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
I think I can understand why "... se puede ver a las ballenas jorobadas retozando, coqueteando ..." is correct - [meaning: "... one can see the humpback whales ...", or "... you can see ..."] - after reading your Kwiziq lessons " Using se debe/se puede to say You must/you can (impersonal sentences) " [number 6933] and " Expressing instructions and general statements in Spanish with the impersonal se = one " [number 5132].
However - under 'Your Practice', you recommend the lesson " Forming the Spanish passive with se (la pasiva refleja) " [number 6089] - which seems more consistent with this answer: "... se pueden ver las ballenas jorobadas"? (i.e. with 'pueden' in the plural, and without the "a" [before the 'las']). Would this^ be a correct way of saying "... the humpback whales can be seen ..."?
“pasamos a la nariz” is translated as “let’s do the nose”.
Is this correct?
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
Hello.
I wonder why we used the preterito perfecto de sujuntivo in this sentence, instead of the presente de sujuntivo. Aside from the given hint to use the said verb, can you explain why? Thank you.
I noticed the sentence below in a quiz. I'm curious to know why "ese" is the natural choice here instead of "aquel." I had thought that both words should indicate maximum distance.
select ...AhíAlláAquíAllá, en ese país tan lejano, la gente trabaja demasiado.Wishing all the Kwiziq team and all the students here a very Happy Christmas and all the best for the New Year!
¡Feliz Navidad! :))
Oportunidad is a feminine noun. Why was it marked wrong when I wrote grande? The correction was to gran.
The correct answer was listed as “La gente siempre quiere …”. My response was “Siempre la gente quiere …” Do you have any guidelines on word sequence/placement? It seems like I’ve seen “siempre” at the beginning of a sentence or clause in other contexts. As always, muchas gracias for your insights!
Suggestion: To be consistent with other pages, and avoid confusion, I suggest you mark all the "i"s that are irregular in this conjugation.
Is there a lesson on, or can you talk a little bit about word order? An example says “esta era mí antigua escuela”. I would have said “escuela antigua“. Why is the adjective in front of the noun in this case? Gracias!
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