1

Recently I've been practicing translating sentences from English into Spanish. This one is hard for me, can you help?

I'm also trying to say it in as few words as possible, without doing anything above beginner level.

  • English: I speak very little Spanish. I started studying about four months ago, but I've only been studying for about 5 minutes per day.

  • My attempt at Spanish: Hablo muy poquito Español. Comencé a estudiar de hace unos cuatro meses, pero solo por cincos minutos al día.

There is a lot of "word for word" translation going on, I know that can be bad.

Improve this question
1
  • 1
    I think that's perfect. A bit more than that and you wouldn't be actually speaking just a little :P
    – OscarRyz
    Commented Jan 13, 2023 at 18:48

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
2

The sentence is quite good actually. The only thing I would change is "de hace", which doesn't sound good to me. Instead, I would say "Comencé a estudiarlo hace unos cuatro meses".

Here, "lo" refers to the direct object, acting the same way as the word "it". You started learning IT. Then, "hace cuatro meses" is how you say "4 months ago".

Also, "por solo cinco minutos"... although this is okay, using "por" is not really neccesary in Spanish. Some natives would not include "por".

Finally, be careful, you wrote "cincos". It is "cinco minutos".

Improve this answer
1
  • 1
    Good point, I guess I wouldn't say "fives minutes" in English, would I?
    – capet
    Commented Jan 15, 2023 at 0:16
2
  • Como tu lo dirías en inglés

I speak very little Spanish. I started studying about four months ago, but I've only been studying for about 5 minutes per day.

  • Tu intento

"Hablo muy poquito Español. Comencé a estudiar de hace unos cuatro meses, pero solo por cincos minutos al día".

  • Traducción formal

"Hablo muy poco español. Empecé a estudiar hace unos cuatro meses, pero solo he estado estudiando unos 5 minutos por día".

  • Yo lo diría de la siguiente manera;

"Hablo poco español. Comencé a estudiar hace unos cuatro meses, pero solo cinco minutos al día".

Improve this answer
4
  • 2
    +1 Alternativo: "Hablo un poquito de español. Empecé a estudiar hace como cuatro meses, pero solo cinco minutos al día" (esMX)
    – OscarRyz
    Commented Jan 13, 2023 at 18:51
  • Thanks @Diego! Both answers are great, I just marked the earliest one as usual. I'll try en Español!: Gracias, @Diego! Las ambas son excelentes. Sencillamente marqué la primera, como siempre. (No idea whether that's right. xD)
    – capet
    Commented Jan 15, 2023 at 0:14
  • Nice job, you reduced the number of words like I was trying to do!
    – capet
    Commented Jan 15, 2023 at 0:18
  • No te preocupes capet, lo importante es que tu te mantengas motivado y poco a poco vayas aprendiendo y profundizando en esta hermosa lengua que es el español. "Gracias, @Diego! Ambas son excelentes. Sencillamente marqué la primera, como siempre". ¡Esta bien!
    – Diego
    Commented Jan 15, 2023 at 18:34

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.