Subject/Verb orderAdded by Kent to his previous question [posted about six days ago] entitled Word Order > He went on to ask: "What about noun verb order? An example would be Aquí la gente sale mucho por la noche - or Aquí sale la gente mucho por la noche".
From David M - [an attempt to throw some light on the matter]:
My grammar book [by Butt & Benjamin] devotes the whole of its chapter 37 to discussing word order, in addition to mentioning it several times elsewhere.
It says: "Adverbial phrases of place especially favour the 'Verb before Subject' order" - which would suppport the option: "Aquí sale la gente mucho ...".
It also says: "When the verb is intransitive, inversion is usual"; [i.e., verb first].
It adds that these 'rules' are not rigid.
Reply from Kent:
More good info David. Gracias otra vez. Claramente hay algunas áreas grises
For example
Ellos no saben cuándo van a llegar
Ellos no saben que lleguen?
Yo no sé cuándo van a llegar
Yo no sé que lleguen/llegarán?
They all have an element of doubt in which would suggest the subjunctive but there is a rule here that I am not understanding fully!
Thanks
Nick
Why does the english say “gradually”? Is it somehow implied in the spanish?
Thanks,
Shirley
Added by Kent to his previous question [posted about six days ago] entitled Word Order > He went on to ask: "What about noun verb order? An example would be Aquí la gente sale mucho por la noche - or Aquí sale la gente mucho por la noche".
From David M - [an attempt to throw some light on the matter]:
My grammar book [by Butt & Benjamin] devotes the whole of its chapter 37 to discussing word order, in addition to mentioning it several times elsewhere.
It says: "Adverbial phrases of place especially favour the 'Verb before Subject' order" - which would suppport the option: "Aquí sale la gente mucho ...".
It also says: "When the verb is intransitive, inversion is usual"; [i.e., verb first].
It adds that these 'rules' are not rigid.
Reply from Kent:
More good info David. Gracias otra vez. Claramente hay algunas áreas grises
Hola Inma,
I'm trying to understand better why the subjunctive is used. Are negative opinions like no creo que, no opino que, no pienso que, no parece que etc, always assumed to reflect an element of doubt on the part of the person i.e. "I don't think so .... but I may be wrong."
If you are adamant that the negative opinion is correct [for example using one of the examples in the associated lesson] "I don't think María is jealous," couldn't that also be taken as a clear statement of my opinion without any doubt in my head at least? This would be possible in English. In which case would it be expressed differently in Spanish for example "Estoy seguro de que María no es celosa."
Saludos. John
Hello,
It seems to me this is more of a literal translation?
Does it meant rather: "You went the wrong way."?
Or: "You walked on the wrong side of the road." ?
Thank you for your consideration.
Nicole
Hola, I see most of the reflective verb examples are habitual sentences, such as "todas las mananas", "todos los dias", 'siempre" etc. Is this usually how a reflective verb would be used? at least in the beginner's context? Gracias
In the lesson "Use Hace + length of time + que + El Indefinido " we have this example:
-¿Dónde está Jaime? -Hace dos horas que se fue.
-Where is Jaime? -He left two hours ago.
In the lesson "When to use the perfect tense versus the simple past in European Spanish (Perfecto vs Indefinido)" we have this example:
Note: If you talk about time ago using hace then the tense will still depend on whether the event in question was 'today' or another day:
Lo he visto hace 2 minutos.
I saw him two minutes ago.
Are they both correct? It they are, that tells me that when using "Hace + length of time + que + El Indefinido", we could either of these?
Jim Kurczewski
Four examples in the lesson. In the last three ,you could translate con lo que as "despite"but that would not make sense in the first example and seems not to fit the pattern.
No sé cómo no estás agotado con lo que corres.I am surprised you are not exhausted with all the running you do. ¿Vas a salir con lo que llueve?Are you going out despite all that rain? Me sorprende que esté tan delgado con lo que come.I can't believe how thin he is given how much he eats. Con lo que me ha costado este curso y ahora no es válido.After all the effort I made to do this course and now it turns out that it's not valid.Find your Spanish level for FREE
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