Which of these spanish phrases is correct?

Open Forum
1

" I want to know where you are "

yo quiero saber donde tu es.

yo quiero saber donde se encuentra.

Is one wrong? or are they both acceptable?

2

Quiero saber dónde estás

3

I was close >.<

4

The second option “yo quiero saber dónde se encuentra” would be right if referred to the polite form in spanish “Usted”
very good :slight_smile:

5

So the “tu es” version is totally wrong?

and

“Quiero saber donde usted encuntra” ??

thanks for the assist.

6

Donde se encuentra usted*

The “es” version is completely wrong.

In Spanish we use different verbs for these two versions of “to be”

  1. I am American (it’s an equality, I = some American)

  2. I am in America (it’s a place, I am situated/located in America)

For the first case, Spanish uses the verb “ser” = Soy americano, eres americano, usted es americano

For the second, the verb “estar” = Estoy en América, estás en América, Usted está en América

So
“Quiero saber dónde estás(está usted)”, as TIOPEPE wrote

encontrarse = find oneself = be situated, and thus, it’s a (more formal) equivalent of “estar”

7

Also, notice that, even if you used the verb “ser”, it would be “tú eres” but “usted es”, never “tú es”

8

This is that ser/estar issue everyone seems to have; or so ive read.

Im trying to keep up with the 7 words of writing minimum daily. but with my limited known words its proving very difficult.
To add to that, I have no idea yet how to conjugate verbs.

Im sure as a native you dont even have to think about it, i mean, i dont in English right.
Also I’ve looked at many verb tables, i never remember them once i close the page.

For example, when I wrote

te quiero ahora mas entonces ayer

it looks right to me.

but then its corrected to

te amo ahora más que ayer

Now i get the Quiero mistake, oops… want/love

but i have no idea why entonces would be wrong for “then” when Que is “what”

to me it looks like
i love now more what yesterday

I love you now more then yesterday. In my brain, says it should be
Te amo ahora mas entonces ayer.

Gonna stop writing, my head is spinning :smiley:
And ive gone off topic.

9

Don’t try to translate word by word. It’ll never work.
May I point out that in English it would be
“I love you now more than yesterday”?
Not “then” but “than”
Then = entonces
Than = que

But, again, there’s no one-by-one correspondence. My advice would be for you to put off writing for later. Follow Lingq’s philosophy and concentrate on input. Read, listen and pay attention to patterns, structures, not just single words. Remember that you can lingq whole phrases. For example, do lingq “Te quiero hoy más que ayer pero menos que mañana” if you come across a sentence like that. Same thing for every interesting pattern you may find.
The “logic” of the language will gradually sink in.
I wish you success

10