I am very confused by the English translation of the sentence "Os veo bastante triste." ("I can see that you are quite sad"). It seems to me quite a few words are missing in the Spanish. Can one also say, "Puedo ver que estáis bastante triste." Please help. I find that I am often confused as to when "que" must be used. And in this particular case, I'm also confused about the verbs.
Saludos,
Pati E.
Hola Pati
With verbs of perception (e.g. oir, ver...) we generally use the verb in the present without "poder" to say "I can see..., I can hear..." -we omit the modal verb but the meaning is still "I can..."
This is one of these cases:
Os veo bastante tristes.
I can see you [are] quite sad.
Literally this is "I see you very sad".
We are omitting here the verb estar because this is as if we were saying in Spanish "I see you in a certain way: sad --> I see you sad)
This short sentence would sound a bid odd in English but we can say it in Spanish. For example, we could also say:
Te oigo muy lejos.
I [can] hear you very far = I [can] hear you as if you were far away.
We could extend the sentence and use the verbs though and say something like:
Veo que estáis tristes. (I see/can see that you are sad.)
Te oigo como si estuvieras lejos. (I hear/can hear you as if you were far away.)
These long sentences would click better literally with the English.
I hope this clarified it.
This lesson might interest you. Have a look here.
Saludos
Inma
Don't have an account yet? Join today
Test your Spanish to the CEFR standard
Find your Spanish level