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Hacerle Falta / Carecer

 

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  #1  
Old August 14, 2020, 09:54 PM
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Hacerle Falta / Carecer

Our city lacks affordable housing

1. Are either of these attempts below grammatically correct?

2. Can both "Hacerle Falta" and "Carecer" be used to convey "To Lack" in this sentence?

Nuestra ciudad carece de viviendas asequibles

Nuestra ciudad le hacen falta viviendas asequibles


Thanks for any help you can give me.
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  #2  
Old August 17, 2020, 03:13 PM
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Answers below:


Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobbert View Post
Our city lacks affordable housing

1. Are either of these attempts below grammatically correct? Yes, they mostly are.

2. Can both "Hacerle Falta" and "Carecer" be used to convey "To Lack" in this sentence? Absolutely.

Nuestra ciudad carece de viviendas asequibles

A nuestra ciudad le hacen falta viviendas asequibles
* You need "a", because "hacerle falta algo a alguien" has a construction similar to "gustarle algo a alguien". What the city lacks (affordable housing) is the Direct Object, and the city is the Indirect Object.
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  #3  
Old August 17, 2020, 10:46 PM
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Thank you, AngelicadeAlquezar. That clears it up for me.
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Old August 18, 2020, 03:27 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AngelicaDeAlquezar View Post
A nuestra ciudad le hacen falta viviendas asequibles.

What about A nuestra ciudad le faltan viviendas asequibles?

Last edited by Rusty; August 18, 2020 at 09:09 AM. Reason: corrected misspelled word in the quoted material
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  #5  
Old August 19, 2020, 07:12 PM
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That's correct too, Tyrn.


@Bobbert: I made a mistake:

A nuestra ciudad le hacen falta viviendas asequibles
* You need "a", because "hacerle falta algo a alguien" has a construction similar to "gustarle algo a alguien". What the city lacks (affordable housing) is the SUBJECT OF THE SENTENCE, and the city is the Indirect Object


Sorry.
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Last edited by AngelicaDeAlquezar; August 19, 2020 at 07:14 PM.
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  #6  
Old August 20, 2020, 06:14 AM
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Not just correct (le faltan), but means exactly the same thing?
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Old August 20, 2020, 07:45 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tyrn View Post
Not just correct (le faltan), but means exactly the same thing?
That leads you to a philosophical linguistic question. Does a synonym ever mean the *exact* same thing as another synonym?

But to answer your question, both "le faltan" and "carecen de" mean basically the same thing. If I had to describe a difference, I think the second might sound like a slightly higher register or a little more professional.

But there are differences too. For example, if something has been stolen, you would use faltar, not carecer to describe that.
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Old August 20, 2020, 01:47 PM
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I agree with Tomísimo. Context is everything.


As a speaker, "carecer de" describes for me some sort of an inherent quality that is by definition hard to modify, while "faltar" describes more a defect that can be fixed more easily.
Yet, it will all depend on the situation where these sentences are said; it's not the same to state it as a formal complaint, a proposal or just an informal opinion.
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Old August 20, 2020, 08:36 PM
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AngelicadeAlquezar, There is no need to be sorry. I made the correction in my notebook.
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  #10  
Old August 21, 2020, 10:46 AM
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Thanks! Very interesting.

Actually I asked about another thing: is there any difference between le hacen falta and le faltan.
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