed that this is what happens and it's not a case of leísmo.

Okay now I'm confused, but I'm not a grammar geek. In your sentence.."It bit him (on the arm)." isn't "him" a direct object? "Him" directly receives the action of being bit. - gringojrf, Jul 6, 2013

Gringo, in English "him" is the direct object in both of MC´s examples, but in Spanish "him" is the direct object only in the 1st. Second example: "el brazo" is direct object and "él" indirect object. Same as "mordió el brazo de él" However for the second - 005faa61, Jul 6, 2013

example to show that "el" (le) is the indirect object, ""el brazo" must appear in the sentence, so I would not put it in parenthasis - 005faa61, Jul 6, 2013

Answer 7

¡Gracias, por tu respuesta expansiva!