Una anecdota de mi perrito

Question

Cuando mi perrito, que se llama Jack, era joven, un día llegó a nuestra casa un fontanero para arreglar una fuga en nuestro baño. Abrí la puerta para dejarle entrar. Jack estaba acurrucarse en el sofá con su rostro frente al respaldo. El fontanero no pudo ver su rostro y me dijo, "Ah, tu gatito es mono." Respondí, "No es un gatito, es un perrito."

When my little dog, whose name is Jack, was young, one day a plumber arrived at our house to repair a leak in the bathroom. I opened the door to let him in. Jack was curled up on the sofa facing the backrest. The plumber couldn't see his face and said to me, "Ah, your little cat is cute." I replied, "He isn't a little cat, he is a little dog."

Answer 1

Cuando mi perrito, que se llama Jack, era joven, un día llegó a nuestra casa un fontanero para arreglar una fuga en nuestro baño. Abrí la puerta para dejarle entrar. Jack estaba acurrucarse en el sofá con su rostro frente al respaldo. El fontanero no pudo ver su rostro y me dijo, "Ah, tu gatito es mono." Respondí, "No es un gatito, es un perrito."

As a non-native:

Dejarle entrar. This is leísmo, the standard would be dejarlo. Which you choose depends on your intended audience.

Estaba acurrucarse- the only true error I detect- on option"se estaba acurrucando", or "estaba acurrucándose". Here you are using estaba as part of a progressive tense, you need a gerundio, not an infinitive. Placement of se is optional to my understanding. You are saying here- he was in the midst of snuggling himself into the sofa or something similar by choosing the progressive tense- in Spanish it really emphasizes the ongoing nature of the action, unlike English. You could choose se acurrucaba to be less fixated on the ongoing action, or estaba acurrucado (I think without se) to remove the action completely, but I don't know what would sound best to a native. This last might match your English the best though.

Respondí. To me it would be more natural to say "Le respondí". I don't know if that is required though, obviously you did not do so in the English, but I think it more natural in the Spanish.

I only post my thoughts to try to stimulate a native speaker to give further input.

Thanks for your help. Every time I learn a new word all the rules go out the window. I need a language microchip put in my brain. - languagenut, Dec 16, 2016

Useful comments - languagenut, Dec 16, 2016

Thank you for answering Bosque , you are a" brick". - ray76, Dec 17, 2016

Answer 2

Great story old mate, would some kind hispanoblante give a correction please.

Thanks so much Ray. I hope that a Spanish speaker listens to your plee to help me. Hope you have a great day. - - languagenut, Dec 16, 2016