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Spanish for "it’s been..."? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Bartolomeu Dias Groupie United States Joined 6949 days ago 43 posts - 44 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French, Latin | Message 1 of 4 21 November 2005 at 6:21pm | IP Logged |
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I'm afraid this is a rather silly question, but...
In English, vague nouns and pronouns like "it" and "things" are often used in reference to a general situation (i.e. "It's going well for me right now," or "things have been rather hectic lately"). In Spanish, how does one refer to one's general circumstances? I can't seem to get past a literal translation of the English colloquialisms, which often results in sentences like "Cosas han sido bien." It just doesn't seem quite right! If someone could please set me straight on this, it would be greatly appreciated! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7017 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes  Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 4 22 November 2005 at 10:19am | IP Logged |
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La vida me va muy bien = Life is great at the moment
Recientemente las cosas han estado un poco loco = Things have been a bit crazy lately Anything else? Edited by patuco on 27 November 2005 at 4:18am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Peix Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6964 days ago 6 posts - 6 votes | Message 3 of 4 23 November 2005 at 7:26am | IP Logged |
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You need to find a way round that sort of sentence by using constructions that basically mean the same thing, but aren't literal translations of the English. Patuco has suggested a couple. I'd recommend using constructions involving "la vida", "estar"... you can use "las cosas", though, in a similar way to the way we use "things" in English (note "las cosas" with the article), as Patuco did in the second sentence above.
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| Bartolomeu Dias Groupie United States Joined 6949 days ago 43 posts - 44 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French, Latin | Message 4 of 4 26 November 2005 at 8:44pm | IP Logged |
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Aah, so you can use "cosas"! I was a bit loath to use it at first because I
thought that it was an English colloquialism. I also hadn't thought to use "me va" for "it goes". I understand a bit better now; thanks for your help! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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