What does "a la que por" mean?
El tenia una hija bella, dulce "a la que por" envidia trataban las tres mujeres como si fuera su sirvienta.
I have another question, I don't know how to improve my Spanish. I feel like I'm stuck. I bought a book full of stories for children, yet I don't understand much. Some sentences seem complicated. And translating word by word is not a good thing to do, I know, but what else can be done? What shall be done now? I feel lost honestly and I don't want to give up!
4 Answers
The first thing you need to do is manage your expectations. We tend to expect too much of ourselves.
First of all you're learning a new language, you're not supposed to understand everything. The sooner you realize that the better. Don't create unnecessary stress on yourself when it's not warranted.
Second, children's books are surprisingly much harder to read than you might think. I learned that the hard way by reading children's books myself and trying to watch Dora La Exploradora (the Spanish version). To fully understand everything that's written or spoken in activities designed for children actually requires a fairly large vocabulary. We mistakenly assume that because something is "for children" that it's easy. Not true.
I have another question, I don't know how to improve my Spanish. I feel like I'm stuck. I bought a book full of stories for children, yet I don't understand much. Some sentences seem complicated. And translating word by word is not a good thing to do, I know, but what else can be done? What shall be done now? I feel lost honestly and I don't want to give up!
Giving up is the biggest reason people fail to learn a new language, so don't give up.
As you've already figured out, you're not going to understand everything. What do you do? Keep reading. Don't attempt to translate word by word, you'll never finish reading anything.
Only look up the words that peak your curiosity the most. By simply continuing to read, you'll discover the meaning of many words just by seeing them used over and over and deriving the meaning for context. Furthermore, if you simply keep reading, you'll still learn something new, more than you will by trying to translate word for word.
Remember, learning Spanish is a long-term process. You make advances little by little that overtime add up.
Keep reading, listening, studying and talking. Don't worry so much about grammar, that will come later.
Again, don't get frustrated because you don't understand something, you're learning, you're not supposed to understand everything.
Keep at it. When you get frustrated come here for support and advice.
Buena suerta.
If the word envidia (envy) were not present, then as Cae says it would be simply who.
Por in this case means because of / due to.
El tenia una hija bella, dulce a la que por envidia trataban las tres mujeres como si fuera su sirvienta.
He had a beautiful daughter, sweet, who because of envy the three women treated as if she were their servant.
a la que = who
Don't give up. I would recommend you to read more about grammar so you would understand why we say things like we do. Don't give up! There is a world of almost 500 million people -to discover- which is waiting for you.
Spuny, I offered you to speak on Skype about this a long time ago, you never came through....
It is a shame.
