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
This is not the focus of the lesson, but in the above example I would have expected to see “la pierna.” Is “mi” more common with this particular body part, or is it just adding some kind of emphasis here?
Hi, what’s the difference between por donde and donde?
Thanks so much
Shirley.
The lesson is clear that "bueno" in front of a noun means "great," but simply "good" if after the noun. So the instruction is that this girl simply wants a good man. But the "correct" choice is "un buen hombre"!
This is marked wrong with continúa as the answer (my answer), yet continúa is the correct answer for the present tense and according to your own "help" text. There seems to be a lot of sloppy "teaching" in Progress Spanish lately.
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
"Yo tomo el café con menos leche"--why is "tomo" shown as "have" in the English translation? It is a very common phrase in English to say "I take my coffee with . . . ," so was there a reason to change it to "here?"
Why did we use ustedes instead of usted ?
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
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