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Spanish Adverb Placement

  Tags: Spanish
 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages Post Reply
ScottScheule
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United States
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Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Latin, Hungarian, Biblical Hebrew, Old English, Russian, Swedish, German, Italian, French

 
 Message 1 of 5
21 April 2014 at 11:30pm | IP Logged 
Two sentences:

Todavía no ha llegado el tren.

No ha llegado el tren todavía.

1. Both acceptable?

2. Both idiomatic?

3. If so, what's the difference, if any?

Gracias.
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luke
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 Message 2 of 5
22 April 2014 at 12:01am | IP Logged 
ScottScheule wrote:
Two sentences:

Todavía no ha llegado el tren.

No ha llegado el tren todavía.

1. Both acceptable?

2. Both idiomatic?

3. If so, what's the difference, if any?

Gracias.


What I learned from FSI Basic Spanish ... The emphasis in a case like this comes on the last part of the
sentence (although they said there are exceptions).

E.G.
Todavía no ha llegado el tren.
The train hasn't arrived yet.

No ha llegado el tren todavía.
The train still hasn't arrived.

I'm sure someone will disagree :)
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Elanguest
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Malta
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Speaks: English*

 
 Message 3 of 5
02 May 2014 at 3:39pm | IP Logged 
It took me a while to realise that syntax is more free in Spanish because conjugation is more regimented. For
example, if you have two possible subjects in a sentence, in English you tell them apart by word order.

Rosa kissed the children.
The children kissed Rosa.

But in Spanish you can mix up the order because the subject becomes clear through conjugation and the
placement of the word "a," so you have more freedom to mix up the word order.

Rosa les besó a los niños.
Les besó a los niños Rosa.
(Rosa kissed the children.)

Los niños le besaron a Rosa.
Le besaron a Rosa los niños.
(The children kissed Rosa.)
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Medulin
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Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali

 
 Message 4 of 5
02 May 2014 at 10:08pm | IP Logged 
Elanguest wrote:
It took me a while to realise that syntax is more free in Spanish because conjugation is more regimented. For
example, if you have two possible subjects in a sentence, in English you tell them apart by word order.

Rosa kissed the children.
The children kissed Rosa.

But in Spanish you can mix up the order because the subject becomes clear through conjugation and the
placement of the word "a," so you have more freedom to mix up the word order.

Rosa les besó a los niños.
Les besó a los niños Rosa.

(Rosa kissed the children.)


Los niños le besaron a Rosa.
Le besaron a Rosa los niños.
(The children kissed Rosa.)



Besar takes direct object object and not indirect object*, so one should use LO(S)/LA(S).
LE (f.), LES are incorrect, LE is tolerated only in Northern peninsular Spanish for male direct objects.

Rosa besó a los niños.
A los niños, los besó Rosa.

Los niños besaron a Rosa.
A Rosa, la besaron los niños.

Los niños besaron a Jorge.
A Jorge, lo/le besaron los niños.


---
*Except in partitive contexts: Rosa les besó las mejillas.

Edited by Medulin on 02 May 2014 at 10:19pm

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Elanguest
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Malta
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 Message 5 of 5
05 May 2014 at 8:21am | IP Logged 
Noted, thanks. :)


1 person has voted this message useful



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