#21  
Old April 17, 2008, 02:26 PM
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I think this changes a little the sense of the thread. But David is sleeping the Mexican siesta.... No hay moros en la costa.
I think this changes the direction of the thread a little, but David is taking a Mexican siesta.... The coast is clear. I translated the last phrase for those of us who don't know what it meant in English (like me).
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  #22  
Old April 17, 2008, 02:57 PM
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Thanks a lot, Rusty, for both, your corrections and confirmation. I hope it's already clear the meaning of no hay moros en la costa. As you can imagine, this saying dates back to ancient times, when Spanish coasts were devastated by Muslim pirates. Nowadays it's used quite often here in Spain and it hasn't got any racist connotation, although it's better not to say it to a Muslim if he's young and strong.
I'm kidding!
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  #23  
Old April 17, 2008, 03:10 PM
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I hope it's already clear the meaning of no hay moros en la costa.
I hope the meaning of ... is clear (enough).
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Old April 17, 2008, 03:17 PM
Alfonso Alfonso is offline
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Thanks a lot Rusty for your correction. I know English is not flexible with word order. It's a very SVO language. But I observe this order is changed many times. Do you consider my phrase incorrect, does it sound wrong or foreign to you?
Thanks for your help!
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Old April 17, 2008, 03:28 PM
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The way you said it sounds foreign. It isn't incorrect. As you said, English is not as flexible as Spanish as far as word order. You'll certainly be understood, but it'll sound funny (strange/foreign) to us.
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Old April 17, 2008, 05:24 PM
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Originally Posted by Alfonso View Post
I think this changes the direction of the thread a little. But David is taking a Mexican siesta.... No hay moros en la costa.
No problem
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alfonso View Post
Thanks a lot Rusty for your correction. I know English is not flexible with word order. It's a very SVO language. But I observe this order is changed many times. Do you consider my phrase incorrect, does it sound wrong or foreign to you?
Thanks for your help!
You're right that English syntax is normally subject - verb - object, but there are also many cases where that changes.

Let's analyze the sentence: (It's still SVO)

I hope the meaning of X is clear.

I - subject
hope - verb
the meaning of x is clear - subordinate clause

the meaning of x - subject
is - verb
clear - object
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