# Since, he's hardly given me any homework



## panchonn

please help me.

como deberia ser la traduccion de esto;
Since, he's hardly given me any homework, it's difficult for me to say how good he is.
¿Esta bien este intento?
Dado que el esta dificilmente dando me alguna tarea, es dificil para mi decir como es el de bueno.
 
esta frase no tiene un contexto, es solo una frase.
 
gracias por ayudarme a aprender.


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## apuquipa

"Hardly" en este contexto significa *casi nada/apenas*.


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## elprofe

- Ya que/dado que (él) apenas me ha dado ningún trabajo / algun trabajo / trabajos , es difícil saber cómo es (él) de bueno.


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## panchonn

muchas gracias apuquipa y elprofe.


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## elprofe

De nada panchonn! Un placer poder ayudarte 
Por cierto, en vez de "saber" el verbo que usa en la frase inglesa es "decir".


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## NewdestinyX

panchonn said:


> please help me.
> 
> como deberia ser la traduccion de esto;
> Since, he's hardly given me any homework, it's difficult for me to say how good he is.
> ¿Esta bien este intento?
> Dado que el esta dificilmente dando me alguna tarea, es dificil para mi decir como es el de bueno.
> 
> esta frase no tiene un contexto, es solo una frase.
> 
> gracias por ayudarme a aprender.


Panchonn:

hardly = apenas in Spanish.. as an adverb.
And 'dado que' is used more for 'given that'... which is indeed 'since' -- but get used to using 'ya que' or 'puesto que' which are way more common for English's 'since' when it means 'because of this'..

SO:
Ya que/Puesto que apenas me ha dado trabajo alguno/ningún trabajo, es difícil saber cómo es de bueno.

To "say" how someone 'is' at something is better as 'saber' rather than 'decir'. "Decir" is for the 'act' of saying something.

Chao,
Grant


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## elprofe

NewdestinyX said:


> Panchonn:
> 
> hardly = apenas in Spanish.. as an adverb.
> And 'dado que' is used more for 'given that'... which is indeed 'since' -- but get used to using 'ya que' or 'puesto que' which are way more common for English's 'since' when it means 'because of this'..
> 
> SO:
> Ya que/Puesto que apenas me ha dado trabajo alguno/ningún trabajo, es difícil saber cómo es de bueno.
> 
> To "say" how someone 'is' at something is better as 'saber' rather than 'decir'. "Decir" is for the 'act' of saying something.
> 
> Chao,
> Grant



La verdad es que sí, yo me he leido la frase en inglés una vez antes de responder al primer mensaje y, sin querer, también he puesto "saber" en vez de "decir"...


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## NewdestinyX

elprofe said:


> La verdad es que sí, yo me he leido la frase en inglés una vez antes de responder al primer mensaje y, sin querer, también he puesto "saber" en vez de "decir"...


Interesante -- así que ¿no crees que debería ser 'saber' en castellano? Me has confundido un poco.


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## elprofe

NewdestinyX said:


> Interesante -- así que ¿no crees que debería ser 'saber' en castellano? Me has confundido un poco.



Si si, pienso que " to say... is" se traduciría mejor como "saber".
Lo que te he dicho, era una curiosidad, de cómo sin querer, en castellano he puesto "saber" aunque "to say" signifique "decir". Esto es una muestra de que es más natural usar el verbo "saber" en esa frase....

Un saludo!


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## DWO

Since, he's hardly given me any homework, it's difficult for me to say how good he is.

_*Dado que apenas me ha dado tarea, me es dificil decir qué tan bueno es.*_


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## Tazzler

It's a side correction, but there shouldn't be a comma after _since_.


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## NewdestinyX

elprofe said:


> Si si, pienso que " to say... is" se traduciría mejor como "saber".
> Lo que te he dicho, era una curiosidad, de cómo sin querer, en castellano he puesto "saber" aunque "to say" signifique "decir". Esto es una muestra de que es más natural usar el verbo "saber" en esa frase....
> 
> Un saludo!


Anda -- ahora entiendo. Gracias por la aclaración,
Grant


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## FromMexico

DWO said:


> Since, he's hardly given me any homework, it's difficult for me to say how good he is.
> 
> _*Dado que apenas me ha dado tarea, me es dificil decir qué tan bueno es.*_


 

Hola , apenas estrenandome por estos rumbos, yo lo diria de otra manera

"Debido a que no me ha dado mucha tarea o suficiente tarea, me es dificil decir que tan bueno es"

"Debido a que me ha dado poco tarea......


