Does this sentence have too many "de's" in it?

Question

From an article in El País about protests against a gay pride parade in Belgrade:

"Esto ha sido organizado por organizaciones nacionalistas", dijo el ministro, quien informó de que hay indicios de que los atacantes también usaron armas de fuego.

"This has been organized by nationalist organizations", said the minister, who reported that there are indications that the attackers also used firearms.

It seems to me that informó de que hay indicios de que doesn't need the first de. Am I missing something?

Edit: Sorry, wrong newspaper. It's from La Clarín, in Argentina.

I wonder if the initial "de" is connected to the verb informar to mean "report" and the "que" makes it "reported that". But you know so much more than I do, that I'm hesitant to answer. But you have to begin sometime, right? - lynneweixel, Oct 10, 2010

Yes, that's the crux of it. Now I'm thinking either both are required, or neither. Probably both. - KevinB, Oct 10, 2010

¨El pais¨ de España? o ¨El país¨ de algún otro país? - mediterrunio, Oct 10, 2010

Sorry, wrong newspaper. La Clarín from Argentina. - KevinB, Oct 10, 2010

that mistake has been copypasted all around Latin America. Proofreaders have been deleted from the 21st century. - mediterrunio, Oct 10, 2010

Now that I check, it's an EFE story. the Spanish news agency, so it was probably picked up by a lot of Spanish language papers around the world. - KevinB, Oct 10, 2010

now, one more thing: why did you write ´de´s ´ instead of just ´de´ or ´des´? - mediterrunio, Oct 11, 2010

Because I was writing in English. If I were asking about too many instances of the letter K I would have written K's. - KevinB, Oct 11, 2010

Answer 1

In El Pais, I can´t believe it!! Of course there is a gross mistake there

"Esto ha sido organizado por organizaciones nacionalistas", dijo el ministro, quien informó que hay indicios de que los atacantes también usaron armas de fuego.¨

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To use de que instead of que is a widespread mistake known as dequeísmo.

and... ¨organizado por organizaciones¨(!?) the minister has also a very poor fluency in his own language - mediterrunio, Oct 10, 2010

Sorry, wrong newspaper. La Clarín from Argentina. - KevinB, Oct 10, 2010

I agree with "organizado por organizaciones", that's sad. I would have said "organizado por grupos", for example. However, "dequeísmo" refers to the incorrect use of "de que", with verbs such as "pensar" or "decir", not "informar". - bill1111, Oct 10, 2010

sorry, but dequeismo is the incorrect use of de+que+object, whichever the verb may be. - mediterrunio, Oct 10, 2010

Well, that's what I meant. I know that in Argentina you consider "informar de que" is wrong, so it's "dequeísmo, but in other countries -at least in Spain -it is not. "Informar de que" is just fine. - bill1111, Oct 10, 2010

ok, check izanoni´s post. I think that´s the best answer - mediterrunio, Oct 10, 2010

Answer 2

From the DPD

informar(se). 1. Con el sentido de ‘hacer saber algo a alguien’, puede construirse de dos modos:

1)Informar [a alguien] de algo. La información se expresa mediante un complemento con de o sobre: Informó de su marcha a sus superiores; Informé al comité sobre la marcha del proyecto. Si el complemento, en lugar de un sustantivo, es una oración subordinada encabezada por la conjunción que, es correcto el empleo conjunto de la preposición y la conjunción: Informó a sus superiores de que se marchaba. El complemento de persona es, en esta construcción, el complemento directo, pues funciona como sujeto de la pasiva: Sus superiores fueron informados de su marcha; por ello, cuando este complemento es un pronombre átono de tercera persona, deben usarse las formas lo(s), la(s): «Teresa [...] lo informaba despacio y con detalle del motivo de su visita» (PzReverte Reina [Esp. 2002]). Este es el régimen habitual en la lengua culta de España y se da también entre hablantes cultos de América.

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2) Informar [algo] a alguien. La información se expresa mediante un complemento directo y va, por tanto, sin preposición. Este es el régimen habitual en la mayor parte de América: Informó la novedad a sus superiores; Informó al jefe que llegaría con retraso. En este caso, el complemento de persona es indirecto y, por ello, si se trata de un pronombre átono de tercera persona, debe usarse la forma le(s) (o se, si antecede a otro pronombre átono; ? se, 1a): «Le informaron que estaba detenido» (VLlosa Fiesta [Perú 2000]); «Sintió mucha pena cuando Tita se lo informó» (Esquivel Agua [Méx. 1989]).

good point! so in this case it´s incorrect. it should say ¨informo a la prensa de que hay indicios...¨ - mediterrunio, Oct 10, 2010

Answer 3

This is one of those things that work a bit differently depending on the country you are looking at.

In Spain, at least, some people use "informar que" and other people use "informar de que". At times I thought that "informar de que" was wrong, but I looked around and saw that even linguists didn't agree on that issue. Personally, I just assume both are correct, unless someone can give me any proof to the contrary.

However, if you don't like the repetition of "de" in that sentence, and I personally don't like it, you can always rearrange things a bit. You can either use "informar que", or you can change de next "de que" to: "quien informó de que hay indicios que sugieren que los atacantes también usaron armas de fuego.". It's a cheat, as the original sentence didn't have "that suggest", and it has two "que", but that doesn't sound half as bad.

Answer 4

A mi juicio, es dequeísmo.

In that link that you wrote, it clearly says that "dequeísmo" is the non-compliant use of "de que". If you look a bit further down, you'll see that "informar de que" is listed as an example of compliant use. I think Inanoni's post pretty much settles it. - bill1111, Oct 11, 2010