"There was no letter... just the brown package with the newspapers inside."

Question

Is it, "No había carta... sólo el paquete marrón con los periódicos a dentro."

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks/Gracias,

Erin

adentro or a dentro denotes movement (from outside to inside or without to within) - 0074b507, Dec 5, 2010

Answer 1

No había ninguna carta, sólo el paquete marrón con los periódicos dentro

why the accent mark on ninguna? - 0074b507, Dec 5, 2010

Because I'm a non-thinking creature of habit and used to writing it in masculine. I'll fix it. Good catch! - 005faa61, Dec 5, 2010

Answer 2

No había carta... sólo el paquete marrón con los periódicos adentro.

Answer 3

That sounds ok but I would say los periódicos dentro de lo.

el (paquete); lo is for abstract and unknown objects., but your sentence looks incorrect. - 0074b507, Dec 5, 2010

I used lo to avoid repeating el paquete, was I right or wrong? should I have left the lo off the end of the sentence? - kenwilliams, Dec 5, 2010

If you were to word it with the neuter , I think that you would have to use ello. My point was that the pronoun (not definite article) to substitute for paquete must be el not lo. (nor ello). If we know the noun the pronoun must agree (el or ella). - 0074b507, Dec 5, 2010

It's the same as using a demonstrative pronoun (éste or ésta). You can't use esto if you know the noun. - 0074b507, Dec 5, 2010

Think of it similar to el que, la que. The el or la must match the noun that the relative pronoun is referring to. (you can't use lo que if you know the noun) - 0074b507, Dec 5, 2010