Any Spanish speaking person here? HELP!

General Questions
#1

I dont know if this belongs in this form but I have some homework and I cant understand it. Like I want to say When I was six, I use to annoy my family. Is this what I would say:

Cuando era pequeno, yo molestia mi familia.
I also need it for these things:

  1. When I was six, I use to annoy my family.
  2. I use to ride my bicycle with my neighborhood friends
  3. I use to watch T.V
  4. I use to play with my friends
  5. I use to play video games.
  6. I use to eat candy
  7. I use to go to amusement parks
  8. I use to sleep alot
  9. I use to pray.
  10. I use to be carefree and happy

Now this is all in the imperfect past and I think the first one is

  1. Cuando era pequeno, yo molestia mi familia.
    and the second one:
  2. yo montaba en bicicleta con mis amigos del barrio

I have no clue on how to do the rest can anyone help or know what websites I can get help from? THanks

#2

The first one is probably more like:

  1. Cuando tenia seis a~nos yo molestaba a mi familia.

Although your translation is not incorrect, a six year old is going to be “peque~no” or little, it would probably be considered incomplete, since the age is specifically mentioned.

#3

Nadie aquí va a hacer su preparación para usted.

#4

Where’s Manuel from Barcelona when you need him?

#5
  1. Yo miraba televisión ( or: “yo solía mirar televisión” )
  2. Yo jugaba con mis amigos (or: “yo solía jugar con mis amigos”)
  3. Yo jugaba juegos de video (or: “yo solía jugar juegos de video”)
  4. Yo comía caramelos (or: … etc)

etc

“Yo solía …” = “I used to …”

#6

Ah thanks for your help

#7

That’s Senor Gomez to you.:smiley:

#8

I’m not positive these are right, but I’ll take a stab at it… (you’ll have to add some accents in)

Cuando tenia seis anos, molestaba mi familia. (note: when talking about age, you don’t say “to be 6 years old” you say “to have six years.”)

Montaba en bicicleta con mis amigos de me bario.

Miraba television.

Jugaba con mis amigos.

Comia dulces.

Iba a las parques de diversion

Dormia mucho.

Rezaba.

Estaba despreocupado y feliz.

#9
  1. cuando tenia sies a~nos molestaba mi familia.
  2. Montaba mi bicicleta con mis amigos del barrio.
  3. Veia la tele.
  4. Jugaba con mis amigos.
  5. Jugaba el juego de ordenador.
  6. Comia el caramelo.
  7. Iba el parque de attraciones.
  8. Dormiba(I don’t know this irrgeular verb in the imperfect tense)
  9. Rezaba(i don’t know this irregular verb in the imperfect tense)
    …um…minus accents I’m afraid. Thank my sis for the hard work. I only posted it :smiley:
#10
  1. Cuando tenía seis años, solía molestar a mis familiares.
  2. Solía montar en bicicleta con mis amigos del barrio.
  3. Solía ver la televisión.
    also acceptable: Solía ver la tele.
  4. Solía jugar con mis amigos.
  5. Solía jugar videojuegos.
  6. Solía comer dulces.
  7. Solía ir a parques de diversiones.
  8. Solía dormir mucho.
  9. Solía rezar.
  10. Solía ser despreocupado y feliz.

You can add “Yo” to the beginning of each of those sentences, but the rest should go like that.

Also: Es la última vez que te hacemos la tarea, muchacho (a), así que ponte a estudiar las lecciones de Español antes de que la maestra te repruebe!

Saludos

Lothos

#11

::Grammar fanatic pokes her head in::

It’s “used to,” not “use to”

::leaves::

#12

Twilightsea03, it really is important that you understand your homework. I don’t mind helping you, and I’m sure most of the other dopers don’t either, but we can’t be there when you’re taking a quiz or test. So let me see if I can explain this to you (I’m in Spanish IV, btw).

letters that should have an accent are bolded
AR verb endings in the imperfect
-aba
-abas
-aba
-abamos
-abaisaban

Taking a regular -ar verb (hablar) and conjugating it in the imperfect would look like this:
hablaba
hablabas
hablaba
hablabamos
hablaban

IR and ER endings in the Imperfect
-ia
-ias
-ia
-iamos
-iais
-ian

Conjugating a regular -er verb (comer) in the imperfect would look like this:
comia
comias
comia
comiamos
comiais
comian

Some irregular verbs in the imperfect are ser, ir, and ver. These conjugate like this:
Ir: iba, ibas, iba, ibamos, ibais, iban
Ser: era, eras, era, eramos, erais, eran
Ver: veia, veias, veia, veiamos, veiais, veian

Haber in the imperfect is habia.

I checked this in my spanish book to make sure I didn’t make a mistake, and I think I caught all of them. Hope this helps!

~monica

#13

Go get yourself a copy of 1,001 Spanish verbs! It’ll make your life a lot easier, especially with the irregular ones. It’s cool! But then I’m a huge geek and have all sorts of language reference books.

And **monica, ** good for you, actually doing the *vosotros *conjugations! Good prep for Spain…

#14

Remember that it’s “a mi familia”. Can’t forget the all-important “personal a”! :slight_smile:

#15

Thanks alot you guys are the best.

#16

Hey! What’s this solía stuff? Is it some type of regional use, or is it pretty much accepted anywhere in the Spanish speaking world? I really like the idea of the word, especially being an English speaker natively (it just seems wrong that “I was running” is used the same as “I used to run” in Spanish!). I’ve never heard my wife use it, but she’s only Mexican. Will she understand me if I go home using my new word (and a valuable one at that!). Come to think of it, I don’t see it in movies, much either. Is it strictly idiomatic?

I do have 1001 Spanish verbs at home – what’s the infinitive? “Solir” nor “soler” show up in my Palm dictionary… thanks!

#17

Balti, It is soler and is irregular. It isn’t a word used much in conversation here, you’ll see it more in print. Another translation would be to be accustomed to. Yo suelo salir al cine.

#18

Please footnote all these people on your HOMEWORK assignment.

#19

Balthisar wrote:

:smiley: Lordy!

#20

This actually means “When I used to have six anuses, I used to annoy my family.” We can only speculate how.

One must take particular care to include the tilde with the word "año," since “ano” means “anus.” This can be a problem with e-mail programs that don’t support multinational characters.

As CBEscapee says, “soler” really implies “to be accustomed to, to be in the habit of,” and is not that commonly used. “Used to” is better translated by the imperfect form of the appropriate verb; this is far more common.