Ch 37 · Lesson 18Spanish · Chapter 37 · Lesson 18 · Grammar primer
Fronting and emphatic sí: el coche lo arreglé
(a fronted object leaves a pronoun behind), and (a stressed insists it is true). Plus the mistakes.
The short version
Front the object and you must echo it
.
Why?Hide
Everyday Spanish moves the object to the front and leaves a resumptive pronoun behind to hold its old place: , a María , . The doubled pronoun is not sloppiness: with a definite object at the front, it is required, and it agrees ( ).
A stressed
.
Why?Hide
To answer a doubt, put before the verb: (I did do it), (this one does work). turns it up: . Keep the accent: without it means if.
Fronting: el coche lo arreglé
Short of a cleft, everyday Spanish moves the object to the front as the topic and leaves a pronoun behind in its old place. With a definite object at the front, the echo is required, and it agrees:
| Fronted | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| a thing | . | The car, I fixed it yesterday. |
| a person | María . | María, I saw her yesterday. |
| plural | . | I' got the keys. |
| an idea | . | I didn't know that. |
| to someone | . | I bought my mother flowers. |
Leaving the echo out (" ") is wrong in ordinary speech. The one exception is a contrast said with heavy stress on the object, as in "the CAR I fixed, not the bike", which is rarer and sounds marked.
Emphatic sí and sí que
To insist something is true, against a doubt or a denial, put a stressed before the verb:
| Against | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| doubt | . | I did do it. |
| doubt | . | This one does work. |
| contrast | , . | He didn't come, but I did. |
| agreeing | . | That really is true. |
| the weather | . | It really is hot today. |
Keep the accent. is the emphatic yes; without it means "if", so " " reads as an unfinished "if I did it...".
Mistakes English speakers make
| Wrong | Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| agrees with a plural spotlight | |
| the relative agrees too | |
| a fronted topic needs its echo | |
| the echo agrees with the object | |
| ... Juan | ... Juan | a person takes or |
| yo | | the emphatic yes has an accent |
Pedro , with bare , is common in speech, especially in Latin America, but careful Spanish writes or after a person.
Going further: Cleft sentences at a glance and the rest of the guide, when you want them. This lesson does not need them.
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