La semana pasada caminé por la ciudad donde vivo con un hombre que sabe todo sobre historia. Decidí intentar contarme una historia sobre esto en español.
I had got stuck on “Last week”. I could remember “this week” and “next week”, pero no pude encontrar “last week”. ¡Pobre de mí!
Le pregunté a mi hija menor – y ¡sorpresa! – ella recordó. Fantástico.
Ahora estaba lista para decirla that I had worked out how to say “Do you know how many times a horse defecates every day?”
¿Sabes cuántas veces defeca un caballo al día?
The history man had asked that!
Before you think I’m getting pretty posh at this Spanish business, let me explain. I only know the word for horse because it’s written as an option on your credencial, which means you get to see it every day. Besides, we met a man doing the Via de la Plata on his horse and that was pretty good reinforcement.
As for defecate….actually, I’d have preferred to say “poop”, but I didn’t know how to do that (well, actualmente I do know how to DO it, but I don’t know how to say it en español). Another thing I know is that most words ending -tion in English can be turned into Spanish easily….defecation > defecación, in this case. Then you can take the -ción ending off and turn it into a verb and you’re away laughing. At least, I was.
There’s so much fun in going away and trying to communicate with limited language….and now I have another verb to add to my repertoire, although I am unlikely to use it after “I need to” or “I have to” or “I want to” or “I know how to”. Luckily I know, “May I use the toilet?”
PARAGRAPH ONE TRANSLATION (or what I was trying to say): Last week I went for a walk in the city where I live with a man who knows everything about history (stated in this way because I didn’t know how to say I went on an historical walking tour!)
I decided to try to tell myself a story about it in Spanish.
PARAGRAPH TWO: I got stuck on “Last week”. I could remember “this week” and “next week”, but I could not find “last week”. Poor me!
PARAGRAPH THREE: I asked my youngest daughter – and surprise! – she remembered. Fantastic!
PARAGRAPH FOUR: Now I was ready to tell her that I had worked out how to say “Do you know how many times a horse defecates every day?”
La respuesta es catorce. (If you speak Spanish, now you know too!)
solowalk 2024 