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Grammar questions– conjugations, verb tenses, adverbs, adjectives, word order, syntax, etc.


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  #1
Old April 01, 2011, 12:26 PM
ez123 ez123 is offline
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Basic Grammar

I have these in spanish and my teacher wants to check them for mistakes.

van a venir a comer al medio dia

correction: van venir comer al midio dia

because of the verbs already being in the infinitive form you dont need the "a"??? gracias!!
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  #2
Old April 01, 2011, 12:34 PM
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van a venir a comer al mediodía.

van venir comer---> not Spanish at all (it sounds like a list of words in the wrong alphabetical order: van, venir, comer)
van a venir comer ---> not Spanish
van venir a comer ---> not Spanish
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  #3
Old April 01, 2011, 04:42 PM
Luna Azul Luna Azul is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ez123 View Post
I have these in spanish and my teacher wants to check them for mistakes.

van a venir a comer al medio dia

correction: van venir comer al midio dia

because of the verbs already being in the infinitive form you dont need the "a"??? gracias!!
I'm not sure what your question is, but the first sentence is correct and the second one is not.
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  #4
Old April 02, 2011, 11:40 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ez123 View Post
I have these in spanish and my teacher wants to check them for mistakes.

van a venir a comer al medio dia
The sentence is not correct because there is an accent lacking (and because it doesn't begin with a capital letter).
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  #5
Old April 02, 2011, 12:32 PM
Luna Azul Luna Azul is offline
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Originally Posted by irmamar View Post
The sentence is not correct because there is an accent lacking (and because it doesn't begin with a capital letter).
You're 100% right, irmamar..
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  #6
Old April 02, 2011, 12:34 PM
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Originally Posted by Luna Azul View Post
You're 100% right, irmamar..
Well, I could't find another mistake.
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  #7
Old April 02, 2011, 01:06 PM
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aleCcowaN aleCcowaN is offline
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Should I remind everyone that "mediodía" means "noon" and "medio día" means "half a day" so "van a venir a comer al medio día" indisputably means that they are going to come once twelve hours have passed?
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  #8
Old April 02, 2011, 11:17 PM
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Tienes razón. ¿Cómo no me he dado cuenta?
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  #9
Old April 03, 2011, 07:09 AM
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One additional note:
The Spanish infinitive doesn't have a built-in 'to' particle. This may seem counter-intuitive, since that is a very common misconception.

The citation form of an English verb is usually the full infinitive ('to eat', 'to come'), but there is also a bare infinitive in English ('eat', 'come'). It is the bare infinitive that appears in the dictionary.
In a Spanish dictionary, verbs are listed in the infinitive form.
Both the Spanish infinitive and English bare infinitive (the dictionary forms) have the exact same meaning. In other words, 'comer' means 'eat' and 'venir' means 'come'.
It is when we use the citation form of the verb that we can get confused.
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  #10
Old April 03, 2011, 12:43 PM
Luna Azul Luna Azul is offline
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Originally Posted by aleCcowaN View Post
Should I remind everyone that "mediodía" means "noon" and "medio día" means "half a day" so "van a venir a comer al medio día" indisputably means that they are going to come once twelve hours have passed?
You really got us there, Alec...

Quote:
Originally Posted by ez123 View Post
because of the verbs already being in the infinitive form you dont need the "a"???
It seems no one answered this part of the question.

Of course verbs in the infinitive use the preposition "a". Where did you hear that ez123?

They use it before and after: Venir a comer - regresar a llamar... etc.

L.A.

Last edited by Rusty; April 03, 2011 at 05:54 PM. Reason: merged back-to-back posts
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