verb infinitives
 

Can someone explain the difference between these:

ganar
a ganar
de ganar

I keep seeing them in Spanish sentences and i'm not sure what the difference is particularly between the first two, for example what would be the difference between

Qué vienes a buscar?

and

Qué vienes buscar?

Am i right in thinking you'd use de + verb infinitive when it's followed by a noun such as oportunidad de ganar.

thanks for any help.

Good question.

The infinitive form of Spanish verbs is similar to the English verb with the word "to" tacked on the beginning.

buscar = to look for

But there is a distinction. Sometimes in English we use the word "to" to mean "for the purpose of".

I came to look for my keys
I came for the purpose of looking for my keys

When this is the case, you need an "a" or "para" in front of the Spanish verb infinitive.

Vine a buscar mis llaves
Vine para buscar mis llaves
Vine con el propósito de buscar mis llaves.
Vine buscar mis llaves :bad:

The first three are rough synonyms and the last one is incorrect.

The de + infinitive is also similar to what you've said. I'd have to do a little bit of research to find out what the rule is, but here are some examples.

Tengo la oportunidad de ir con el.
Nunca tuve oportunidad de volar en avión.
Me dieron permiso de cantar con el grupo.

Again I'm not totally sure what the rule is, but it looks like:

noun + to + verb

If I can find anything else about this, I'll post it. Otherwise it'll go on my list of grammar points to touch in the reference grammar I'm writing for this site.

thanks David.

One other thing, i'm writing an article for think vitamin on localisation and it has a couple of Spanish sentences in it so could you let me know if they're ok.

John likes apples
A John le gustan las manzanas

I'm pretty sure i've got that right but i'm not sure about this one:

click here to visit our home page
haz clic aquí para visitar nuestro página de inicio

thanks.

You've a good job. Keep up the good work.

thanks David, i think i am slowly improving with my Spanish. I can read it much better than i can write or speak which is only natural i suppose.

You're welcome.

Keep at it and you'll keep on improving :)