Is this sentence correct and understandable?

Question

I want to say this is Spanish: "People are laughing and having fun." Is the sentence "Personas están se ríen y divierten" or "La gente se ríe y se divierte" correct? The reason i ask this is that my teacher taught me that you cannot include two conjugations in one sentence, and here i use rien and divierten. What is the correct way to write this? Thank you

Welcome to the forum, and thanks for filling in your profile! Good question. :) - actorgirl, Apr 23, 2014

Welcome! Yes, very good question. - rac1, Apr 23, 2014

Answer 1

The second one is right. The first one should be "Las personas se ríen y se divierten". You can't translate "are laughing" with "están se ríen", it doesn't make sense. You can say "Las personas se están riendo y divirtiendo" or " La gente se está riendo y divirtiendo", if you mean it's happening right now.

Gracias :) - rac1, Apr 23, 2014

Great answer , thank you so much . - ray76, Apr 29, 2014

Answer 2

Thanks for all the answers. They've all helped me.

And thank you for showing your gratitude , a nice touch. - ray76, Apr 29, 2014

Answer 3

I would say: Las personas se ríen y se divierten = People laugh /are laughing and having fun (present ndicative tense)

If this describes what people are doing now /at the present time then you can use alteranatively the present progressive (indicative tense) shown below :

Las personas están riéndose y están divirtiéndose. = People are laughing (ie: now!) and they are having fun. (now!)

You would use this tense above, for example, in a caption for Picture of the Day to show what is happening at the time otherwise the present indicative would be used. This is because the present indicative can mean I do something/or I am doing something

You said:

The reason i ask this is that my teacher taught me that you cannot include two conjugations in one sentence, and here i use rien and divierten.

To be honest, what you are actually referring to are not two conjugations, but two entirely different verbs which are being used in the present indicative in example 1 and the present progressive in example 2!

Please allow me to clarify a few things for you:

Two (different) verbs: 1, reírse = to laugh 2 divertirse = to enjoy oneself (or yourself)

Two (different) tenses: 1. Simple past /preterito: Me divertí = I enjoyed myself 2 Future/futuro: Se divertirán = They will enjoy themselves

Two (different) conjugations: 1 te ríes = you laugh 2. nos reímos = we laugh

Please remember that it is very important to understand and remember these distinctions given above or you are likely to get in a muddle/become confused!

I hope this helps

Answer 4

Las personas se ríen y se divierten

That translation is clearly best, but I would have translated it as below. Is that also correct?

Las personas estan riendose y diviertiendose

:) - FELIZ77, Apr 23, 2014