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
Here in Mexico I've heard the use of the indirect form: "No me dio ganas." Is this generally common, and can we use it in different constructions, such as "Me da ganas viajar a Guatemala."?
until we get on the motorway [US: freeway].
Why have you used the infinitive of 'salir' in this sentence, rather than 'salimos'?
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
It would seem that "foggy" is an adjective and therefore está would be used instead of hay. This one is really confusing for me.
Hi,
On this exercise the question is
He pedido a la mensajería que ........... el paquete por la tarde/ I have asked the delivery company to deliver the parcel in the afternoon.
The hint is to conjugate the ellos form of entregar in El Presente de Subjuntivo.
Why is this to be in the plural form and not singular? As it states la mensajería/ the company which is singular.
In both cases, I was hesitant about whether to include the definite articles and I erred on the side of including them - which was wrong.
#1 - I put "vamos a intercambiar las ideas" instead of just "ideas". I've found that in English we use the definite articles much less than in Spanish, so I think I need a refresher of when to use them and when to leave them out! Can you point me in the right direction?
#2 - And with "voy a salir de casa temprano" , I actually had put this correct answer first but then doubted myself and put "voy a salir temprano de la casa". Can you explain why this is wrong? Thanks!
When you say
"Notice that when we use this structure with tener, the participle agrees in gender and number with the object:"
aren't you really referring to using the structure with llevar?
Thanks
In Latin America we only use the imperfect of querer if we didn't get what we wanted, or if we got what we didn't want. Otherwise we use the preterite. Is it the same with the version of Spanish you teach?
What is the difference between these two sentences?
Las fresas habían estado siendo recolectadas.
Las fresas habían estado recolectadas.
If they both mean 'The strawberries had been collected.', under what circumstances are the two sentences used?
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