Spanish Sentence Structure- help needed

[oh-bang]

Describe the structural differences between the following English and Spanish sentences:
(a) Aqui se habla ingles/English is spoken here
(b) Queria impedir que nos vieramos/ She wanted to stop us seeing each other

Please help

[poli]

Originally Posted by oh-bang

Describe the structural differences between the following English and Spanish sentences:
(a) Aqui se habla ingles/English is spoken here
(b) Queria impedir que nos vieramos/ She wanted to stop us seeing each other

Please help

A) is nearly identical. Here, English is spoken is the exact translation.
B) is different. In Spanish the subjunctive tense is frequently used, and
in English often we have found ways not to use it. A direct translation would be:
They wished to impede that we see each other. This is awfully awkward, so over time, anglos modified and streamlined what they say. This same modification has not occurred in Spanish.

[irmamar]

a) In Spanish there are two ways of using passive form: 'pasiva perifrástica' and 'pasiva refleja'. The first kind of passive is not common used, while the secon, 'refleja', is widely used. If I should translate your sentence directly I would say:

Inglés es hablado aquí.

But as we almost don't use this structure, we say the same with 'perifrástica':

Aquí se habla inglés.

We prefer placing the adverb in front of the sentence.

b) Sometimes, Spanish subjunctive is translated into an -ing form. And as "verse" is a pronominal verb and we can use its pronominalisation for reflexive or reciprocal actions, we don't need to translate "each other", the pronoun gives us the meaning: nos = each other.

I hope it helps.