[battycatlady]

I was doing a writing exercise from livemocha. I'm having issues with using giving/receiving in sentences and knowing how to order the words so they make sense. So yeah, does this passage make any sense

Tengo recibé un regalo de mis padres para mi cumpleaños. Era un autómovil verde y viejo. Dar gracias, yo estoy comprando les algunos las flores.

It's supposed to say:

I have received a gift from my parents for my birthday. It was an old, green car. To say thanks, I am buying them some flowers.

[jonnythemoose]

(Original post by battycatlady)
I was doing a writing exercise from livemocha. I'm having issues with using giving/receiving in sentences and knowing how to order the words so they make sense. So yeah, does this passage make any sense

Tengo recibé un regalo de mis padres para mi cumpleaños. Era un autómovil verde y viejo. Dar gracias, yo estoy comprando les algunos las flores.

It's supposed to say:

I have received a gift from my parents for my birthday. It was an old, green car. To say thanks, I am buying them some flowers.

It doesn't really make sense in Spanish, but don't worry, it's not far off.

1. "Tengo recibé" - Here you're confusing a few things. Firstly you've mixed two forms of the past up. The preterite (Yo recibí) and The perfect (He recibido). The decision of which tense to use is difficult, but in general terms, if the event happened really recently you would say "he recibido" and if it happened longer ago, you would use "recibí". I think for this sentence you should use "recibí". Unless today is your birthday. Finally, remember that unlike in English, Spanish does not use the verb 'to have' to form the perfect past (I have received). So rather than saying "tengo recibido" you need to use the verb "haber", so "he recibido, has recibido, ha recibido, hemos recibido etc.)

2. "Dar gracias" - Remember that the 'to' in English is not implicit in Spanish, so although this translates as 'To give thanks' (or to say thanks, more idiomatically), in reality you need to add something in there for the 'to'. In this case, it's 'para', which is a preposition that can demonstrate the purpose of an action. So "para dar(les) gracias"

3. "Yo estoy comprando" - Unless you're doing it this second, and you're writing the forum post from your phone whilst at the florist, you should really use the future tense. "Voy a comprar" or "Compraré"...

4. "yo estoy comprando les algunos las flores" - ok, ignoring the first three words, as covered in 3., let's focus on the last few words. Firstly, 'les' is correct, but you need to tack it on to 'comprando' to make 'comprándoles' (it gains an accent to show the intonation still falls on the 'an' syllable). Correct would also be "Yo les estoy comprando". With the grammar I've shown you in 3. you could say "Les voy a comprar", "Voy a comprarles", "Les compraré" BUT NOT "Compraréles".

5. "algunos las flores" - OK, some you want to say 'some flowers'. You have three options, two of which you have written. Now firstly, you only need one, not two or three . So, "las" would be used if you are referring to some specific flowers that you already have and love..."e.g. las flores que mi novio me compró son bonitas". (The flowers my boyfriend bought me are pretty)

"Algunas" would be used if you were talking about specific types of flowers, but you're talking more abstractly. "Algunas flores tienen hojas muy grandes" (Some flowers have very large leaves)

Finally, you can use "Unas" - which is what you use if you want to say 'some flowers' but you haven't decided which ones, i.e. you're just talking generally about some flowers that you'll one day go and buy. "Voy a comprarles unas flores" (I'm going to buy them some flowers). This is the one you need to use in your sentence.

So, all this leads us to:

"Recibí un regalo de mis padres para mi cumpleanios. Era un automóvil viejo y verde. Para dar gracias, voy a comprarles unas flores".

For what it's worth, this is how I would express that idea, in a more idiomatic manner:

"Para mi cumpleanios mis padres me regalaron un viejo coche verde. Para agradecerles, les voy a comprar unas flores."

Let me know if you need more help.

[battycatlady]

Thanks for your help! I guess I wasn't too far off, but I'm dire at using tenses :') I think my main problem is I try and translate things directly from English to Spanish, rather than following their rules. But anyways, thanks again- this was really helpful!

[jonnythemoose]

(Original post by battycatlady)
Thanks for your help! I guess I wasn't too far off, but I'm dire at using tenses :') I think my main problem is I try and translate things directly from English to Spanish, rather than following their rules. But anyways, thanks again- this was really helpful!

That's OK, we all do it when learning a language, so no problem! Everyone gets better with practice, and the fact you practice online is a good thing!