Lesson 3.3 Advanced Question

Hola, I ran this one by my Spanish-speaking girlfriend (Puerto Rican), and she didn't understand it. In the dialogue: Como usted está con nosotros más de dos años... Is translated as: Because you have been with us for more than 2 years... Is this just a mistake, or is this an idiomatic translation? Naturally, being literal, I translate it into Spanish as "porque usted ha estado..." What am I missing here? Thanks, Greg

Hola Gregorio. *Como* has a number of different meanings. When it's used as a conjunction, it can mean "as," "since," or "because." That's the way it's being used in the sentence you cite. I went over to the WordReference.com site--by far the best place I know to get information about Spanish vocabulary, grammar, and usage. I put in "como," and I got lots of different uses, one of which was the following: _conj_ 2 (porque) as, since *como llamó tan tarde, ya no me encontró*, as he phoned so late, he didn't find me in Here, *como* is used in pretty much the same way as in the sentence you've cited. I hope this helps.

Thank you for the reply, but please explain how "usted está" translates to "you have been." This translation is also used in another part of the dialogue. How does the English phrase with the past participle "you have *been*" get translated into Spanish in any other way besides "usted ha *estado*." Thank you again, Greg

Good question. My guess is that it's a somewhat loose translation. Just as in English one could say "Since you are with us for more than two years" instead of "Since you have been with us for more than two years," I suspect the same loose construction is possible in Spanish. It's less formal than using "ha estado." Also, I've been told that the perfect tenses are used less in Spanish than in English. I'm not positive about this explanation, but it's the best I can do, and it makes sense to me :D . Of course, it would be best if Mauricio were to respond, but in the meantime....

[quo]*Quote from * nohablo Of course, it would be best if Mauricio were to respond, but in the meantime....[/quo] Does he even check in anymore at all?