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Old February 27, 2017, 03:55 PM
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AngelicaDeAlquezar AngelicaDeAlquezar is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Mexico City
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Native Language: Mexican Spanish
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Quote:
So she does have a husband. Does the use of "lo huraña"* infer anything about their relationship as you suggested above?
Nothing, but there was no context, so "those who never saw her" could have been possible suitors.
If it was simply the people living nearby, as Alec said, she was just not sociable, and she also had plenty of work at home to go out and meet the neighborhood.


Quote:
I don't quite see how it follows that because she is grumpy and has two children that few people would have seen her. Having two children should not make her less visible - children often cause you to meet more people.
Some cultural issues here: If this is a situation in the past, women had little to do outside their homes; they had a reputation as good housewives to care for.
Apart from that, it's only very recently that the fact of having children has involved some compulsory social life; long ago, not even meetings at schools were a part of parents' lives. (If you were called from school, it meant your child was in trouble.)


Quote:
So "por" translates as "because" in this instance and "lo huraña"* as " the woman was grumpy" - no need for a verb "ser". Is this some type of shorthand way of speaking or is it technically correct.
Yes, "por" introduces a cause, and it doesn't need an extra verb:
- Cerrado por remodelación. (Closed for improvements.)
- Murió por causas naturales. (He/she died of natural causes.)
- Esto me pasa por tonto. (This is what I get for being stupid.)

*Side note: Please note that the sentence says "lo huraña". "Lo" is working as a pronoun that makes "huraña" the whole situation of the woman's character.
"La huraña" means something different: this article would turn the adjective "huraña" into a noun, so "la huraña" would be the woman herself, not the fact that she is a reclusive person.
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