Spanish language Q&A Forum

In the Yucatan in Mexico, I have heard el derecho for straight ahead. It is quite confusing with 'la derecha' for the right. Todo recto is much better!

In all the examples, “no” comes before the verb, but it’s not explained in the lesson. Is it always required?

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,

In the sentence "I could be Superman", is it more natural to say "yo podría ser Superman", or "yo sería Superman"?

Gracias,

The word "ambiente" was new to me.  I'm surprised that for a beginner lesson/practice that a "hint" wouldn't have been given for this word which I wouldn't consider a part of basic vocabulary for beginners. 

Hi Inma

Thanks for your quick response.

By extension can I also combine nunca and tampoco in the same sentence as shown below

Ella no pudo nunca entender tampoco la pregunta.

Ella no pudo entender nunca tampoco la pregunta.

Ella no pudo entender nunca la pregunta tampoco.

Ella nunca pudo entender la pregunta tampoco.

Hi,

The word order in the above sentence confused me.  If the word order was changed to:

¿Tu madre te dio el dinero?

would this change the meaning of the sentence?

If not, is the word order in the original sentence commonly used?

Thanks.

Colin

I still don't understand why this is incorrect:

Ella tiene dos casas y los dos están en Miami.She has two houses and both are in Miami.