You are doing/have done confusion?

Spanish
#1

Hi

I’ve just completed session 10 of the first course, and it’s all gone pretty smoothly so far. I expected this, because I previously learned Welsh using this method and it worked well (although weirdly, Aran’s voice makes me want to respond in Welsh because I became so habituated to doing this!)

Anyway, I’m a bit confused over the correct way to say ‘you are doing/you have done’. As far as I can remember, I think it’s ‘usted estás haciendo/has hecho’. But, in the susbequent sessions, I keep hearing ‘lo’, which I thought was ‘it’?

So, have I mis-remembered the initial introduction of these phrases, and they do include ‘lo’, or is it some change in grammar which I’ve missed? (such as, saying something like ‘I think you have done very well’, which I translated as 'pensio que usted está haciendo muy bien)

Apart from these two phrases, everything else has gone really well, but I’d like to get this confusion cleared up…

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#2

Hi Incertus,

Yes, as you say ‘you are doing/you have done’ is

“usted esta haciendo / usted ha hecho” (formal)
“tu estas haciendo / tu has hecho” (colloquial)

In the case of the phrase “you are doing very well” we need to add the “lo” to express the object of the action; therefore we say “Usted LO esta haciendo muy bien” (in this case LO indicates the “speaking in Spanish” action). In English you don’t say “you are doing IT very well” , though it is understood to what you are refering. In Spanish you do need to express the object of the action within the phrase.

I hope it’s not too confusing!

Keep up the good work,
Gaby

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#3

Hola Gaby, thanks for getting back to me so soon. Yes that seems to make sense; no ‘lo’ when it’s just ‘you have done’, ‘lo’ when there there’s the implication that you’ve done something unspecified well (or badly)

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#4

But crucially… don’t worry too much about when you ‘should’ or ‘shouldn’t’ stick ‘lo’ in - just let yourself get used to hearing it at this point, and then when your brain starts sticking it into sentences, notice and feel proud of your brain - but leave it all as hands off as possible, and in the end you’ll find yourself using it in an increasingly consistent way (which is the point people often describe as having something ‘just sound right’)… :slight_smile:

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