Help: is this sentence correct??

Question

I am suppose to be writing a sentence with lo and the adjective bueno to describe the animal given (which is los perros).

The example I was given reads like this: Lo bonito de los pájaros es que cantan.

This is my sentence: Lo bueno de los perros es que obediencia (o lealtad?).

Does this make sense to you?

Thanks!!

When posting on the forum, please remember to observe conventional rules for proper English (i.e. capitalize the first word in a sentence as well as the pronoun "I"). Thanks - Izanoni1, Mar 16, 2011

Just fixed it! - djames01, Mar 16, 2011

Thanks :) - Izanoni1, Mar 16, 2011

Answer 1

Spanish corrections:

Lo bueno de los perros es que obedecen (The good thing about dogs is that they follow directions).

Or

Lo bueno de los perros es su lealtad (The good thing about dogs is their loyalty)

Notice that in the examples above "obedecer" and "cantar" are both conjugated verbs and must be preceded by the relative pronoun "que." The basic formula here is: ...es que hacen algo (...is that they do something).

On the other hand, "su lealtad" is a noun phrase and does not require the relative pronoun.

Thanks!!! - djames01, Mar 16, 2011

Answer 2

No: "cantan" is a conjugated verb, while "obediencia" is a noun.

Do you know how I should reword it? - djames01, Mar 16, 2011

Follow the model and use a conjugated verb instead of a noun. - lorenzo9, Mar 16, 2011

Answer 3

It might help to break your example sentence apart as follows:

?Lo bonito de ? The beauty of/The beautiful thing about

?los pájaros ? birds

?es que ? is that

?cantan ? they sing

At its most basic, you are simply making a copular statement in which you attribute some characteristic to a noun (or noun phrase). In other words you are simply saying that "something is something (some attribute). In such constructions, moreover, the attribute can often take the form of a noun phrase or a relative clause. For example:

Noun Phrase: The beautiful thing about a bird is its song.

Relative Clause: The beautiful thing about a bird is that it sings.

The reason that I am pointing this out using English examples is that the structure is often very similar between the two languages as you might be able to tell by comparing the English examples to these same sentences in Spanish:

Noun Phrase: Lo bonito de los pájaros es su canto.

Relative Clause: Lo bonito de los pájaros es que cantan.

Answer 4

question already answered