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Common Mistakes: Repeated Subjects
- noviembre 20, 2015
- Posted by: Joel
- Category: News
Spanish has a tendency to put subjects after verbs.
Vino mi familia a visitarnos.
Eso es lo que dijo Verónica.
English, however, doesn’t allow for that. Except in certain circumstances, the subject must always go in front of the verb
My family came to visit us.
That’s what Veronica said.
Spanish speakers, knowing they need to put something in front of the verb, but still wishing to follow the Spanish word order, oftentimes will create a sort of “hybrid” sentence (the asterisk means these are incorrect sentences):
*They came my family to visit us.
*That’s what she said Veronica.
Here, there is a pronoun in front of the verb, acting as a subject, but there is also the main subject after the verb. English doesn’t allow for this, either. As hard as it may be to break the habit, you mustn’t do this: move the subject to its correct place in front of the verb and don’t use a pronoun, or, use a pronoun but then don’t put the noun after the verb!
So:
Me trajeron mis hermanos un regalo
They brought me my brothers a gift
My brothers brought me a gift / They brought me a gift.
