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When to use "de" before verbsThis is the place for questions about conjugations, verb tenses, adverbs, adjectives, word order, syntax and other grammar questions for English or Spanish. |
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#1
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When to use "de" before verbs
Just reading something here, and came across the sentence: "emocionado de trabajar con Tim". I also noticed it here: "No tuvimos oportunidad de ver el fantástico espectáculo."
Why is this necessary and when do I need to use de? Cheers for the help!! |
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#2
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"De" allows you to parse the sentence properly
emocionado trabajar = emotional working ... emocionado de trabajar = thrilled of working ...
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#3
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Even months later, I'm still having trouble with this issue. I was wondering if you or anyone else could clarify a bit for me. For example, if I want to say "This year's survey of farmers should have wrapped up" could i translate the meaning to "La encuesta de los granjeros de este año debe haber terminado" or would the ending be "debe haber de terminado"? Sometimes when I see 3 verbs chunked together (consecutively in english) I notice that between the second and third verb the word "de" is thown in there. is there a general rule i can use for when to use de and when not to? thanks!
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#4
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In the 'deber de' construct, the preposition 'de' is used to express likelihood. The verb (deber) is conjugated. The preposition follows the conjugated verb. What follows 'de' is always a noun, even though it may look like a verb to you. An infinitive functions as a noun in Spanish.
So 'debe de haber terminado' is correct. The conjugated verb and its preposition are back-to-back. The infinitive 'haber terminado' acts as a noun. |
#5
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Without "de" it also expresses conjecture in many regions: "ya debe haber terminado".
I think Tycholiz' question is too generic. We have adjectives followed by nouns -including infinitives-, we have some constructions involving verbs and nouns, as this "(deber) de ...", and we also have verbs followed by nouns: cansado de esperar (adjective followed by noun) -de denotes reason- cansado de esperar pero contento de poder estar haciéndolo ("poder estar haciéndolo" is a extremely complicated noun constructed by verboides and a pronoun) vengo de trabajar (verb followed by noun) - de denotes origin- vengo de trabajar y voy a pasear ( ir+a being a verbal periphasis)
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