Use of 'quedar'... Another question...

Question

Ok, so now I understand that 'quedar' can be used to refer to meeting someone.

However, I'm a little confused by a use that I recently heard.

The expression is 'hemos quedado el sábado', and the translation given for it is 'we've arranged to meet on Saturday'. I note the SD dictionary does indeed refer to this use of 'quedar', defining the infinitive of the verb as meaning, among other things, 'to arrange to meet'.

Therefore, we have a slightly confusing situation whereby 'quedar' means both 'to meet' and 'to arrange to meet'.

Therefore, my question is how does this work in practice ?

For example, how could I used 'quedar' to mean simply 'we (have) met' as opposed to 'we arranged to meet' ?

Gracias por ayudarme

Good question, Falda :) - FELIZ77, Jun 24, 2015

Answer 1

Hello Falda

Good question and I can understand your confusion about this matter

One thing is immediately obvious to me: the people who are making the arrangements will know whether they are

1.at the stage of making the arrangements because this is the first mention of meeting up.

or

2 have already made the arrangements and are therefore meeting at a prearranged time.

I agree that for others ireading /hearing about it, it would seem more difficult to distinguish!

I have just found these 2 examples in my Oxford Spanish dictionary which might help you to undestand the difference in the way that Spanish people express these two slightly different ideas written below:

1.I arranged to meet him in the club = Quedé de encontrarme con él en el club.

2.I met him for a drink at the hotel = Nos encontramos en el hotel para tomar una copa.

I hope this helps

Yes, thanks... ;-) - Faldaesque, Jun 24, 2015

Answer 2

Thus we have (at least) four word in Spanish for 'to meet' in English:

• Conocer = To meet someone for the first time
• Encontrar = To meet / bump into someone
• Quedar = To arrange to meet (up)
• Reunirse = To meet, perhaps being the closest in meaning to the basic, pure English form of the word, albeit perhaps slightly formal and less idiomatic in Spanish

I suppose we could also add:

• Ver = To meet someone as in seeing someone, e.g. nos vemos la semana siguiente = we'll see/meet each other next week...

Falda, I think you meant to write: NoS vemos etc...;) - FELIZ77, Jun 24, 2015

typo n instead of S ;) - FELIZ77, Jun 24, 2015

Thanks :-) - Faldaesque, Jun 24, 2015