en + infinitive
No tarda mucho en descubrir a los dos hermanos. A Diego le gustan las fiestas. Siempre es el último en salir.
Is there any reason why en is before the infinitive?
what would change with:
No tarda mucho descubrir a los dos hermamos. A Diego le gustan las fiestas. Siempre es el último salir.
Any help is a appreciated.
Thanks
3 Answers
Why is it so surprising? English also uses the same preposition quite often:
last in the ranking
last in the series
last in everything
The difference is that English switches to bare infinitives with "to" sometimes, while Spanish uses "en" systematically:
último en el torneo
último en salir
what would change with: No tarda mucho descubrir a los dos hermamos. A Diego le gustan las fiestas. Siempre es el último salir.
It would be like "He is the last exit" -you would be calling him an "exit", and also the last one. It would be like saying "He is last everything" instead of "He is last in everything" . You can't use nouns like that in Spanish, without using a suitable preposition.
While languages make no sense sometimes, in this case the use of the preposition makes perfect sense within the Spanish way of doing things.
Welcome to the forum!
Probably someone will be able to give you a grammatical rule that will answer your question, or a link to help you out, but I will give you a word of encouragement: languages are not always logical.
This is what makes language study so challenging; sometimes the challenge is exciting and sometimes it is exasperating.
Your question is a good one, and it shows that you are interested in speaking correctly. I applaud you for that! As a word of encouragement, I would suggest that sometimes "en" is used before an infinitive "just because". Equally, keep in kind that sometimes "a", "de" or "que" is used before an infinitive...just because.
Keep up the good work in your study of Spanish!
Off topic, does not pertain to the use being discussed.
I was thinking of double verbs with one of these verbs being first.
pensar en salir
