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
Hola,
I found the following example from one of the questions for the El imperfecto de subjuntivo.
Tal vez supiera qué fue lo que pasó aquella noche.
Maybe he knew what happened that night.
Would the following be correct too?
Tal vez supiera lo que pasó aquella noche.
Does the meaning change at all? If I wanted to say "I know what you did yesterday" would it be "Sé qué fue lo que hiciste ayer" or "Sé lo que hiciste ayer"?
Estos ingredientes los cocemos en una olla ....
This one was a bit mean! Cocer is not truly a regular -er verb. True, its endings are the same as those for regular verbs but the stem changes in most forms.
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
In the first example above viz. A el no imporatba lo que hubiera dicho
it reads as if I really had said something and if so, why not indicative?
I was wondering why there is no comma in some sentences containing a clause - for example:
A medida que salían de la clase les devolvíamos los móviles a los estudiantes.
Conforme vayan llegando los invitados ofréceles una copa de vino.
In the test, the answer was wrong. But, grammatically, Yo tengo and tengo should be accepted as correct!
Please can you check why this was marked incorrect!!!
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
Hi, is the reason for not using an indefinite article with acento that acento is an uncountable noun? Thanks,
Shirley.
I got ripped by several Spanish speakers for saying that "45 es una titere" is incorrect grammar. Because I am not fluent I could not argue the point. Am I correct or are they?
Hello Inma,
I have been having difficulty choosing between the two above, I have read the lesson and the questions here.
In the lesson it states "
Debido a queIf we use debido a que, it can never be followed just by a noun, it needs a phrase."
But in your answer to a question here, you mention "debido a que" needs a CLAUSE, which is slightly different from a phrase in the text book I use to understand these things. In my book it says a PHRASE is any two or more words that don't contain a verb, but a CLAUSE needs to me able to stand by itself and be understood. Would you take a look and see if PHRASE or CLAUSE is the most appropriate for this lesson? Gracias.
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