Something I Saw in La Cierva Blanca

[deandddd]

People,

In La Cierva Blanca, I saw the following comment about running across, seeing, the deers. The person meant to say, to a second person: "I don't know how it is that you don't run across them".

The person said in Spanish: "No sé en qué consista el que tú no los topes". I understand.


But somebody told me that this Spanish sounds old or too formal. What would be some natural way to say it? Or is it ok?

Dean

[Tomisimo]

To my non-native ear it sounds strange. I'd try:

No sé cómo es que no te topes con unas / con ellas.

No sé cómo es que no te topas con unas / con ellas.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

@David: I'd prefer your sentence in the indicative.

@Dean: It's a completely normal sentence. Maybe some young people find the expression "consistir en" kind of formal, but I wouldn't say it is. (I may be kind of anachronic, but vocabulary is changing faster than I can catch up anyway.)


Some equivalent sentences:
- No entiendo cómo tú no te cruzas con ellos.
- ¿Cómo es que a tí no se te atraviesan?
- No veo/sé cómo es que tú no te los encuentras.
- No sé qué pasa, que tú nunca los ves.
- Quién sabe por qué tú nunca te topas con ellos.
...

[Tomisimo]

¡Gracias por la correción!