Hi kwiziq team! Would "no puedo encontrar las llaves" also sound "un-spanish" to a Spanish speaker? Or could I say that as an alternative form?
Thank you as always!
There are some semi-regular -ar verbs in Spanish in El Presente.
Have a look at these three cases:
| VOLAR to fly |
ENCONTRAR to find |
ALMORZAR to have lunch |
|
| yo | vuelo | encuentro | almuerzo |
| tú | vuelas |
encuentras |
almuerzas |
|
él / ella / usted |
vuela | encuentra |
almuerza |
| nosotros / nosotras |
volamos | encontramos | almorzamos |
| vosotros / vosotras |
voláis | encontráis | almorzáis |
| ellos / ellas/ ustedes |
vuelan | encuentran |
almuerzan |
Notice how for all three groups, the first vowel -o- becomes -ue-
EXCEPT for nosotros/nosotras and vosotros/vosotras where it remains -o-.
Listen to these examples:
See also List of common Spanish Stem-changing Verbs: present tense (o > ue).
Learn more about these related Spanish grammar topics
Examples and resources
Q&A Forum 3 questions, 2 answers
Alexander asked:View original
Follow up on "no puedo encontrar las llaves"
Hi kwiziq team! Would "no puedo encontrar las llaves" also sound "un-spanish" to a Spanish speaker? Or could I say that as an alternative form?
Thank you as always!
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MargaretKwiziq community member
I, too, don't understant your explanation of why "Yo no puedo encontrar las llaves" is not acceptable. Can you be a bit more specific?
Asked 1 year ago
GruffKwiziq team member
The point is not about whether you can or can't use 'poder' but in Spanish people will say You no encuentro las llaves and mean they can't find the keys. It would sound strange in English to translate this literally as I don't find the keys so we have translated it more loosely into the appropriate expression.
If you imagine looking for keys, failing, and speaking aloud to someone in the room: "I'm not finding my keys anywhere!" you can get a sense of how that communicates "unable to" without actually needing to use "can't".
Make sense?
Margaret asked:View original
I, too, don't understant your explanation of why "Yo no puedo encontrar las llaves" is not acceptable. Can you be a bit more specific?
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SusanKwiziq community member
Encontrar ?
This lesson seems to define encontrar as 'being able to find': ex. I can't find my keys' : Yo no encuentro mis llaves. Why not : Yo no puedo encontrar mis llaves.
Asked 2 years ago
InmaKwiziq team member
Hola Susan,
Encontrar means "to find" but somehow it sounds a bit odd to translate the sentence in the lesson "Vosotros no encontráis las llaves" into "You don't find the keys" [literal translation] so we went for a more realistic translation in English which is "You can't find the keys." In many cases, when using the simple present in Spanish, the literal translation in English doesn't work well.
Susan asked:View original
Encontrar ?
This lesson seems to define encontrar as 'being able to find': ex. I can't find my keys' : Yo no encuentro mis llaves. Why not : Yo no puedo encontrar mis llaves.
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