A Quick Question

Question

Hi, I'm working with an unfamiliar sentence structure, and I was wondering if someone could tell me if I'm doing it right. Basically, I want to tell someone to do something to their limit.

For example, "Jump as far as you can." Are either or both of these correct?

• Salta tan lejos como puedas (poder should be in the subjunctive, right?).
• Salta tan lejos como sea posible (is 'sea' necessary? I know this isn't an exact translation, but does it still work?).

And another example, just to provide diversity, "Take as much as you can."

• Toma tan mucho como puedas.
• Toma tan mucho como sea posible.

Or, in this case, is this structure excessive, and you should just use 'todo?' Or are both used interchangeably, as in English?

• Toma todo lo que puedas (is 'lo' necessary?).

Thanks! I'm just getting back into Spanish, and any help would be great.

Hola, Bienvenido al foro! - rac1, Jun 30, 2012

Answer 1

The first two look good to me, nicely done! The next two are a little off. I would say "coge (or toma if you would prefer) todo lo que puedas" or "coge tanto como puedas."

Instead of saying "tan mucho" you say "tanto." This is because tan is for qualities, such as "as far," but tanto is for quantities, such as "as much."

If you want to say todo in your last sentence, you have to use lo also, yes.

Good work!

Nice answer (I'd stick with toma if it's Lat Am ;) ) - Kiwi-Girl, Jun 30, 2012

I agree, I just wrote coger because it is more natural for me, but I speak castilian spanish, so that makes sense! and that's why I included tomar in my post too : ) - unMica, Jun 30, 2012

Answer 2

I am confused about something. I thought that you only used the subjunctive if there were 2 parts to the sentence. So, on "Jump as far as you can" why would you use puedas?

Thanks

I don't know if that rule is absolute. "¡Que tengas un buen día!", "Sea lo que sea" are expressions that come to mind. - Noetol, Jun 30, 2012

Answer 3

i think
coge lo más que puede but others answer are also right

Answer 4

Welcome to the forum - it depends a lot on context - here's a few options for 'as much as possible': (I'd go for tanto instead of tan mucho)

tanto como pueda, todo lo posible, tanto como sea posible

For as far as possible, I'd say:

tan lejos como sea posible

and take as much as possible, my suggestion would be:

toma tanto como sea posible

(I am still learning myself though so feel free to wait for comments from the native speakers )