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Qué hay de malo...

 

An idiom is an expression whose meaning is not readily apparent based on the individual words in the expression. This forum is dedicated to discussing idioms and other sayings.


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Old December 17, 2010, 12:44 PM
bellatter bellatter is offline
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Qué hay de malo...

"Qué hay de malo" significa "what's wrong with...", ¿verdad? ¿Es lo mismo que "qué tiene de malo"? ¿Son estos correctos:

¿Qué hay de malo en el pescado?
¿Qué hay de malo en comer un poco de pescado?
¿Qué tiene de malo divertirse solo¿ (ese es un cita de "Calvin y Hobbes" que encontré)
¿Qué tiene de malo comer un poco de pescado?
¿Qué tiene de malo el pescado?

I can't really tell when to use "en", "que", and nothing at the end. In the examples I've found it seems like "qué hay de malo" usually has "en" after it, but "qué tiene de malo" doesn't.

Do these two phrases only express "what's so bad about ... because I see nothing wrong with it" or can they also mean "you haven't eaten any of your ..., but you normally love .... What's wrong with the ...?" Would it be better to say "¿Qué está mal con el ...?" in that case? Can "qué está mal con" ever mean the same thing as "qué hay/tiene de malo"?
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  #2  
Old December 17, 2010, 01:24 PM
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chileno chileno is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bellatter View Post
"Qué hay de malo" significa "what's wrong with...", ¿verdad? ¿Es lo mismo que "qué tiene de malo"? ¿Son estos correctos:

¿Qué hay de malo en el pescado? What's wrong with the fish?
¿Qué hay de malo en comer un poco de pescado? What's wrong in/with eating a little bit of fish?
¿Qué tiene de malo divertirse solo¿ (ese es un cita de "Calvin y Hobbes" que encontré) What's wrong in having fun by myself?
¿Qué tiene de malo comer un poco de pescado? What's wrong eating a little bit of fish?*
¿Qué tiene de malo el pescado? What's wrong with the fish?*

I can't really tell when to use "en", "que", and nothing at the end. In the examples I've found it seems like "qué hay de malo" usually has "en" after it, but "qué tiene de malo" doesn't.

Do these two phrases only express "what's so bad about ... because I see nothing wrong with it" or can they also mean "you haven't eaten any of your ..., but you normally love .... What's wrong with the ...?" Would it be better to say "¿Qué está mal con el ...?" in that case? Can "qué está mal con" ever mean the same thing as "qué hay/tiene de malo"?
* same as the first two...
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Old December 17, 2010, 03:12 PM
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aleCcowaN aleCcowaN is offline
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You got it right

¿Qué hay de malo en ...?
¿Qué tiene de malo ...?

You use "que" when you introduce a nominal clause having a conjugated verb (otherwise you don't need the "que")

¿Qué tiene de malo el pescado?
¿Qué hay de malo en comer pescado?
¿Que tiene de malo que comamos pescado dos veces por semana?
¿Qué hay de malo en que me vaya de vacaciones por tres meses?

Also

¿Qué tiene de malo el pescado?
¿Qué hay de malo en comer pescado?
¿Qué tiene de malo comer pescado?

but

¿Qué hay de malo en el pescado?

is ambiguous (nothing in general?; bad for your health in general?; mercury specifically?)
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