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Why does "llamada" mean "called"?Grammar questions– conjugations, verb tenses, adverbs, adjectives, word order, syntax, etc. |
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#1
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Why does "llamada" mean "called"?
So I have the following sentence:
"Trabajo para una compañía llamada Wheeler and Sons." Now I would've expected "que se llama". And "llamada" seems to be a noun. So I'm confused why it is used here but according to context.reverso.net, it does seem to translate to "called" or "named" often. What's going on here, and is this just an odd exception or are there other examples where this happens? |
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#3
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The word 'llamada' is the participio of the verb 'llamar', and it's being used as an adjective. Therefore, its ending must agree in gender and number with the noun it modifies.
In both English and Spanish, a participle is derived from a verb, but never functions as such. English has both a present and a past participle. Using 'call' as the verb from which these participles are derived, for instance, the present participle is 'calling', and the past participle is 'called'. The Spanish terms for these derivatives are 'gerundio' and 'participio', respectively. Your attempt to substitute an adjectival clause (conjunction + verb) for the adjective that is used in the original sentence is a valid replacement in both languages. In other words, 'que se llama' is equal to 'that is called'. But a correct translation of 'una compañía llamada' is 'a company called'. To answer your last question, if you want to use an adjective to describe a noun, that adjective can be a 'past participle' in English o 'participio' en español (both being equivalent terms playing the same roles). (I see that AngelicaDeAlquezar gave you the same answer (except that she also indicated that sometimes a verbal (verb derivative) can be a noun).) |
#5
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Your first example makes use of the passive voice (voz pasiva). That construction isn't used nearly as much as we use it in English.
Your second example would be preferred over using the passive voice, assuming you have a subject (expressed or already established) and a direct object (expressed or already established). If used in this manner, this is the passive 'se' (pasiva refleja) construction. (There are many uses for the pronoun 'se' in Spanish. Another is the impersonal 'se'. This is used to speak in generalities, where no particular individual is referenced. There are plenty of places online that describe the difference between the two forms mentioned here.) |
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