Preposition "de" with coloursIn the second question of the writing exercise Red Poppies (B2) the way that the preposition "de" changes the meaning of the phrase is not the way I understood that it should be used with colour.
In the exercise we are asked to translate: "red poppies will cover (the Spanish fields)" and the hint goes on to suggest we use: Lit: "the poppies will cover of red", to cover = cubrir. From this hint I was able to assume the required answer should be: "las amapolas cubrirán de rojo los campos españoles"
However, this phrase does not seem to translate well to "red poppies will cover" (that would be "las amapolas rojas cubrirán...) rather it translates more closely to "the poppies will cover the Spanish fields (with) red".
I believe there is a small, but important, difference between these two: one describes the quality (red) that a thing possesses; the other describes an action performed by a thing on another thing (the poppies on the field). Grammatically speaking, in the latter, we could say that the two things in the phrase have a subject/object relationship (in a similar way to how the giver/receiver relationship works in grammar: "Ellas los cubrirán de rojo").
Some examples:
El cielo es azul.
El sol pintó el cielo de naranja.
Llevaba un vestido blanco.
Ella estaba vestida de blanco.
Era una puerta verde, pero la luz del amanecer la había coloreado de rojo.
I appreciate any feedback
I don't understand why naranja is plural in one example and singular in the other.
Puedes coger las flores naranja del jardín.You can take the orange flowers from the garden.Estas flores naranjas son muy bonitas.These orange flowers are very pretty.I have seen a lot of sentences like the examples below:
1. Todavía no han llegado, su avión debe haberse retrasado.
They haven't arrived yet, their flight must have had a delay.
2. Cristina ha debido de ser una buena profesora, sus estudiantes le han comprado flores.
Cristina must have been a good teacher, her students bought her some flowers.
I respect that Spanish uses punctuation differently, in some cases, from the way English uses punctuation. However, the Spanish sentences and the English translations use a comma to separate the two sentences in each example (these examples were taken from a quiz on Kwiziq). For the Spanish, I've checked RAE and I cannot understand why these two sentences are joined by a comma when it seems they should be separated by a period or a semicolon (or even possibly adding a connector or conjunction to join them). For the English translation, in American English we would have to somehow separate these two complete sentences with some form of punctuation (period or semicolon). I have also seen similar constructions in other writing, but not usually in newspapers or academic writing. If you could provide an explanation, I would appreciate it. Thank you.
I am not able to see the text. I can only play? How can I see the text to read?
Hi, For some reason when trying to get the video, it says Video unavailable.
However, I was able to see other videos i.e Súbeme la radio - Enrique Iglesias etc.
Nicole
In the second question of the writing exercise Red Poppies (B2) the way that the preposition "de" changes the meaning of the phrase is not the way I understood that it should be used with colour.
In the exercise we are asked to translate: "red poppies will cover (the Spanish fields)" and the hint goes on to suggest we use: Lit: "the poppies will cover of red", to cover = cubrir. From this hint I was able to assume the required answer should be: "las amapolas cubrirán de rojo los campos españoles"
However, this phrase does not seem to translate well to "red poppies will cover" (that would be "las amapolas rojas cubrirán...) rather it translates more closely to "the poppies will cover the Spanish fields (with) red".
I believe there is a small, but important, difference between these two: one describes the quality (red) that a thing possesses; the other describes an action performed by a thing on another thing (the poppies on the field). Grammatically speaking, in the latter, we could say that the two things in the phrase have a subject/object relationship (in a similar way to how the giver/receiver relationship works in grammar: "Ellas los cubrirán de rojo").
Some examples:
El cielo es azul.
El sol pintó el cielo de naranja.
Llevaba un vestido blanco.
Ella estaba vestida de blanco.
Era una puerta verde, pero la luz del amanecer la había coloreado de rojo.
I appreciate any feedback
Im not sure when to use each of these tenses. Are they interchangable?
Why is the past participle used after the verb sigues. Can you point me to the lesson where this structure is explained. Many Thanks
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