"poderte presentar"

[laepelba]

A friend of mine "introduced" me via Facebook to a friend of hers in Peru. He wrote to me the following:

Espero que poco a poco podamos ser amigos y también poderte presentar a otros hermanos y hermanas peruanos.

I know the sentence basically means "I hope that little by little we can become friends and that I can also introduce you to other Peruvian brothers and sisters. (Right?)

My question is about the placement of the pronoun "-te" (enclítico) on "poder" instead of "presentar". He has advanced education, so I don't question his ability to write correctly in Spanish. I just don't understand why it wouldn't better be: "...también poder presentarte a otros..."

Thanks!

[aleCcowaN]

It looks a mistaken construction.

When you have a 'perífrasis verbal' you can place the 'pronombre átono' in front or behind:

pueden presentarte
te pueden presentar

voy a presentarte
te voy a presentar

voy a poder presentarte
te voy a poder presentar

But not every phrase containing a verb and a 'verboide' is a 'perífrasis verbal'. In that case the pronoun is attached to the pronominal verb.

quieren irse

Other constructions don't look good

se quieren ir ?
voy a poderte presentar ?

You can hear them, but I don't know their grammar status.

Voyte a presentar

is used as a joke, because it has an archaic nuance, I presume.

[JPablo]

¡Vóytelas! (expresión mexicana de sorpresa)

It is interesting to get your data & viewpoint, because my first answer about "poderte presentar" is that is as common in Spain as "poder presentarte".

I would never consider that a mistaken construction... (maybe due to Spain being more or less archaic??)

I can go with both, "quererse ir" or "querer irse".

I'll take a look at the Panhispánico de Dudas, and be back... but I just wanted to give my view, "a priori"...

[irmamar]

The atonic pronoun in a perífrasis verbal can only be either attached to the main verb or alone before the auxiliary verb.

Te quiero presentar or Quiero presentarte.

Se quieren ir is a completely correct sentence in Spanish from Spain from a grammatical point of view.

About your question, the atonic pronoun is attached to the auxiliary verb in coloquial speech.

I hope it helps.

[chileno]

Originally Posted by laepelba

A friend of mine "introduced" me via Facebook to a friend of hers in Peru. He wrote to me the following:



I know the sentence basically means "I hope that little by little we can become friends and that I can also introduce you to other Peruvian brothers and sisters. (Right?)

My question is about the placement of the pronoun "-te" (enclítico) on "poder" instead of "presentar". He has advanced education, so I don't question his ability to write correctly in Spanish. I just don't understand why it wouldn't better be: "...también poder presentarte a otros..."

Thanks!

Both constructions, yours and that of your friend, are correct in Chile.

[irmamar]

Coloquial speech is familiar speech. Sometimes there are some mistakes, but it is common in fast speech. However, it is good to know that there are differences between formal speech and coloquial sppech, and it would be a good thing that students knew those differences. It is not a great mistake to misplace an atonic pronoun, since that is very common. But it's not correct (for the moment, since RAE is unpredictable ).

[danyorona]

presentar-te is like to say introduce- your
conocer -te is like to say know -your
poder -te can -you

poder presentar a ti = poder presentarte
poder conocer a ti =poder conocerte

directly and speak in future...

[laepelba]

Thanks, everyone! I appreciate the input. This friend is in Peru. So now I know that I might hear/read it like that sometimes. Interesting......