# To be around you



## puromedo

I would like to know how to say "I want to be around you" in Spanish. I am trying to tell someone how much I want to be around them, is "Quiero estar cerca de ti" the correct way?


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## cocuyo

That should cover it, yes.


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## Ynez

If you want to tell someone how much you want to be around* them*, then it should be like:

_Quiero estar cerca de vosotros._


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## bandini

Hi puromedo,
Ynez's translation was correct but literal. If you're trying to express these feelings to a woman, you might also consider something like...

_"'Si me permites, quisiera llegar a conocerte más a fondo."_

(Anyway, it never hurts to have a backup) lol


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## Ynez

Do you think that is the idea of the English sentence, bandini? That puromedo doesn't really know that woman much and wants to get to know her?


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## bandini

jajaja...Descuídate amigo. Tu españól sigue siendo un montón de veces mejor que el mio. No más pensaba yo que... possí... que lo que realmente quiere hacer es juntarse más con ella. Entonces sí, me preguntaba sobre la frase de él, no la tuya. Y como ya dije, con las mujeres siempre te conviene tener otra opción.


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## gengo

puromedo said:


> I would like to know how to say "I want to be around you" in Spanish. I am trying to tell someone how much I want to be around them, is "Quiero estar cerca de ti" the correct way?



Sometimes when translating such phrases, it is helpful to think of how they might be rewritten in the same language.  This one could be rewritten as "I want to spend more time with you," which is easy to translate as "Quiero pasar más tiempo contigo."

Ynez, "them" is often used as a gender-neutral singular pronoun in speech and writing.


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## Ynez

Vale, comprendo. Tú piensas que quiere ligar con una chica y que tu frase le puede venir bien también. Estoy de acuerdo...aunque la suya es mucho más directa.


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## Ynez

gengo said:


> Sometimes when translating such phrases, it is helpful to think of how they might be rewritten in the same language.  This one could be rewritten as "I want to spend more time with you," which is easy to translate as "Quiero pasar más tiempo contigo."
> 
> Ynez, "them" is often used as a gender-neutral singular pronoun in speech and writing.



gengo, I had to give him that option just in case. He should realize what's the translation from that into Spanish.


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## gengo

Ynez said:


> gengo, I had to give him that option just in case. He should realize what's the translation from that into Spanish.



Acuerdo.  Y ya que eres tú, Ynez, a quien respeto muchísimo, sospecho que ya lo entendías, pero la traducción correcta de "I am trying to tell someone how much I want to be around them" no puede ser la de "vosotros," ya que se dice "someone," la cual no se puede referir al plural.  Es decir, la única traducción que sea posible es "él" o "ella" en este caso:  Estoy tratando de decirle a alguien que...con él/ella (o esa persona).  ¿Me explico?


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## Ynez

gengo said:


> Acuerdo.  Y ya que eres tú, Ynez, a quien respeto muchísimo, sospecho que ya lo entendías, pero la traducción correcta de "I am trying to tell someone how much I want to be around them" no puede ser la de "vosotros," ya que se dice "someone," la cual no se puede referir al plural.  Es decir, la única traducción que sea posible es "él" o "ella" en este caso:  Estoy tratando de decirle a alguien que...con él/ella (o esa persona).  ¿Me explico?



Creo que te has liado, gengo. 

he tells *someone*: I want to be with you (all)

Think about it. 


¿Tan normal es ese "them" realmente? Why didn't he say "her" or "him"?

We are just speculating about what he means, but he truly asked this sentence to translate "I want to be with you all".


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## gengo

Ynez said:


> he tells *someone*: I want to be with you (all)
> 
> Think about it.



Ah, now I see what you are thinking.  Yes, that is possible, but it would only be taken that way if the context dictated so.



> ¿Tan normal es ese "them" realmente? Why didn't he say "her" or "him"?



Yes, extremely common.  English professors might not like it, but that is how regular people talk and write in English.  If you said "I want to tell someone I want to be around them" to 100 native English speakers, I would bet that 99-100 of them would understand it as I did, that the "them" is just a gender-neutral singular pronoun.  I am positive that this is the meaning intended by the original poster.

And the reason for not using "her" or "him" is that the person didn't want to specify the gender for some reason.


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## Ynez

I have learnt this today. 

I could also guess what he meant, but we have to be guessing...


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## gengo

Ynez, here are some common situations where we use "them" like this.

- If someone asks you for some money on the street, give them a little.
- Somebody stole my camera, and if I find out who did it, I'll kill them.

