English US » Spanish | 82 [eighty-two] | Past tense 2

82 [ochenta y dos] Pretérito 2

Did you have to call an ambulance?	¿Tuviste que pedir una ambulancia?
Did you have to call the doctor?	¿Tuviste que llamar al médico?
Did you have to call the police?	¿Tuviste que llamar a la policía?
Do you have the telephone number? I had it just now.	¿Tiene (usted) el número de teléfono? Hace un momento aún lo tenía.
Do you have the address? I had it just now.	¿Tiene (usted) la dirección? Hace un momento aún la tenía.
Do you have the city map? I had it just now.	¿Tiene (usted) el plano (de la ciudad)? Hace un momento aún lo tenía.
Did he come on time? He could not come on time.	¿(Él) llegó a tiempo? No pudo llegar a tiempo.
Did he find the way? He could not find the way.	¿Encontró el camino? No pudo encontrar el camino.
Did he understand you? He could not understand me.	¿Te entendió? No me pudo entender.
Why could you not come on time?	¿Por qué no pudiste llegar a tiempo?
Why could you not find the way?	¿Por qué no pudiste encontrar el camino?
Why could you not understand him?	¿Por qué no pudiste entenderlo?
I could not come on time because there were no buses.	No pude llegar a tiempo porque no pasaba ningún autobús.
I could not find the way because I had no city map.	No pude encontrar el camino porque no tenía un plano.
I could not understand him because the music was so loud.	No pude entenderlo porque la música estaba demasiado alta.
I had to take a taxi.	Tuve que coger un taxi.
I had to buy a city map.	Tuve que comprar un plano (de la ciudad).
I had to switch off the radio.	Tuve que apagar la radio.

Negative words aren't translated into the native language

When reading, multilinguals translate subconsciously into their native language. This happens automatically; that is, the readers do it without realizing. It could be said that the brain functions like a simultaneous translator. But it doesn't translate everything! One study has shown that the brain has a built-in filter. This filter decides what gets translated. And it appears that the filter ignores certain words. Negative words aren't translated into the native language. Researchers selected native speakers of Chinese for their experiment. All test subjects spoke English as their second language. The test subjects had to rate various English words. These words had different emotional content. There were positive, negative and neutral terms. While the test subjects read the words, their brains were examined. That is, the researchers measured the electrical brain activity. In doing so, they could see how the brain worked. Certain signals are generated during the translation of words. They indicate that the brain is active. However, the test subjects showed no activity with the negative words. Only the positive or neutral terms were translated. Researchers don't yet know why this is. Theoretically, the brain has to process all words the same. It could be, however, that the filter quickly examines each word. It is analyzed while still being read in the second language. If a word is negative, the memory is blocked. In other words, it can't think of the word in the native language. People can react very sensitively to words. Perhaps the brain wants to protect them from emotional shock…