Lesson Introduction
"Can you give me a ride?" I asked this question a lot more when I was in high school than I do nowadays, but every once in a while I do find myself in a situation where I have to ask for a ride. In our dialog today, Mauricio is in just such a situation, and it's not so easy; apparently he lives out-of-the-way, and on top of that, his previous behavior suggests that you might not want him in your car... Later in the lesson, we'll learn a couple of different ways to say "Can you give me a ride?" in Spanish.
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Le hace falta darle servicio a esta impresora.
(This printer needs to be serviced.)
This sentence in the expansion section throws me through a loop. Can somebody break it down for me?
It to do-make missing the giving to of service to this printer.
hmmm
le hace (falta darle sevicio) a esta impresora.
do this (this missing service) on this printer.
???
This is from a response JP gave in the grammer guide.
likelyconfused says
June 25, 2008
I always get confused about how many times you can conjugate verbs in one sentence. Do you conjugate every verb for only the same pronouns in a sentence? Or is it that you can only conjugate the first verb in a sentence? And can you please translate the example sentences so I can see the differences?
I want you to buy cookies.
You can teach me to swim after they leave.
I like tomatos when I crush them.
jpvillanueva says
June 25, 2008
likelyconfused,
the guideline you should follow is that if the verb has a subject, conjugate it. Don't go by any rule that has you counting verbs.
This last sentence is a little weird, it's not a typical construction in either language.
heres my 2d orth
Le hace falta darle servicio a esta impresora.
(This printer needs to be serviced.)
its a dogs dinner isnt it. :-)
why not esta impresora se necesita un servicio
im guessing they are reflexive hacerse y darse
you become a failure. give yourself a service this printer
sounds positively japanese :-)
but surely there is some sexual ambiguity here. its la impresora so why all the le? why not la or se?
donperigo,
ha ha ha ha ha!
La impresora is "le" because it is the indirect object of the verb dar.
Dar is a dative verb (n.b. Latin root), and dative verbs require both direct objects and indirect objects. Here, the direct object is "servicio."
So a grammatical gloss of that sentence could be something like "it is necessary to give service to the printer."
So "a la impresora" is the indirect object (beneficiary) of the action "dar."
Indirect objects are always pronominalized as "le" (or plural "les") regardless of gender in Standard Spanish.
"la" would be a direct object
"se" would be a reflexive (direct or indirect).
That's my answer for the "le" in "darle."
As for the "le" at the beginning of the sentence, it belongs to "hacer falta." The thing is that certain verbs demand to have indirect objects, it doesn't matter whether it is redundant, or if it doesn't really stand for anything. "Hacerle falta" is one of those verbs (so is gustar, encantar, dar...). They sound awful without an indirect object pronoun.
So what does the "le" stand for in the beginning? Not sure. I assumed it was 'usted,' (i.e., it's necessary for you to give service to that printer) but now that I think about it, it could be any third person singular antecedant, abstract or real.
In any case, "la" or "se" couldn't stand in for either of the "le"s that you see.
¿Dijiste dative, JP? ¡No puedo creerlo! ¡El latín está muerto...viva el latín!
I am confused as to when you would use "despues de "and "despues de que" followed by a verb.
Hi nathanwagar,
Here's the rule: If the subject of the main clause is the same as the subject of the dependent clause, you use an infinitive:
Example: Salgo contigo después de tomar una taza de café. I'll go out with you after I have a cup of coffee.
If the subject of the main clause differs from the subject of the dependent clause, you use a conjugated form of the verb after después de+que:
Example: Salgo contigo después de que tomes una taza de café. I'll go out with you after you have a cup of coffee.
so you always have a de que, not just a "de" before the subjunctive?
Hi nathanwagar,
There is usually a "que" that introduces a clause with a subjunctive in it, but if there's a "de" it's because the "de" belongs to something previous.
For example, in "después de que tome," that "de" belongs to "después de."
Esta lección me recuerdo a una noche, hace muchos años, cuando estaba estudiante en la universidad. Mis amigos y yo nos salimos a una barra pero una de mis amigos bebió demasiado más. Más tarde esta noche, uno de mis amigos, Campbell, nos condujo a casa pero mi amiga, Rebecca, vomitó en el coche de Campbell! Que asqueroso! Además, Campbell estaba el ex-novio de Rebecca......él se enojó muchísimo! Pero ahora, todos somos buenos amigos y reímos sobre esta noche.
Another handy expression that goes in conjuction with asking for ride...
Te queda en camino? Is it on your way?
http://myspanishnotes.blogspot.com/2009/07/te-queda-en-camino.html
"no le caigo muy bien" I don't understand why you are not using "me". Where do we find that she "does not like *me*", and not someone else.
caigo is caer conjugated in the first person
to her (le) i dont fall (no caigo) muy bien (very well)
gracias
el gusto es mio