Sentence length - English vs SpanishNice topic, especially in these times when we are locked up inside. And thanks, I'm learning more about the subjunctive everyday!
But now then, this is a long sentence...!
Antes de haber tenido la moto, nunca me hubiese atrevido a viajar solo y ahora lo que más me gusta es coger la moto, mi mochila y viajar sin rumbo por las montañas, pararme y quedarme pasmado mirando el paisaje, y dormir al raso viendo las estrellas.
... which would likely be broken into two (or even three) sentences in English. This is not a criticism. I've found sentences of this length are not at all unusual in Spanish.
I'm a writer (in English) and having read quite a lot of Spanish in newspapers and in novels, I'm often surprised how long Spanish sentences can be compared to their English counterparts. Funnily enough, when Spanish people correct my Spanish writing they often join up my sentences by replacing the full stops with commas! I also find the Spanish very reluctant to start sentences with 'Pero', preferring instead to have it introduce a phrase, usually only after a comma. By contrast, in English, shorter sentences and 'But' and 'And' with a capital are becoming ever more common in contemporary writing (even though we used to be taught in school never to do it).
It's interesting the small things we start to notice as we study more and get more familiar with our target language.
Saludos a todos
Why 'comí' una lubina, then 'tomé' un trozo, but with the same english translation?
There was a question in the test where the correct answer was:
´Las islas canarias SON en el oceáno atlántio´
Why is it ´SON´ and not ´ESTÁN´?
Nice topic, especially in these times when we are locked up inside. And thanks, I'm learning more about the subjunctive everyday!
But now then, this is a long sentence...!
Antes de haber tenido la moto, nunca me hubiese atrevido a viajar solo y ahora lo que más me gusta es coger la moto, mi mochila y viajar sin rumbo por las montañas, pararme y quedarme pasmado mirando el paisaje, y dormir al raso viendo las estrellas.
... which would likely be broken into two (or even three) sentences in English. This is not a criticism. I've found sentences of this length are not at all unusual in Spanish.
I'm a writer (in English) and having read quite a lot of Spanish in newspapers and in novels, I'm often surprised how long Spanish sentences can be compared to their English counterparts. Funnily enough, when Spanish people correct my Spanish writing they often join up my sentences by replacing the full stops with commas! I also find the Spanish very reluctant to start sentences with 'Pero', preferring instead to have it introduce a phrase, usually only after a comma. By contrast, in English, shorter sentences and 'But' and 'And' with a capital are becoming ever more common in contemporary writing (even though we used to be taught in school never to do it).
It's interesting the small things we start to notice as we study more and get more familiar with our target language.
Saludos a todos
I understand your explanations perfectly, but I was surprised to learn that it was correct to use "mitad" and "medio" interchangeably when discussing physical space.
It seems to me that way back when I was first learning those concepts, I was told that medio meant middle and and mitad meant half, and that it was an error to confuse the two. Is this a case of one of those "errors so common among native speakers that now it's not wrong anymore" ? Or was I taught incorrectly to begin with?
Thanks for the insight!
I'm almost 2 years into learning Spanish and I get lost after hearing a couple of words if I close my eyes. I watch shows and listen to Spanish podcast, and my ear for Spanish has not developed at all. What could I possible do to change this?
Hola,
I don't know if a reply occurred in some other area, but I was wondering if you could give a bit more info
to help me understand this. I still have trouble with this particular example.
My earlier question was following your reply for : "Why the imperfect is used and not the preterit in:"puesto que era mi cumpleaños "
(I sent this same request on my Questions and Answers page, and didn't see the reply there,)
Muchas gracias, Nicole
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