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## Tripinbell

Pues yo personalmente no diria "qué tan bueno es", diria mejor "como de bueno es".
Es que no me suena muy bien el "qué tan bueno es".


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## NewdestinyX

Tripinbell said:


> Pues yo personalmente no diria "qué tan bueno es", diria mejor "como de bueno es".
> Es que no me suena muy bien el "qué tan bueno es".


¿Será esto una diferencia entre España y Latinoamerica? Trabajo en Madrid, Albacete, León, etc.. dos o tres veces al año durante varias semanas.. y nunca he oído '_qué tan bueno es_' - solo '_como de bueno es_' o  '_como es él/ella de bueno_'. Pero tampoco creo que la primera sea incorrecto.

Pero en Google:
 Results *1* - *10* of about *14**,700* for *"como de bueno es"*. 
 Results *1* - *10* of about *167,000* for *"qué tan bueno es"*.

Así que es evidente que se emplean ambos. - pero, el segundo, más.

Y mantengo que el uso de 'say' en inglés en esta oración tiene que ser 'saber' en castellano.

Chao,
Grant


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## Sköll

NewdestinyX said:


> Pero en Google:
> Results *1* - *10* of about *732,000* for *"como de bueno es"*.
> Results *1* - *10* of about *167,000* for *"qué tan bueno es"*.


   I agree with your observation about the difference in usage in Spain and Latin American. But I want to point out that the number of hits in Google is almost meaningless. In this case, if go to page 77, you’ll see that that there are actually only 800 or so examples of "qué tan bueno es". Sometimes the difference is even more shocking---i.e. number of hits shows over a million cases, but there are less than 100 when you try to list them. Google search engine is not designed for this sort of comparison.

For eample:
 Resultados *1* - *10* de aproximadamente *55.200.000* de *"hasta el punto de que tenga"*.  (*0,21* segundos) 
Actual number of hits: 34


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## NewdestinyX

Sköll said:


> I agree with your observation about the difference in usage in Spain and Latin American. But I want to point out that the number of hits in Google is almost meaningless. In this case, if go to page 77, you’ll see that that there are actually only 800 or so examples of "qué tan bueno es". Sometimes the difference is even more shocking---i.e. number of hits shows over a million cases, but there are less than 100 when you try to list them. Google search engine is not designed for this sort of comparison.


It does show a good comparison on the first 15-20 pages.. And the same ratio exists. I found the same block of unacceptable answers in the 'como de bueno' listing too. I actually find Google's very reliable in these discussions if you know how to use the filters. This was an unfiltered search.. Let me try getting rid of «'que', without the tilde, + tan» in the first example and see if that is closer..

Grant


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## NewdestinyX

Here is the more accurate 'filtered' result for "qué tan bueno es"

Results *191* - *200* of about *7,580* for *"qué tan bueno es" -"que tan"*. 

Not over 100,000 -- but more like 7500.

There is no need to filter 'como de bueno'.... as those 3 words together wouldn't be spelled creating
homonyms with any other word nor would they appear as part of another idiom.

Grant


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## DWO

Resultados *1* - *10* de aproximadamente *2.090* de *"cómo de bueno es"*. (*0,22* segundos) 
Resultados *1* - *10* de aproximadamente *10.100* de *"qué tan bueno es"*. (*0,26* segundos)


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## piraña utria

Hola.

"Cómo de bueno es" no es una expresión que con ese sentido tenga un uso normal en Colombia. "Qué tan bueno es", sí.

Saludos,


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## wardo

Todas esas opciones son correctas. Una suena mejor que la otra dependiendo del lado del Atlántico en que nos encontremos. Por proponer otra, ya en desuso. "cuan bueno es".


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## NewdestinyX

piraña utria said:


> Hola.
> 
> "Cómo de bueno es" no es una expresión que con ese sentido tenga un uso normal en Colombia. "Qué tan bueno es", sí.
> 
> Saludos,



Ah!! Mystery solved! One is standard usage in Spain
and one is standard in Latin America.


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## Sköll

NewdestinyX said:


> Here is the more accurate 'filtered' result for "qué tan bueno es"
> 
> Results *191* - *200* of about *7,580* for *"qué tan bueno es" -"que tan"*.
> 
> Not over 100,000 -- but more like 7500 compared to 700,000 for 'como de bueno es'.
> 
> There is no need to filter 'como de bueno homonyms  with any other word nor would they appear as part of another idiom .
> 
> Grant" target="WRdict">'.... as those 3 words together wouldn't be spelled as
> homonyms  with any other word nor would they appear as part of another idiom .
> 
> Grant


279 hits (not 700,000) .  See: http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=1444870" target="WRdict">

You must know something about inner working of Google search engine that is not common knowledge. "como de bueno es" produces 279 hits (not 700,000) .  See: http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=1444870


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## piraña utria

Hola, Sköll.

