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Spanish - go for a walk/bike ride/etc.

  Tags: Spanish
 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages Post Reply
kaizen
Groupie
Canada
Joined 4902 days ago

48 posts - 52 votes 
Studies: French

 
 Message 1 of 3
26 July 2015 at 5:36pm | IP Logged 
I've been doing a Skype exchange with a guy from Madrid, and he's been really helpful. However, I do a lot of cycling and hiking, whereas he's more an indoor, city-type, so he hasn't been able to explain this clearly to me.

In English we use the expressions, "to go for a walk/hike/bike ride/drive/etc." and "to go hiking/cycling/swimming/etc." quite frequently, although usually with slightly different meanings.

If for example I wanted to say the following sentences, what would a natural way to say them in Spanish be?

1) I like to go for bike rides along the river in the afternoon. (i.e. there are multiple different routes that I take)
2) I rode my bike to Montreal last week.
3) We went for a hike in the mountains on Friday. (no specific destination)
4) We hiked to the top of Mt. Ste-Anne yesterday morning.
5) When it's sunny, I usually go for a walk in the morning. (again, no specific destination)
6) I walk to the grocery store 4 or 5 times a week.
7) When it gets hot out, I like to go swimming in one of the local lakes.
8) I went for a swim this afternoon. (no specific location/duration)

Thanks for any thoughts
1 person has voted this message useful



nicozerpa
Triglot
Senior Member
Argentina
Joined 4271 days ago

182 posts - 315 votes 
Speaks: Spanish*, Portuguese, English
Studies: Italian, German

 
 Message 2 of 3
27 July 2015 at 12:02am | IP Logged 
I think when you don't mention a specific detination, you can use the expression "Ir/Salir
a nadar/caminar/andar en bicicleta/etc". For example:

3) Fuimos/Salimos a hacer excursionismo/hiking en las montañas el viernes [Note: the exact
translation of "hiking" may depend on the variety of Spanish that you're learning]
5) Cuando hay sol, generalmente salgo a caminar a la mañana
7) Cuando hace calor afuera, me gusta salir a nadar en uno de los lagos cercanos [Note: I
didn't translate "local lakes" as "lagos locales" because it sounds too formal]
8) Fui a nadar esta tarde

In sentences 2, 4, and 6, you mentioned specific destinations, and the method you use to
arrive that place seems to be secondary. In these cases, there are other alternatives:

2) Fui en bicicleta a Montréal la semana pasada
6) Voy caminando/a pie a la tienda 4 o 5 veces por semana

3 persons have voted this message useful



mrwarper
Diglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
Spain
forum_posts.asp?TID=Registered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5171 days ago

1493 posts - 2500 votes 
Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2
Studies: German, Russian, Japanese

 
 Message 3 of 3
27 July 2015 at 1:06pm | IP Logged 
kaizen wrote:
what would a natural way to say them in Spanish be?

1) I like to go for bike rides along the river in the afternoon. (i.e. there are multiple different routes that I take)

Me gusta ir de paseo [en bici] por el río por la[s] tarde[s].

Quote:
3) We went for a hike in the mountains on Friday. (no specific destination)

El viernes fuimos de excursión (a las montañas|al monte).

Quote:
4) We hiked to the top of Mt. Ste-Anne yesterday morning.

Subimos al (not: el, that could read as climbing) monte St-Anne ayer por la mañana.

In general, when you want to say 'I usually...', you may want to use 'suelo' ('soler' in the infinitive), and if you lack a specific destination, you may want to use "(fui|salí) a (pasear [en bici]|nadar)" -- as long as you don't specify a destination, the particle "a" means that walking was the main goal, unlike in "fui a la tienda".

If you go to a specific destination, but your main goal is to exercise you may want to use a different marker for each part, i.e. "fui de paseo a la playa", or "fui a pasear por la playa", instead of "a pasear a la playa".

However, there's always quite some ambiguity to which part is to be interpreted the most important, depending on word order, what marker is used, or even how specific a destination is. There's just no sure-fire formula.


Edited by mrwarper on 27 July 2015 at 1:10pm



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