"Que lo que"

Question

I am on a question-asking roll today

Does it look odd to have "que lo que" in a sentence? It just seems like too many que's.

I am trying to say something was better than what it used to be. For example...

Mis habilidades de cocinar son mejor ahora que lo que eran el año pasado.

Is this correct? ¡Gracias!

Answer 1

I think that we (native English speakers) are always told in school to avoid repetition in a sentence (even though it is officially grammatically correct), so it affects the way we think in Spanish too. For example, it would sound funny to say “Did you know that that girl is twenty years old?” but in Spanish a phrase with, as you said, “que lo que” sounds perfectly normal. Hope this helps!

Oops. I forgot to add one more thing. Since you are talking about habilidades plural, you should have mejores rather than mejor in the singular. - span4yrs, Dec 28, 2011

Ok! Gracias, Span4yrs! - SonrisaDelSol, Dec 29, 2011

Answer 2

Que importa, que lo que hayas dicho, que aunque suene raro que pienses que no te entendemos, suene así. Lo que quiero es que te quedes tranquila, que te comas un queque, puesto que no es incorrecto que digas que tantas veces. ¿O qué es lo que piensas?

Your sentence is ok, but:

Mis habilidades de cocinar son mejores ahora de lo que eran el año pasado.

Mis habilidades de cocinar son mejores que el año pasado.

Of course, The first paragraph is regional, there are correct ways to say it. : ) - nelson_rafael, Dec 29, 2011

eh...¿Qué? jeje - patch, Dec 29, 2011

Gracias, nelson :D - SonrisaDelSol, Dec 29, 2011

Answer 3

Mis habilidades de cocinar son mejores que el año pasado.

Mis habilidades de cocinar son mejores que antes.

What you have works (except for mejores) but it's a little stilted.

there you go, simplified even more. nice jeezzle, I like your second one a lot - unMica, Dec 29, 2011

Muchas gracias por las correciones, jeezzle :D - SonrisaDelSol, Dec 29, 2011

Answer 4

I think you got it right (except for mejores).

Nice work.

Thanks, gringo, I will be sure to change it to mejores - SonrisaDelSol, Dec 29, 2011

Answer 5

I would simplify this a bit personally: ahora mis habilidades de cocinar son mejores que eran durante el año pasado. The phrase "que lo que eran" looks awkward to me, but I don't know of any reason that has to be wrong.

Muchas gracias, unMica! I will make that correction! - SonrisaDelSol, Dec 29, 2011