AIBU to ask for help with Spanish homework?

[TopSecretSquirrel]

I can’t speak Spanish. Google can’t help me.

My DS says that he doesn’t know what it says - he needs to hand it in tomorrow.

Help us cheat?

Tengo un perro que se llama Fifi. Es muy divertido y goloso pero un poco sucio a veces. Mi padre tiene un pájaro que se llama Ernesto. Es muy hablador y bonito. Mi madre tiene una serpiente que se llama Luz.
Es delgada e inteligente pero no es pelusa (this last bit makes no sense)
Mi hermano tiene una tortuga que se llama Gifi. ¡Es grande y muy mala porque muerde!

I have a dog called Fifi. It is a very funny and greasy dog and a little dirty sometimes. My dad has a bird and its name is Ernesto. It is very talkative and pretty. My mum has a snake and its name is Luz. It is thin and clever but it is not fuzzy. My brother has a tortoise named Gifi. It is big and very bad because it bites.

pelusa = peluso

NB: I wouldn't trust anything I said, that's a mix of basic Spanish and Google Translate!

Perro is dog. Pero is but so the second one is pero.

Bonito

I would not be doing this HW if I were you. The teacher needs to know that your son is struggling. This is quite a basic text practising animals and adjectives. He should recognise the mistakes unless he has a)missed lessons b) has special needs c) been messing around in lessons. Either way, you should let the teacher know that he has tried but found it too difficult as it might also be possible that the teacher has pitched it too hard.

Mistakes are mostly connected to masculine/feminine.

Fifi the dog = female. So perro guloso and sucio should be feminine.
Ernesto the bird = masculine. So bonita should be masculine.
Tortoise = feminine.

Perro double-R is dog. Pero single-R is but.

There might be some word order mistakes as well.

Hope that helps, without actually doing it for him!

Take for instance: una chica bonita all end in 'a'. You can't mix una chica bonito or un chica bonita type thing. These are common beginner errors and it is a common type of exercise - i do lots of these in English class (i teach English to Spaniards!).

Getting all the answers right isn't really a successful outcome for this homework. Help him work out how to work it out himself, otherwise he won't actually learn anything.

Thanks for all the replies. It helps with what to look for - I think because the pero was a spelling mistake we were looking for other spelling rather than grammar.

In answer to some of the other posts: he does not have special needs, he is yet to miss a lesson and I am told he behaves well and participates in lessons. He doesn’t seem to ‘get’ written subjects at school - I think his talents lie elsewhere - so we muddle through and get done what we can.

It is a really good learning task, whatever language you're learning. When they are doing little paragraphs then longer writing, it teaches them to proof-read what they have written and look out for these sorts of errors.

It'll help in the long run.

It’s so pointless doing it for him. It means he learns nothing and the teacher will be under the impression he gets something when he doesn’t. It’s also quite an insulting waste of the teacher’s time.

Another reason why I barely ever give written homeworks.

Homework is for children.

If he "doesn't understand it" he can take it back in unfinished and tell his teacher he "doesn't understand it."

Chances are that's just what he said to you so you'd coddle him and do it for him.

It's a very easy set of sentences. How has he managed to get this far only knowing the word 'dog'? If that's true - tip: it isn't - he needs intervention from a teacher, not his mum bunging it on the internet.

OP, whilst I appreciate that you're trying to help him, it really would be better for him to go back to the teacher and ask for some guidance. When I set homework, it's so that I can see what they understand and, more importantly, what they don't, so I can see exactly what reinforcement is needed.

Most of the mistakes are in adjectival agreement but there are some others as well.

Yeah, what cauliflower and others say. No use the teacher seeing perfect HW and thinking he gets it when he doesn't.

Agree, it's about adjectives "agreeing" ie masculine noun with MN masculine adj ending.

I would need to check genders and endings in the dictionary, or even better in his Spanish book. Presumably he has all this vocab in there? I haven't done pets with yr 7 in such detail but I have done sports and likes/dislikes and would expect them to deal ok with a similar piece on that topic.

I think it is harsh to suggest that getting help=doing it for him. Clearly the op will try to explain it. I’d take the help on this thread and write on the top of his homework in a different colour that “x found this difficult, had a lot of help” so that the teacher knows. Poor kid is only 11. Not like the op is asking MNto do GCSE coursework!!
I had to do virtually all of a science homework for my 11yo and wrote note on the top “x did Q1/2 alone but needed substantial help with the rest”. There is no point in an 11yo staring at something they have no clue how to start

Find out if they ever use a textbook and buy it. Is there any your school online support or anything in his book that's similar? I'd send him to the teacher for help at lunch rather than get us to do it. She/he needs to know your ds is struggling and differentiate the work or help him by offering a word mat or suchlike in class. If he turns in good homework, the teacher won't know there's a problem, won't help more and will be horrified at his assessments!

Isn't it 'goloso' rather than 'guloso'? Doesn't 'goloso' mean 'greedy'?

Also, I'm confused about the sentence with 'no es pelusa' in it. 'Pelusa' means 'fluff', 'fuzz' or 'down', so I'm a bit confused when it says that the bird isn't fluff/fuzz/down. Can anybody else explain this please?

Shouldn't the last sentence say "Translate the text INTO English"?

It's the snake that isn't fluffy. Not the bird.

And guloso should be gulosa, because Fifi is a bitch with a sweet tooth...

Fifi is a bitch with a sweet tooth there's my next MN namechange sorted

Elquinto - you can't name change. Your name is awesome!

It's not pelusa, should say peluda, which means hairy.

Shouldn't the last sentence say "Translate the text INTO English"?

Unless the teacher wants the pupils to translate the instruction to find the mistakes!

Out of interest, how many mistakes are there in that paragraph?

And I can sort of see why the OP's DS could be confused. IM(very limited)E, you usually only have one type of mistake to correct this early on rather than spelling AND masculine/feminine.
But maybe I was just shit at languages in the first place

Tengo un perro que se llama Fifi. Es muy divertido y guloso pero es un poco sucio a veces. Mi padre tiene un p'ajaro que se llama Ernesto. Es muy hablador y bonito. Mi madre tiene una serpiente que se llama Luz. Es delgada y inteligente pero no es pelusa. Mi hermano tiene una tortuga que se llama Gifi. Es grande y muy malo porque muerde.

Most are to do with gender.