Caray, Caray!

Hi, CHF:

If you're working on the sidebar, there is a grammatical error there.

It says ”eso cuenta no se lo come nadie”

Cuenta is a bank account or a restaurant bill. Cuento is a story or tale. Cuento is masculine, so the demonstrative adjective should be ese.

I also think it should be no lo come nadie. Maybe someone else could weigh in but the se seems wrong to me.

I've noticed this for a while. Not trying to be a pedant, but I wanted to point it out.

Sat Jan 23, 04:58:02 PM EST
 

On the subject of the sidebar, might you ever consider including the quote from JudyB? Her definition of a telenovela: they're like Sunday School, with sex.
 

Novelera you are right about "ese cuento". The use of "se" is okay because you are implicitely adding that the story that won't be "believed" was made either by the person you are personally talking to (if you refer to him by "usted"), by a him, by a her or by a them. See:

"Ese cuento no se lo come nadie (a usted)"
"Ese se cuento no se lo come nadie (a ella)"
"Ese cuento no se lo come nadie (a el)"
"Ese cuento no se lo come nadie (a ellos)"
"Ese cuento no se lo come nadie (a ellas)"
"Ese cuento no se lo come nadie (a ustedes)"

If you are talking to the one who told the story in a more personal way (using "tu" or "vos") or refering to a story you made yourself or that you made with someone else (us), then the sentence changes:

"Ese cuento no te lo cree nadie (a ti*)"
"Ese cuento no te lo cree nadie (a vos)"
"Ese cuento no nos lo cree nadie (a nosotros)"

*Ti is the same as tu, if you ever decide to use it in this sentence that would be form you should use it, but in this cases is not necessary unless you are trying to emphasize the lack of trust of the person telling the story.

If you use the pronoumb "vosotros" (wich remember, it means the same as "ustedes" not "Nosotros")the sentence changes a little bit more:

"Ese cuento no os lo creerá nadie (a vosotros)".



When you just put:

"Ese cuento no lo crée nadie"

The sentence is well written too but you are not specifying who was the person that told the story.

Sorry for taking so many words with this, but I worry of not being clear enough.

Jarocha
 

Sorry for the spelling mistakes.

Jarocha
 

Thanks, Jarocha! I appreciate your help on the sentence. I never would have guessed that the se belonged in there.
 

You are welcome Novelera, I know those "se" can be tricky.

I just noticed that in my second sentence I added a "se" after "Ese". "Ese se cuento..." that's wrong, it's a big typo, this is how it should be:

"Ese cuento no se lo come nadie (a ella)"

Jarocha
 

Novelera, what does the sentence mean? My literal translation would be "No one eats this story". But that wouldn't make sense. Please interpret. Thanks
 

Doesn't it just mean, no one's buying that story (no one will believe that lie)? I'm just guessing.
 

Vivi, in a word...YES. That's what it means.
 

Since the question was asked of me, I'll just chime in to say that Vivi and JudyB are exactly right. Idioms are wonderful, aren't they? In English we say "buying it" and in Spanish it's "eating it". I suppose you could write a thesis on these differences and probably someone has!