Take it easy, don’t let yourself discourage only because of this.
Google Tranlate is the best and the fastest tool, as long as one uses it for translating one word.
Common phrases can be easily found, just by putting them into google browser.
By the way, it should be like that;
Amo a mi esposa y mis hijos
In English you use “love” in two very different senses
Sometimes it means that you deeply care for someone:
I love my wife and children
Sometimes, it means that you like/enjoy something a lot:
I love ice cream
Spanish uses different words in either case
For the first meaning, you use “querer” or “amar”. That’s what you were trying to express, so
Amo/quiero a mi mujer e hijos (you use “e” here instead of “y” because the next word begins with an “i” (ee) sound)
you can also be a bit more verbose and say
Amo/quiero a mi mujer y a mis hijos
The second meaning is what would translate as “me encanta/n”
I love ice cream = me encanta el helado
Anyway, it wasn’t a bad try. You’d have been understood and your sentence was grammatically correct. Only your listeners would have understood:
“I’m very fond of my wife and children”, which I guesss is also true, right?
I think you should keep on being proud of yourself.
As for “esposa” vs. “mujer”, they’re synonimous in this context. Esposa is more formal
For husband you also have marido or esposo. There are even more formal terms, such as “cónyuge”, used for both husband and wife.
It’ similar to using “spouse” for wife in English.
The bottomline is: there’s no one to one correspondence of words between different languages, that produces some ambiguity when using a dictionary, no matter which dictionary it is. Google translator is a dictionary at the end of the day. I think it’s a useful tool but get used to having to double check its results from time to time.
If you are just starting out with Spanish, another good tool would be Duolingo. It can help give you some good common combinations with pronoun and Verb practice. Its also like a game. While I wouldnt recommend you use it as your only resource, its great as a supplementary 5 min a day tool.
Actually “my wife” can be “mi mujer”.
It is just that some people like to refer to their wife as “my spouse” (“mi esposa”). Others, especially those in Chinese gangs, like to say “my woman” (usually not legally married).
I like your reply Ftornay. It helped me see the difference between encantar and that querer and amar are synonyms. Thank you. Me gusta su respuesta Ftornay. Melo auydo ver diferencia entre encantar y que querer y amar son sinónimos. Gracias.
Which reminds me,
I never was able to find that comedy movie from Argentina on DVD,
‘Un novio para mi mujer’ (2008), dirigida por Juan Taratuto.
‘A boyfriend for my wife’
But ‘la mujer’ on the other hand just refers to ‘the woman’ (not ‘the wife’), is that right?
I remember crossing El Puente de la Mujer in Puerto Madero in Buenos Aires. The Bridge of the Woman.