A Typical Morning for Me/Una mañana típica para mí

A Simple Exercise/Un ejercicio sencillo

As an exercise, I want to write about a typical morning for me, in Spanish. I’m writing this in English and then rewriting it with my limited knowledge of the Spanish language, and then I will double check questionable parts and edit as needed.

A modo de ejercicio, quiero escribir sobre una mañana típica para mí, en español. Estoy escribiendo esto en inglés y luego lo reescribo con mi limitado conocimiento del idioma españo, y luego lo comprobaré dos veces partes cuestionables y las editaré según sea necesario.

My alarm clock goes off at 5:30 and I usually hit the snooze button until about 6:00. Then I go downstairs to the kitchen and feed my fish, Pumpkin. I greet him and I trace my finger along the aquarium for him to follow.

Mi despertador suena a las 5:30 y normalmente pulso el botón de posponer hasta las 6:00 aproximadamente. Luego bajo a la cocina y le doy de comer a mi pez, Pumpkin. Lo saludo y trazo mi dedo a lo largo del pecera para que él lo siga.

Then I feed my cats, Steven and Coco. Steven likes lots of attention in the morning and I can barely get any time with Pumpkin before Steven jumps on the counter and stands in front of the aquarium. Coco is good on his own in the morning, but likes a lot of couch time with me in the evening.

Luego alimento a mis gatos, Steven y Coco. A Steven le gusta recibir mucha atención por la mañana y apenas puedo tener un momento con Pumpkin antes de que Steven salte sobre el mostrador y se pare frente al pecera. Coco es bueno por su cuenta en la mañana, pero le gusta pasar mucho tiempo conmigo en el sofá por la noche.

A very important part of every morning is coffee. While it’s brewing, I clean the kitchen and take my vitamins. I usually don’t have breakfast because I’m not hungry in the morning.

Una parte muy importante de cada mañana es el café. Mientras se prepara, limpio la cocina y me tomo mis vitaminas. Normalmente no desayuno porque no tengo hambre por la mañana.

Once everyone is taken care of, I head back upstairs with my coffee to read or write something, and then work on oil pastels while I watch Vietnamese food videos by Mắc Ơi.

Una vez que todos estén atendidos, subo con mi café para leer o escribir algo, y luego trabajo con pasteles al óleo mientras veo videos de comida vietnamita por Mắc Ơi.

And finally, I welcome the new day with some yoga at sunrise.

Y finalmente, doy la bienvenida al nuevo día con un poco de yoga al amanecer.

*Things I learned doing this exercise:

• According to SpanishDictionary.com, you only capitalize the first letter of the first word for books, films, and works of art. However you capitalize the first letter of all of the words for newspaper and magazine titles. I’m not sure about blog posts but I’ll go with the former.
• Also according to SpanishDictionary.com, countries are capitalized but nationalities are not, so the Spanish words for “English” (inglés), “Spanish” (español), and “Vietnamese” (vietnamita), are not capitalized.
• When translating “fish,” “pez” refers to a live fish and “pescado” refers to fish as food according to Linguno. So Pumpkin is definitely not a pescado!
• The plural form of “pez” is “peces” and the plural of “pescado” is “pescados.”
• When translating “then,” both “después” and “luego” can be used, depending on the time gap and sequence of events. “Después” can be used with any time gap and seems to be closer to the word “after” while “luego” implies a more immediate time gap appears to be closer to the word “then,” according to Linguno.
• “Dar de comer” vs “alimentar” when talking about feeding pets: either can be used naturally, and differences are that “dar de comer” literally translates to “to give food” while “alimentar” can refer to a more general translation of feeding, even beyond food as in “feeding a fire” according to Linguno and this Reddit thread with examples. I used both here to mix up the vocabulary and avoid too many repetitive words, as I try to do in English when I think of it.
• Both “acuario” and “pecera” can be used to translate a place to keep aquatic life, but “acuario” usually refers to larger scale aquarium systems while “pecera” refers to smaller fish tanks, according to Linguno. I think I have a ten gallon tank, which is not large but is not a fish bowl, either, so I’m not sure but pecera seems appropriate here.
• “Finalmente” and “por último”: I’ve seen both used to mean “finally”, but “último” literally translates to “last” while “finalmente” means “finally,” so I went with “finalmente” in the last sentence.

After trying to translate it without any aids, I did have to resort to online translators and research the things mentioned above. And I’m sure a Spanish speaker would find more to correct but hopefully I didn’t fumble it too much. Doing this exercise showed me how little I really know at this point and reinforces the importance of putting a language to use.