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1001 WEEKLY ASSIGNMENTS Structure: Two Verbs and Idioms
While it is essential to know vocabulary, without proper structure they are just words on a list. Structure turns words into ideas; and while verb forms in and of themselves are structures, one word all by itself doesn’t say much. Structure gives words meaning through context. Sometimes it changes their meaning entirely.
This is a complete sentence in Spanish: Busca.
It has a subject: “-a” means “he” or “she.” (But we don’t know which.)
This sentence has a verb: “busc-” means “looks for.” (But we don’t know when where or why someone is look for something.)
Let´s add more structure: Ella busca por toda la ciudad.
Now we have a better idea of what is going on: the subject is a ¨she” and she is really searching for something because she’s looking “through all the city.”
This is a complete sentence in Spanish: Busca.
It has a subject: “-a” means “he” or “she.” (But we don’t know which.)
This sentence has a verb: “busc-” means “looks for.” (But we don’t know when where or why someone is look for something.)
Let´s add more structure: Ella busca por toda la ciudad.
Now we have a better idea of what is going on: the subject is a ¨she” and she is really searching for something because she’s looking “through all the city.”
Two Verb Structure (2V)
After verb forms themselves, this is one of the most common verb structures. Whenever you have two verbs together in Spanish, the first verb tells who and when ; the second verb is always in the dictionary (-r) form .
Idiomatic Structures (IdS)
Some structures are “idiomatic.” You may think that means “idiotic” because they often don’t make sense or sound right when translated word by word into another language.Let’s look at this special use of tener.
tiene mean “has”
hambre means “hunger”
A literal translation of tiene hambre is “s/he has hunger.” That doesn’t quite sound right in English.
SO . . . tiene hambre means “s/he is hungry”
Just remember that it sounds exactly right in Spanish. And there are many others with tener .
Ya no means literally: "now no" or "already no." That perfect in Spanish, but we don't say it that way. “No longer” sounds better in English.
Hay is another idiom that makes even less sense in translation. So, let’s just forget the explanation and learn that it means “there is, there are.”