Muy interesante tu hilo del Foro Cultural. 

Los "resultados de Google" no creo que sean evidencia científica del uso divulgado, al menos en el uso medianamente culto, de ninguna expresión: basta recordar lo limitado que sigue siendo en muchos países, incluyendo buena parte de Latinoamérica, del internet como medio de divulgación.

Saludos,


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## NewdestinyX

Sköll said:


> You must know something about inner working of Google search engine that is not common knowledge. "como de bueno es" produces 279 hits (not 700,000) .  See: http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=1444870


You're right, partially, Skoll.. I don't know how I came up with over 700,000 hits the first time. Even if you take away the exact phrase markers "  " you still only get 73,000 or so. I'll try to reproduce what I did the first time..

But the number for "cómo de bueno es" is way more than 279. Make sure you're not constraining the search engine to 'Spanish' pages only. Simply enter "cómo de bueno es", with the quotation marks, and you will get at least this:
Results *1* - *10* of about *1,870* for *"cómo de bueno es"*.  (*0.06* seconds) 

But in fairness you have to add to the count:
 Results *1* - *10* of about *14,300* for *"cómo es de bueno"*.
Since they mean exactly the same thing and can not be confused with other sayings/idioms. so that's at least 22,000

Then  Results *1* - *10* of about *167,000* for *"qué tan bueno es"*.  

So the Latin American usage is higher - now that I did the search correctly - as you'd expect because there are more Latin American Spanish speakers in the world than Spain Spanish speakers.

I still think that Google is very important as a tool in establishing what is common in the written media. As long as you know how us the filters correctly is works in most cases. You do have to check the 'page count at the bottom' and make sure that it isn't 3 pages and then 21 repeated pages of the same phrase as if the phrase is in a lyric of a common song. You have look deep into the examples and make sure they're consistenly different examples before you report it as a 'proof' for usage or lack of usage.

Thanks!
Grant


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## Sköll

NewdestinyX said:


> But the number for "cómo de bueno es" is way more than 279. Make sure you're not ...


I wish you took this discussion to the other thread that I opened for talking about Google. But let me try one last time: The numbers you are quoting are meaningless. They are output of a program that tries to come up with an estimate in a fraction of a second without actually scanning the entire database. Please do the following:

1. Search for "*cómo es de bueno*". (it should report about 13,000 hits)
2. At the bottom of the page, go to page 50. (you shouldn't be able to)

You get an actual of about 330 hits. The other 12,000 hits are just not there. They were never there!


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## NewdestinyX

Sköll said:


> I wish you took this discussion to the other thread that I opened for talking about Google. But let me try one last time: The numbers you are quoting are meaningless. They are output of a program that tries to come up with an estimate in a fraction of a second without actually scanning the entire database. Please do the following:
> 
> 1. Search for "*cómo es de bueno*". (it should report about 13,000 hits)
> 2. At the bottom of the page, go to page 50. (you shouldn't be able to)
> 
> You get an actual of about 330 hits. The other 12,000 hits are just not there. They were never there!


I'm sorry to disagree. I can get to every page that they quote. Though going to page 50 doesn't work as you say -- There are 12,000 'actual', unique entries, Sköll. Simply repeat the search 'without omitted entries as it says on the last page 33. There are 12,000 'unique' entries from different sources -- and the reported 'seconds' for finding the search is longer. 

It is a very useful language learning tool that every student should avail themselves of. I have 10 years of proof of its help and usefulness.

Instead of going on here -- I'll respond in your other thread..

What's important for the purposes of learning in this thread is that even if you only use Googles 312 hits without the ommitted results you also get about 900 for "qué tan bueno es" the ratio is about 3:1 of the "qué tan..." usage being more used. Ultimately with Google we're often just trying to find a ratio of usage and Google nails that as a tool for us.

Grant


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## anipol

Hola, acerca de "he has hardly given me any homework", otra forma de expresar ese "casi negativo" en castellano es "prácticamente no".

Puesto que prácticamente no me ha dado tarea/deberes, no sé (no sabría decir) qué tan bueno es. 

Acerca de "give homework", yo lo entiendo como la acción de los profesores, que dan deberes para hacer en casa.  Los alumnos, por su parte "hand in homework", entregan la tarea/los deberes.  ¿O se puede usar "give homework" en ambos casos?


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