In such cases, we don't want to specify the gender, for obvious reasons, but we don't want to say "him or her" because that sounds stilted.  It would be great if we had gender-neutral pronouns in English, and some people have even proposed adding such pronouns, but they have not caught on so far.  In Spanish we don't have this problem with indirect object pronouns, because we can just use "le," but we do have the same problem with direct object pronouns.  Therefore, in my first example above there is no problem, but how would you translate the second one?  Would using "lo" cover both genders?


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## CHUGE

Quiero estar más cerca tuyo...


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## Ynez

En español we could normally use the plural (les) sometimes. 

_Si alguien te pide dinero por la calle, dale/s un poco.
Alguien me ha robado la cámara, y como averigüe quién ha sido, lo mato.
Alguien me ha robado la cámara, y como averigüe quiénes han sido, los mato
_


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## Ynez

CHUGE said:


> Quiero estar más cerca tuyo...



Really?

In any case, we could say "tuya". 
Now it seems puromedo will have to ask that someone how to say it. 

3.420 de "cerca tuya"
83.600 de "cerca tuyo".
98.700 de "cerca de vos"
745.000 de "cerca de ti"


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## gengo

Thanks, Ynez.  I knew that the third-person plural could be used for unspecified numbers of people, such as "Me han robado la cámara...," but I didn't realize that we could say "los" like this.  Is it common?

Also, don't we write the word as averig*ü*e?


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## Ynez

gengo said:


> Also, don't we write the word as averig*ü*e?



True, thank you. I will edit it now. This is the problem when we get used to spell checkers and then we don't have them.


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## aztlaniano

Me gustaría poder verte más a menudo.
Quiero que nos veamos más.
And I like "...pasar más tiempo contigo".
(Y estoy de acuerdo con todos los comentarios de gengo sobre "them".)


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## Ynez

aztlaniano said:


> (Y estoy de acuerdo con todos los comentarios de gengo sobre "them".)



You should also agree with what I said about "them", but it's ok...I don't want you to get a headache. 


And your sentences look perfect for the situation we are imagining.


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## aztlaniano

Ynez said:


> You should also agree with what I said about "them", but it's ok...I don't want you to get a headache.


Es concebible, como reconoció gengo, pero muy rebuscado.


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## Ynez

Vale, entonces ¿qué debería haber dicho para que al español lo tradujéramos como "vosotros"?



			
				puromedo said:
			
		

> I would like to know how to say "I want to be around you" in Spanish. I am trying to tell someone how much I want to be around them, is "Quiero estar cerca de ti" the correct way?


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## gengo

Ynez, as I said, your interpretation is perfectly possible, but it's just much, much more likely to be the way.  However, in the right context, your version would work.

-Wow, you really miss your parents, don't you?
-Yeah.
-What are you doing there?
-I'm writing a letter, talking about my parents, and I am trying to tell someone how much I want to be around them.

In the above context, I would interpret it as you did, but the default interpretation would be the way I did it.


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## Ynez

And I agree with you all in that I also think he is referring to a person. But that is something we are really imagining...


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## aztlaniano

Ynez said:


> Vale, entonces ¿qué debería haber dicho para que al español lo tradujéramos como "vosotros"?


 



puromedo said:


> I would like to know how to say "I want to be around you" in Spanish. I am trying to tell someone *people/guys* how much I want to be around them.


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## la_machy

aztlaniano said:


> (Y estoy de acuerdo con todos los comentarios de gengo sobre "them".)


 
Me siento como Antonio Banderas en la película "The body"
Jamás me hubiera imaginado ni estaba enterada de que se le diera tal uso a "them".
De todas las diferencias que me he encontrado entre lo que me enseñan de inglés y la manera de cómo realmente se habla, esto es lo más raro que he visto.
Pero, ni hablar, que bueno que entré a este hilo.

 Ah...se me olvidaba...Estoy de acuerdo con "Quiero estar cerca de ti".


Saludos


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## Ynez

aztlaniano said:


> I would like to know how to say "I want to be around you" in Spanish. I am trying to tell someone people/guys how much I want to be around them.



Pero, aztlaniano, este tema ya lo hablamos gengo y yo antes...

Tú imagina que tienes una hermana viviendo contigo y es amiga mía. Hace tiempo que no la veo, pero a ti si te veo, aquí, en el foro. Os quiero ver a los dos, pero solo te lo voy a decir a ti (someone).

