Spanish language question about switched words?

Question

How does the word
"saw" and then "i saw" go from "sierra" to "lo vi" i mean where did "lo vi" come from!? Lol

Thats the kind of stuff that REALLY confuses me in spanish! I mean "I" is "yo" and i thought "saw" is "sierra" so how come its not "yo sierra"?

or sometimes things are switched like "in todays economy" and then "en la economía de hoy"

WHY Is It Like That!!! Lol. If i can get an explanation as to why its like that, i think i can. have a better understanding of the spanish language

Answer 1

Sierra is a noun. The saw that you cut wood with. The saw you want is the past tense of the verb 'to see', which is 'ver'. Ver is an irregular verb whose past tense in the first person is '[yo] vi'. 'Lo vi' means 'I saw IT'.



To say "in today's economy" is like saying "in the economy of today".

Just like "the secretary's office" is the same as "the office of the secretary".

In Spanish, unless you are using pronouns, the possessive will always be indicated by "the [noun] of the [noun]" because there is no structure equivalent to the 's of English.

Answer 2

Saw has a couple of meanings in Spanish it can mean Yo vi, but it also means the noun saw,. Saw is the tool that is used to cut wood So the meanings are completely different, and that's why you can't say yo sierra.If you want to use the word sierra you can say for example Use una sierra para cortar lena ( madera ) I used a saw to cut wood.

Hope this helps



Saludos!



Hope this helps



NATIVE SPANISH SPEAKER

Answer 3

The first thing you have to understand is that you don't translate WORD BY WORD from one language to another.Imagine in English . What's BOOK? As a noun, it's an object you read. As a verb it's TO RESERVE. What if I translated word by word?. Am I going to read a RESERVE? lol

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One thing is a noun and another is a verb.



The noun SAW is SIERRA, a device to cut. . It's a noun, not a verb. Another meaning of the noun SIERRA could be something like MOUNTAIN or HILL.



The verb SEE in English has its irregular past SAW. It's a verb not a noun. In Spanish the verb in the infinitive is VER and the past with YO is VÍ.

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TODAY'S ECONOMY is la economía de hoy.



In English this is called POSSESSIVE CASE. First you say the POSSESSOR + apostrophe S and then what is possessed. In Spanish you always use the structure is.



WHAT IS POSSESSED + DE + POSSESSOR



John's table. La mesa de John

Mary's pencil El lápiz de Mary

My mother's dress El vestido de mi madre etc.



In English we also have this structure but usually when the possessor is an object.

THE LEG OF THE TABLE

THE KEYBOARD OF THE COMPUTER

THE PAGE OF THE BOOK.



Spanish is easier in comparison: ONLY ONE POSSIBILITY

Answer 4

The problem is not with

Spanish but with English. You can't translate word for word and in English words can have several meanings. Saw as a noun refers to a tool for cutting wood (sierra in Spanish) as a verb it is the past of the infinitive "to see." You don't translate words but ideas.

Answer 5

Not sure if it will place the accent marks, but high-light your text in MS word, then go to tools>Language and then translate, in the left pane you can convert to what ever language you need