Translation, Spanish Pronoun

Question

Hi, I'm a bit confused about the Spanish Pronoun. I tried to translate: ''I the different countries of Latino American they saw poverty.''

I wrote: ''En los diferente países les ven la pobreza en Latinoamérica''

As I've been informed, if it's a person you should use le and if it's an item you should use la or lo? Thanks in Advance

A vote for filling out your profile. You may want to edit "I" to "In" after "I tried to translate:... I think you will get some good answers to consider as this is a good question. - Jubilado, Mar 4, 2016

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Answer 1

Hi, Pakhtoon

Your sentence as written does not make sense. If you substitute the reflexive "se" for "les" then it's OK.

''En los diferente países les ven la pobreza en Latinoamérica''

"En los diferentes países se ve la pobreza en Latinoamérica. (Notice the other corrections.)

Which tranlsates to . In different countries poverty is seen in Latin America.

Another variation: "one sees poverty----"

Big Edit:

The original sentence should have been :

''In the different countries of Latin America they saw poverty.''

"En los varios países de la América Latina ('ellos"-optional) vieron la pobreza.

Well, I'm trying to say, that two people, on their journey through Latin America they see poverty :/ - pakhtoon_fighter123, Mar 4, 2016

Ah, in that case you you need to be more specific, and maybe change the verb tense to past tense. Estas dos personas vieron la pobreza en los diferentes países de la América Latina. "These two people saw poverty in the different contries of Latin America. - Daniela2041, Mar 4, 2016

You had an English mistake in your question. The first word should have been "In" not "I" See my edited answer. - Daniela2041, Mar 4, 2016

Thank you. It was a type-mistake :b - pakhtoon_fighter123, Mar 4, 2016

OK, I got the edit up. - Daniela2041, Mar 4, 2016

Hi Dani. In your first sentence isn't that an example of the passive "se" rather than the reflexive? Please don't hate me or my grammatical pedanticism :( - jellonz, Mar 4, 2016

I will be even more pedantic when I say that the reflexive pronoun "se" is used to express the passive. So there!! I can give you "chapter and verse" from "Panorama" if you want.:) - Daniela2041, Mar 4, 2016

Literally what is being said is that the "pobreza" sees itself. No tiene sentido en inglés, pero el inglés no importa, ¿eh? - Daniela2041, Mar 4, 2016

Touché Dani. I bow to your wisdom :) - jellonz, Mar 4, 2016

Answer 2

''En los diferentes países les ven la pobreza en Latinoamérica''

I am honestly not sure what "les" is doing there, I could interpret it without a pronoun as they see (not saw, ven is present tense). Les does not have a referent that I see. The unnamed they is a subject, and (los) diferentes países has a preposition (other than “a”)

''En los diferentes países ven la pobreza en Latinoamérica'' - vieron instead of ven if you want saw.

With se ''En los diferente países se ve la pobreza en Latinoamérica'' I could interpret it as is seen (again not was seen)- although I like the word order: ''Se ve la pobreza en los diferentes países de Latinoamérica'' better.

Just my non-native opinion.

You came very close. "pobreza" requires the singular verb "ve." And I prefer your word order, but I didn't want to stray too far from what the OP was saying and confuse him with word order. :) - Daniela2041, Mar 4, 2016

I realized the other necessary modifications before your comment, should hopefully all be fixed now. Thanks. :) - bosquederoble, Mar 4, 2016

Thanks especially for the feedback on word order, I am never sure how good my instincts are with that kind of thing. :) - bosquederoble, Mar 4, 2016

I just discovered that there were a few mistakes in the original English. See my "Big Edit" - Daniela2041, Mar 4, 2016