Proud of myself until google destroyed me

So… I wanted to write one of my first sentences, my known words is up to 300 and i figured i could put something together
So i figured id try

I love my wife and children…

I wrote

me encantan mi mujer y hijos

Then, I took that, put it into google, and i got exactly what i expected… “i love my wife and children”

So then i figured, i might have a small error, i should check it the other way.

I put the english phrase into google to get what it thinks i should have written, and
it gave me…

Amo a mi esposa y childnen

What the H…
(encantan comes out as love… but then so does amo… very confused)

Am I way off base here? is children really childnen? I could go on and on about why im confused.
Google just totally deflated me… advice?

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

Ok, Just dont understand why I was incorrect when it translated properly lol.
I used the words LINGQ taught me, and it wasnt even close.

Just not ready I guess. 300 isnt enough to do anything with.

I also notice what you wrote isnt the same as either me or google.
Is that extra “mis” required?

Required, because children is a plural noun.

Thank you… I think im starting to see google is useless, how did google miss that.

Even now… “Mi mujer” still comes up as “My wife” in google. So confusing.

I wouldn’t say that google was useless. Instead it translated the words you gave it, word for word.

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? :slight_smile:

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.

This explanation was perfect for me, thank you!

Now that I think about it, when I learned “encanta”, the text was referring to a love of winter/snow. Mi encantan nieve.

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.

I tried duolingo, the robotic speech throws me off and makes me make mistakes i dont think id make with a human speaker.

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).

So Mi Mujer would be technically correct for say, girlfriend, or common law?

Oops. I accidentally deleted my response when I wanted to edit it. Anyway, maybe a native speaker would answer.

No! “Mi mujer” is “my wife”, same as “mi esposa”, only a bit less formal but usual and standard.
Girlfriend = novia

Amante = lover

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.

Me alegro de que mi respuesta haya sido útil

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.

+brucenator
Yes, “mujer” = woman
but “mi mujer” = my wife, same for “your”, “his”, “their”, “her” and
someone’s wife

By way of comparison, in German you have both
Frau = woman / meine Frau = my wife
and
Mann = man / mein Mann = my husband

And even,
Freund(in) = friend
Mein(e) Freund(in) = my boy/girlfriend

If you want to unambiguously say “my friend” you must say the equivalent
“A friend of mine”

Notice that
a) the meaning of “wife” in old English is “woman”, akin to German “Weib”.
b) In English “my girlfriend” can be similarly ambiguous

Is this similar in Dutch?

Hmm so what originally was written wasnt nearly as wrong as assumed.