Spanish Essay Help

Question

I have to write a 65 to 70 word essay on someone who I think is a hero in spanish:

• Describe the person

-expain life circumstances that person impacted your life

• use preterit and imperfect as needed.

• I'm only in Spanish 2 so it doesnt need to be super detailed. I just need help making sure that everything is right before I submit it and I need maybe one more sentence.

Thank you!!!

This is what I have so far:

Mi abuela es un héroe. Ella. Ella es muy inteligente y graduó de Universidad a la edad de veinte años. Ella es muy saludable y corrió dos maratones. Ella se ha ofrecido todos los domingos en la iglesia local. Es muy trabajador. Ella me cuido todos los sábados y cocina las comidas grandes. Ella me inspira a trabajar duro

Welcome Meaghan , although we do not normally do your homework for you , you have made a brave attempt which deserves help , wait for a native speaker to slpoe by to help you , it would help your cause if you fill out your profile so we can know your - - ray76, Feb 1, 2014

-language position, . - ray76, Feb 1, 2014

Welcome to SD - well done (bien hecho) wait for a native Spanish speaker to advise you. - ian-hill, Feb 1, 2014

Answer 1

I am not a native, but I think there are some mistakes in your text that I've identified:

Mi abuela es un héroe una heroína. Ella. Ella es muy inteligente y graduó de Universidad a la edad de veinte años/cuando tenía veinte años (the 'tener año' construction is really a lot more common than the 'a la edad' construction). Ella es muy saludable y corrió dos maratones. Ella se ha ofrecido todos los domingos en la iglesia local. Es muy trabajadora trabajadora. Ella me cuido cuidó/cuida todos los sábados y cocina las comidas grandes. Ella me inspira a trabajar duro.

Espero que te haya asistido.

From a stylistic POV (you might disagree, of course), your narration is a bit... strange. 'My grandmother is healthy and ran two marathons' makes me think 'when? how dis make her 'is healthy'?'. You might want an 'only' with the 'twenty years' for emph. - Helado_eclectico, Feb 1, 2014

Anyway, mind that I am a beginner, so you might want native advice to be absolutely sure. - Helado_eclectico, Feb 1, 2014

Answer 2

Agreed with deedee.

in the end if "cuidar" and "cocinar" are in the past tense, I would use the imperfect

especially since the exercizes instructions explicitly mention imperfect and preterite, your two points about cuidaba y cocinaba are very good ideas.

If it was in the past and still ongoing, maybe the present perfect, but I think deedee´s idea of imperfect is probably more fitting.

Good effort.

Answer 3

helado_elecrico's suggestions are good. Of his suggestions I would only add that, in the end if "cuidar" and "cocinar" are in the past tense, I would use the imperfect. Because it is not a fixed point in time but rather "todos los sábados"