Translating “I'm bad with [remembering] something”

Question

In English, you can say:

What is the most natural way in Spanish of expressing that you are bad at remembering something?

Actually we wouldn't even say "I'm bad with XYZing" in English. We would say "I'm bad at XYZing".
@hippietrail: Hmm, now there's a question for EL&U :) I'd say "I'm bad with names" not "I'm bad at names" (Western US). I would say "I'm bad at swimming" though.
For "names" both sound good to me (Australia) but anything I can think of with a verb ending in "-ing" I would only say "at". But sure why not ask on EL&U? (-:

Rellikiox · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-02 21:56:39Z

There's two basic ways:

Se me da mal algo / algo se me da mal.

No se me da muy bien algo / algo se me da muy bien

You can modify the adverb (mal/*bien* in this case) to represent how bad you're at it, or for personal preference:

The other ways is:

Soy bastante malo haciendo algo

No soy muy bueno haciendo algo

You can also change the adverb like so:

These are just two ways, but I'm sure there are plenty more.

César · Answer 2 · 2012-01-02 16:48:03Z

up vote 1 down vote

You can also say:

Soy muy malo con/para (whatever)

Soy fatal (affected/posh) para las caras/los nombres or recordar (idem)

edited Jan 2 '12 at 16:48

César
1,2401625

answered Nov 25 '11 at 10:42

Laura
2,572611

César · Answer 3 · 2012-03-12 13:24:55Z

up vote 1 down vote

Usually:

Tengo (muy) mala memoria para (whatever)

edited Mar 12 '12 at 13:24

César
1,2401625

answered Nov 25 '11 at 7:34

belisarius
1,280127

3 Answers