Single plural question

[pacomartin123]

The murderer must have liked donuts. - English
Al asesino le deben haber gustado las donas. - Spanish

In English I would say
"murderer" is the subject,
"must" is a modal verb
"have" is an auxiliary verb
"liked" is verb in past tense
"donuts" is a direct object

How would I describe the words in Spanish?
The verb "deben" is plural which agrees with "las donas". Is "las donas" the subject of the sentence?

Would this sentence be an example of "reflexive passive"?

[Perikles]

The murderer must have liked donuts. - English
Al asesino le deben haber gustado las donas. - Spanish

In English I would say
"murderer" is the subject,
"must" is a modal verb
"have" is an auxiliary verb
"liked" is verb in past tense
"donuts" is a direct object

How would I describe the words in Spanish?
The verb "deben" is plural which agrees with "las donas". Is "las donas" the subject of the sentence?

Would this sentence be an example of "reflexive passive"?las donas - subject
asesino - indirect object

Literally, the donuts must has pleased the assassin. The verb is active.

[ROBINDESBOIS]

las donas - subject
asesino - indirect object

Literally, the donuts must has pleased the assassin. The verb is active.

donuts- sujeto
deben ..........: verbo o CV
donuts-
In fact I would say
Al asesino le deben haber gustado los donuts.

Al asesino =Objeto indirecto
Le =CI
etc...
In Spanish it is a different story

Honestly I´m not sure now, if we can have two IO in the same sentence.

[Rusty]

Yes, both an indirect object pronoun (le) and an indirect object (al asesino) can appear in the same sentence. The latter clarifies who the former represents.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

I agree with Perikles and Rusty.

"Las donas" are the subject and the indirect object is the murderer.

@Paco: The structure of the verb "gustar" needs the subject to be changed, but it is not the use of "voz pasiva refleja".

Voz pasiva refleja:
· Se ve que al asesino le gustan las donas. (It's plain to see that the murderer likes donuts.)
· Se cree que al asesino le gustan las donas. (The murderer is believed to like donuts.)


Voz pasiva (but these sentences would hardly be used by any native speaker... they sound awkward):
· Las donas son comidas por el asesino. (Donuts are eaten by the murderer.)
· Las donas son gustadas por el asesino. (Donuts are liked by the murderer.)


"Gustar de" is a variation on the use of the verb, and although it's not awkward, it's very rarely used:
(Examples are given only to show a use of the usual structure of subject + verb + complement in a sentence.)
· El asesino gusta de las donas. (The murderer likes donuts.)
· El asesino debe gustar de las donas. (The murderer must like donuts.)

[Don José]

En España les llamamos "donuts". ¿Somos los únicos que no usamos "donas"?

[chileno]

Bueno, en Chile les llamamos "picarones" son más chicos y son fritos. :)

Pensé que en España les llamaban "rosquillas".

[Don José]

Rosquillas también hay, pero no traducimos el donut de la marca "Donut", que es distinto de lo que llamamos rosquillas.

[chileno]

Rosquillas también hay, pero no traducimos el donut de la marca "Donut", que es distinto de lo que llamamos rosquillas.

Ya veo. En Chile tenemos esos picarones y los berlines.... ya me dio hambre. :)