¿ Hay un error-

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schnaz
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¿ Hay un error-

Postby schnaz » 2017-01-16, 4:07

Hola a todas\os,

Lo que quiero decir es esto:

Why be sad when you can be glad?
¿Es correcto lo que sigue?

¿Porque sea triste cuando pudiera alegrarse?

Gracias de antemano,

Schnaz

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Linguaphile
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Re: ¿ Hay un error-

Postby Linguaphile » 2017-01-16, 4:48

schnaz wrote:Why be sad when you can be glad?
¿Es correcto lo que sigue?

¿Porque sea triste cuando pudiera alegrarse?


I would say:
¿Para qué estar triste, si se puede estar feliz?
But if you really want to keep the wording closer to what you started with, you could use:
¿Porqué estar triste, si puedes estar alegre?

Explanations:
You can use porqué (don't forget the accent mark) instead of para qué, but to me para qué sounds more natural in this context, a bit more rhetorical, like "what's the point in being sad?", which is how I understand the question's intent. Either is okay.
With feelings you use estar, not ser, unless you want to say that it is part of the person's personality all the time.
You should use si here in place of cuando. Grammatically what you're really saying is "why be sad if you can be glad" - the use of "when" here in English is conditional not temporal, so in Spanish you translate it as si.
I used the impersonal se puede, but it's not incorrect to use the tú or Usted form if you are addressing someone.
Lastly, feliz sounds more natural to me here than alegre. All you need is an opposite of triste; I think the English version uses "glad" in place of "happy" just because it rhymes with "sad". Since there isn't a way to make it rhyme in Spanish, I'd just go with feliz.

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schnaz
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Re: ¿ Hay un error-

Postby schnaz » 2017-01-17, 19:41

Thanks Linguaphile,

Muy agradecido por sus comentarios y correcciones los que me parecen muy sagaz.

I'm grateful for your comments and corrections which seem sagacious to me.

Schnaz :D
"" Don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy."
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Re: ¿ Hay un error-

Postby vijayjohn » 2017-02-19, 3:10

Por qué should be written as two words like para qué, not one.

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Re: ¿ Hay un error-

Postby Antea » 2017-02-19, 7:02



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