Le pregunto a la_machi cómo decirlo:



> I would like to know how to say "I want to be around you" in Spanish. I am trying to tell someone how much I want to be around them



Ya te advertí que te iba a dar dolor de cabeza...


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## la_machy

Antes de éste hilo, si yo hubiera visto "I am trying to tell _someone_ how much I want to be around _them_", de inmediato habría pensado que era un error.
Pero después de ver este hilo quiza trataría de emplear el tono más neutro posible y lo tendría que traducir como "Quiero estar cerca", asi nada más. 


Saludos


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## Ynez

la_machy, en ningún caso sería incorrecto, lo que pasa es que la traducción lógica es:



> "I am trying to tell someone how much I want to be around them"



_Le estoy intentando decir a alguien cuantas ganas tengo de estar con ellos._

*Ellos *podría ser su familia, su grupo de amigos...

Lo que hemos aprendido es que también se usa para decir:

_Le estoy intentando decir a alguien cuantas ganas tengo de estar con ella/él._

Creo que esta segunda opción es gramaticalmente inadecuada, pero bueno, a ti y a mí lo que nos interesa es saber que es posible que se diga así, para comprender bien.


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## gengo

Ynez said:


> Creo que esta segunda opción es gramaticalmente inadecuada, pero bueno, a ti y a mí lo que nos interesa es saber que es posible que se diga así, para comprender bien.



Here is what one dictionary says.  Note the part in purple.

them _pron_ *them* [ðəm, ðem](used as the object of verb or preposition) 
*1* people, animals, things etc already spoken about, being pointed out etc. _Let's invite them to dinner; What will you do with them? _
*2* used instead of him, ~him or her etc where a person of unknown sex or people of both sexes are referred to. _If anyone touches that, I'll hit them._


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## Ynez

gengo said:


> _2 used instead of him, ~him or her etc where a person of unknown sex or people of both sexes are referred to. If anyone touches that, I'll hit them._



gengo, I am afraid I see a huge difference between that example and our case, but right now I must go to sleep and can't think about it anymore. Maybe someone else can find the reason why they are so different. Perhaps it is not logical to consider the person in question of an unknown sex?

There is clearly a big difference between English and Spanish regarding the way to ask a question like this.


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## aztlaniano

Ynez said:


> Tú imagina que tienes una hermana viviendo contigo y es amiga mía. Hace tiempo que no la veo, pero a ti si te veo, aquí, en el foro. Os quiero ver a los dos, pero solo te lo voy a decir a ti (someone).


Dirías, probablemente:
I want to tell one of them how much I want to see them (both).
Si fuéramos toda una familia, o un equipo de fútbol, quizá:
I want to tell someone (in the family/on the team) how much I want to see (all of) them.
Answer: You say "os quiero ver".


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## CHUGE

Ynez said:


> Really?
> 
> In any case, we could say "tuya".
> Now it seems puromedo will have to ask that someone how to say it.
> 
> 3.420 de "cerca tuya"
> 83.600 de "cerca tuyo".
> 98.700 de "cerca de vos"
> 745.000 de "cerca de ti"


 
No sé como explicarlo, quizás alguien que domine la gramatica pueda hacerlo, pero definitivamente, aún siendo una mujer a la que quieres acercarte,
no le digas *"cerca tuya". Porque está mal.*

"Yo soy tuya" está bien
"esta máquina de fotos es tuya" está bien
pero 
"estar cerca tuyo" es lo correcto
Te lo aseguro

Y "how much I want to be around them" lo traduciría :
Cuanto deseo estar cerca suyo (de ellos)


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## SevenDays

Hello

The "around you" doesn't translate well into Spanish.

I would probably just say,

_Me gusta estar contigo_

Just another option.....

Cheers


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## Ynez

> "I want to be around you"






aztlaniano said:


> Me gustaría poder verte más a menudo.
> Quiero que nos veamos más.





			
				SevenDays said:
			
		

> Me gusta estar contigo




It is incredible to see how many problems we've encountered to translate that little sentence...

I like all those versions above 


CHUGE, it seems there are different uses to say "near you". I have learnt that in Argentina it is "cerca tuyo", but here we'd say "cerca de ti" or I could say (not sure if everybody would) "cerca tuya". Then, some other people seem to say "cerca de vos". 


As for the other structure with "them", later I'll start a topic in English only. It looks like a really interesting grammar point.


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## Loob

Here, ""them" = "her or him".

I'd say "Me gusta estar contigo".


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## puromedo

Thanks for all the help! Sorry I didn't put the context in which i wanted to use the phrase, but everyone pretty much helped me out!


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