Spanish language Q&A Forum

Should the 2nd example above not have read   ' you may well have been ill'  without the 'as' which would be said in different circumstances  e,g,  you may as well have been ill for all the good you did   ??

Is it not correct to say "las nueces" in the sentence translated from "I like eating nuts and honey?"

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

Can I use o instead of a in some cases? E.g. Prefieres agua o té. Prefieres ir a la playa o quedarte en casa? 

Thank you

El guía is masculine? La guía would be feminine?

Hi,

Could 'el pelo' be removed from the above sentence and still retain the same meaning.  I assume that peinarse means to comb one's own hair.

Thanks.

Colin

It seems to me that telling someone else that their own  car works beautifully would indicate that the knowledge is shared and thus subjunctive (funcione) but that was marked incorrect. Please clarify.

Hola Inma,

Can you help me with the following. The alternative answers given are:

Ten en cuenta que esta ...... / Ten presente que esta / Recuerda que esta / No olvides que esta

I can't understand why a subjunctive spelling of recordar (recuerde) isn't used. It is probably for an obvious reason but I'm missing it.

Saludos. John

I got this sentence in a quiz

No puedo ver _____ en la muchedumbre.  

The answer was "a Paula y Cristina".    

I notice that sometimes you put an a before every name, like "a Paula y a Cristina". Is this optional, or are there certain circumstances when the a is required before each person?