Verbos extraños españoles...
What are some of the weirdest Spanish verb combinations for an English-speaker to learn? And by this I mean those 'unenglish'-seeming in their behaviour, e.g. 'seguir' as in 'sigo haciendolo' for 'I keep doing it'...
'Quedar' and 'dejar' cause me some confusion, for example. They seem to be used commonly in many expressions where they translate otherwise than their literal translations might suggest.
Is there a list of 'freak' verbs somewhere ?
5 Answers
I haven't read it in detail yet, but in the book "moving on from beginners Spanish" there is a chapter on tricky verbs that can be used a variety of ways. I think "to become" and my personal nightmare, "to get", are difficult for English speakers because there are so many ways to say these two verbs in Spanish.
Words that indicate some kind of becoming are hard to remember and use because the English word become covers all these examples (the examples are not my own):
Enloquecer - to become crazy; Deprimirse - to become depressed.
Llegar a ser - No creo que llegue a ser un problema. I don't believe it'll become a problem.
Ponerse - En aquel día me puse enfermo. On that day I became sick.
Hacerse - Vamos a hacernos millonarios. We're going to become millionaires.
Convertirse - Me convertí en una persona mucho más feliz. I became a much happier person.
Volverse - Con el tiempo, me volví perezoso y terminé escribiendo. With time, I became lazy and ended up writing. (sounds like Gabriél García Márquez)
Pasar a ser - Pasamos a ser nuestro peor enemigo. We are becoming We became our own worst enemy.
There is more to this lesson, but this is enough for now - again this is not my original work.
quedar and dejar can be confusing verbs, both means almost the same, but its better to explain with alcual sentences:
if you forgot something like a phone you would say:
"se me quedó el telefono en mi casa" and "dejé el teléfono en mi casa"
usually "dejar" means an voluntary action and sometimes an involuntary action like the example of the phone. if you broke up with your girlfriend you can say
"dejé a mi novia" but you cannot say "se me quedó mi novia" haha, that would mean that you completely forgot about her
espero ser de utilidad! saludos
Personally I think it would be quicker to make a list of easy verbs, ones that behave themselves and are easy to remember in all their tenses and assorted meanings. I'll start the list when I can think of a single one to begin with..
Worth a bump methinketh
